A rough edit of the first draft of Dirty Heart.

What you are currently seeing is a rough edit of some of the test shots we did over half term. Obviously we have quite a few kinks to work out of it but in the mean time we are quite pleased with what we have done. Yesterday (I shall dedicate a seperate post in regards to this so that I can fully explain what went on) we all got together to refilm for what we hope will be our final draft of the scenes between Ben and I and Ben and Sarah. Here are some of the issues we need to address:

• Cinematography - Although for the most part we were happy with what we had achieved with the cinematography in our first draft Sarah and I both agreed that we wanted to expand on our variation of shots and angles. While watching it over i've realised that a majority of the shots we've used consist of close ups and two shots but in order for us to get top marks this year we need to push the boundaries and use a wider range so one of the first things we'll be aiming to change from our first draft to our second is to use more shot types.
• The empty, black spaces in between shots - In our defence we had intended for them to be filled with performance shots that we were going to film in the hall however despite the fact that we had booked our school hall weeks in advance we were kicked out of there by a member of the P.E staff who will remain unnamed because his year 7 class was more important that our coursework. But be rest assured that there will be no black spaces in our final draft.
• Our shaky camera work - I would say that it isn't that noticeable but it is clear to you and I that it is very noticeable. During the first scene with Livvy and Ben, Sarah had to film while walking backwards and therefore she was quite nervous about falling over and kept turning to check if she was okay. Unfortunately this meant that every time she turned the camera would jerk. Thankfully we have worked out a resolution to this problem whilst filming our second draft. We will continue using the tracking shot but so that Sarah feels more at ease I shall walk behind her, steadying her and the camera.
• Length of the shots - Admittedly some of the shots do drag on and so we are planning on indispersing each scene with the same shot from various angles to keep the audience interested. This would also be helpful in regards to sticking with the conventions of pop music videos as they tend to use rapid cuts between different shots of the same scene (if the music video includes narrative) to go with the beat of the song.
• The phone section - The phone scene doesn't quite work as not everyone is miming in time and we all start at different points in the song hence the reason we shall be refilming it for our second draft.

Any other comments of constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated in the comments below as i'm not sure I have addressed all of them.