Location Scouting Part Two

Langley Park
The second of the two main locations we went to visit, Langley Park is only short walk away from our first location, Black Park, making it highly convinent to access. Although it is half the size of the other nature park, this location is steeped in history and filled with a greater variety of forest areas and fields amongst beautifully detailed gardens. A noticable difference we spotted was the variety of trees and layout in this park comaperd to it's neighbour. Whilst most of Black Park was filled with tall pine trees and similar forests, Langley Park contained many of the more traditional areas we imagined in the beginning. For this reason, we believe that using specific areas from both would benfit us the most.
When compared to our lasts projects location of the London Underground, this location should be relatively easy to film in once we've gained the proper permissions, mostly due to the lack of visitors in the area and having time to make our own descisions that will not be dictated by transport and other people.
After sending off our main application to film, we'll need to decide whether these two natural locations will be the only ones used. We had another location in mind for an idea that I, personally have grown rather fond of which would involve a studio or room location. Inspired by an image from Anada's Heartwood era, it would involve newspaper and magazines cover the walls and a shift of colour from those magazines to the main performer in the video. We have yet to decide whether this will be possible to pull off.



We were fortunate enough to stumble upon this beautiful tree which we thought evoked the theme of "Heartwood" perfectly. This will be one of the main locations for our music video.  Heartwood is the centre of the tree which is not living, yet without the support of the heartwood the tree, would cease to exist. As the tree ages the diameter of the heartwood increases. There is a diagram of this on the interior of the album case, explaining that "there is growth in everything, even in death".

 

From a certain angle the interior of the tree resembles the shape of a heart- reflecting the theme of heartwood. We considered having an extra team member taking photos to use as part of our album artwork and magazine advert as the tree will probably be a central location to the music video. As the song is representing the main theme of the album, it would make sense to incorporate the locations and shots used in the video into the advert.



We considered using this structure we found in Langley Park, if it won't be destroyed by our production day. It's style was reminiscent of many of the promotional shots we've seen featuring Amanda Rogers.

 

 

Research - Initial Location Ideas

After researching our chosen songs and listening to them multiple times, we decided to begin brainstorming a few ideas for each. This meant visualisng some basi shot ideas, along with colouring, narrative and of course, locations. As was demonstrated in our AS project, our group cares quite strongly about where our filming is set, believing that wherever we choose will greaty impac the style of the song and how it is viewed by an audience.

Both songs we felt have strong contations towards nature, with themes of new beginnings and natural progressions showing through in the lyrics of each song and also the musicality. This lead us to think of very naturalisitc places to shoot, in high contrast to the busy urban location of last year.
The reason we are thinking about this so soon - without a shot list or even and basic narative or idea - is a matter of practicality. We need to be able to keep to time and money constraits when producing our music video and the with the time frame being very different from what we knew before, we want to be prepared for this. Nearby locations give us the best opportunities for filming at short notice (crucial in the very temperamental weather of the autumn months) and for acessability.

Listed here are a few locations that I myself have been to observe in the context of our music video and a few areas within them that we think could be beneficial to us in the coming months.

• Black Park - Tall trees and dark forests make this very awe inspiring and myseterious, perfect for setting the context of nature within the music video
• Burnham Beeches - Tried and tested, this area will provide us with a picturesque yet natural setting.
• Langley Park - Many old and interesting features and an expansive setting that would give us a lot of perspective.
• Braywick Park - Not as grand as the other ideas, yet it's convinience makes it a good option for quick shots.

Shooting Schedule

After deciding the locations for where our music video was going to be shot, we had to arrange with both Landley Park and Black Park the days that we could film and also (of course) get our filming permit, which thankfully was free. This was particularly crucial for Black Park as there was resticted access to various areas at the time of our shooting, due to the filming of a large scale new film. However, we found out before going that the specific areas we wanted to film in were not greatly effected.

