The plan for recording and filming changed because Sam (whose house and equipment I was using) had to work on Wednesday, and so we changed the date to Saturday afternoon. However, this meant that Morrighan wasn't available to assist me in filming any longer due to her work. I arranged for two others to help me operate the cameras but neither of them could make it on the day and only messaged me in the morning, which meant that I didn't have time to find an alternative camera operator.
I met Toby at Sam's house at 1pm and we had some trouble getting the output set up correctly on the program Sam uses for recording, and so were a little set back, although we worked it out after a while. We began by plugging Toby's guitar in and recording the music, which we did a couple of takes of, followed by the vocals which we recorded through a microphone. This meant that we had to take extra care in sitting/standing still in order to avoid making any sounds that the microphone might have picked up in the background.
Once we had finished recording, I then moved some furniture around in order to make a corner of the room aesthetically pleasing. Sam kindly offered to operate one of the cameras for me until she had to complete some of her own work, and so I set up one camera on a tripod and had her film with that one. When she had to get to work, I simply set up the camera angle etc. and let it record. This meant that I had a constant base shot which was in a position that always showed Toby (mid-shot) and didn't have breaks. Whilst this happened, I used my other camera to get various aesthetically pleasing shots, stopping and changing, throughout the song. Shots I used included reveal shots, panning, low angle, high angle, balanced shots, and I ensured that I filmed many close ups in order to conform to the 'star quality' convention for music videos. (I wrote about this in my 'What is a Music Video?' PowerPoint presentation.) I did this twice; the first time Toby played his guitar and mimed the lyrics whilst sitting down. The second time, I turned the microphone off and had Toby stand and mime so that he appears to be recording the song at that moment. I ensured that I kept his guitar near him in plain sight of the camera, as his genre is acoustic and guitars are part of his brand identity.
Sam's friend, Mark, kindly agreed to teach me how to use the software that he uses to edit recordings in order to make them sound more professional, as he runs a company that makes music videos for artists. He has taught me the basics, and told me what I need to do to touch up the recording etc. so, as soon as Sam sends it to me by email, I can make a start on this and do my best. I also have Mark's number in case I need any assistance.