We also had to consider the length of time we could realistically have for filming, which meant we had to research the parks opening and closing times, which were as follows:

Langley Park: 8:15am-4:30pm
Black Park: 8:00am-5:00pm


Shooting Schedule


Location | Day | Date | Time


Langley Park | Sunday | 27th October 2013 | 1:00pm-Closing

Black Park | Monday | 28th October 2013 | 9:30am-3:00pm

Langley Park | Saturday | 2nd November 2013 | 10:am-2:00pm


Despite this detailed schedule and our shot list and preparation, the thrid date was something we hadn't planned for. However, we are certainly that we decided to go back and reshoot, as we now have all the footage we need to complete the video.

Researching Costume

As it can be seen from the image above, we have compiled our ideas on costumes to show what kind of research we've been doing into the types of costume that would merge well with our crucial locations and also reflect Amanda Rogers' style and representation as an artist.

Overall, we've selcted colours that are very neutral, which represents Amanda Rogers' link to nature and the environment in which we are shooting in. The white colours of the dress also represent innocence and could connote to the light in nature, being a blank page that is ready to be written on.

The dresses that she wears are commonly strapless and flowing, something that is seen quite often in music videos of a similar genre. There is the small problem with this however, of the weather being increasingly cold and stormy as the month progresses. Despite this, the style is too iconic to not include and so we will have to work around those small problems.

We also decided to pair the dresses with boots that are well worn and natural in the surroundings we'll be shooting in This keeps the outfits a little more grounded, not too whimsical and could also reflect the setting she will be in - the rough, plain wood of the trees on the forest floor, travelling upwards to something more detailed, elaborate and pretty.

We have one dress which contrasts the others,the blue patchwork effect maxi dress which we thought  would be a typical representation of Rogers', given that we have seen her wearing multiple dresses very similar to the one we have. It could als be used to reflect the skies, or the sea - representing the elements.



Make up and hair was also something we had to take into consideration. We decided to keep the make up very light and natural, just enough to highlight in front of the camera. We went with two different hairstyles, one featuring plaits decorated with miniature roses and another half up, half down with a folwer headband. Both were very simple yet effective, with a focus on nature coming from the additions of the flowers.

Location Scouting Part One

After researching our artists identity and style, we began to think of places that could be used in conjuction with her image in our music video. We started to discuss what we were looking for in the seperate locations needed, which we belived had to be all natural to fit with Amanda Rogers image - naturalistic, free and concerned about more than just superficial appearances.

Black Park
Situated adjecent to Pinewood Studios, Black Park Country Park has been used for numerous film and television productions throughout the years, including James Bond, Superman and Harry Potter. The park is filled with over 535 acres of woodland and heathland, with a large lake and numerous tall tree forests that lend it a very cinematic feel, with lots of scope for innovative ideas and stylistic shooting.

We scoured most of the large park looking for things that could be useful in our video and most especially inspired us when developing ideas. Our track, This Beauty, is very much about nature and staying natural to yourself, protecting the real and the right. We have always felt as group that we would need to set the music video in an open, awe inspiring yet naturalistic environment (at least for part of the video). In Black Park we were able to find places that sparked that feeling and from this, we now have a firmer idea of the specific scenes we want to be included in the video.

We envisioned shots of our performer interweaving through clusters of trees similar to this photo

This was one of the locations in Black Park that we've definitely decided on using. We loved the contrast of the green tops of the trees with the almost misty looking twigs and truncks. These colours would combine beautifully with the bright colours we intend to dress our performer in. It also evokes one of the key messages of the album from which our track is from- that there is beauty in everything, even in death.

We thought long shots would work beautifully in this location as from a distance the greyish/brown colour of the twigs evokes a misty-like atmosphere, which not only is aesthetically appealing but will contrast well with our performer.

We also considered intercutting different colse ups of the surrounding nature in with the perofrming shots.

Finally another idea that we came up with was various shots of our "Amanda" interweaving through some sort of branch structure.