Individual log of the filming process by Alex Nugent

1st day filming

As director/camera man my job was to position shots and ensure they were being shot correctly and also similar to the animatic storyboard . With the first days filming we wanted to get a substantial amount done so I decided to shoot the mirror scene where Matt's character would try and make himself look like the gorilla. We wanted to start inside in order to a bit more freedom and make the actors feel more confident within a comfortable environment . The process was generally hassle free however i personally encountered a few problems . Firstly , we realised as a group that we would not have enough time to use the planned routine of Matt walking into the bedroom therefore decided to allow the previous chorus to play over and then go straight into the miming with the first line of 'tonight's the night...' . I personally found the main problem was the lighting . We were shooting in front of a large window , meaning each shot was affected by the glare from the sun . I decided to wait a bit in order to allow the sun to set a bit , meaning the glare was not as strong. Other personal problems encountered was ensuring the tripod was level as i found it hard to adjust the setting to keep it level however , this was only a small problem . I felt the miming was done perfectly as we had decided to play the track out loud , allowing actors to know when exactly to mime. In order to make the editing process straightforward I ensured we had plenty of footage meaning we could have a number of alternative shots. The creativity of this shoot came from the variety of shots which we used , for instance the 'look over there' shot with revealed the gorilla and Megan walking down the street from Matt's perspective. I want to be creative as possible with these shots in order to execute the idea well.

2nd day filming

Originally we had planned to shoot the picnic scene however , due to adverse weather conditions we filmed inside and I shot the 17 second introduction of the male and female character. This process was very stress free as it was very straightforward and only entailed short , quick close ups and no miming . Therefore, I decided to get a variety again for the purpose to make the editing process as smooth as possible.

3rd day filming

Over the last few days the filming process has been very straightforward as we have been in indoor location which we are familiar with i.e my house and Megan's house . However, today we had to book out an hour slot in the cafe in order to get filming done. This in itself made the process less straightforward as I had to take a few things into consideration. Unlike previous days we didn't have to account for member of the public however today I had to film around member of the public and staff of the cafe. The shots which I took were aided with Megan who didn't need to act much within this section of the project. This made the shooting process slightly easier, we decided to account for members of the public and ensure the shot was framed correctly and also ensure the miming was in time with the song.

4th day filmiming

Today we filmed the park scene where the picnic occurs with the main event of the slow motion banana feeding . This again , for me , and the rest of the group was made slightly harder as it was out in public and we were being interrupted a bit by the members of the public. In my view the filming was ok, my task again though was made harder by the glare again from the sun . This was a problem as the glare made the faces darker on the camera making it very hard to record the mime. To overcome this problem I had to place the camera closer to the face and ensure the sun was behind me whilst I was shooting it. I tried to be creative with this shoot and I emphasised the idea of the strangeness of the video , therefore tried to show as much of the gorilla and Megan together having their day in the park.

5th day filming

This was the final day of filming and it was the hardest and probably the most stressful shoot of the whole project. Originally we stuck rigidly to the storyboard however, today I found the shoot quite hard to stick the original idea as some of the shots which we had decided to use were quite long so we came unstuck trying to create enough footage to match the song. Therefore, i decided to use a technique from throughout and shoot plenty of footage so when we edit it we have a lot of footage to play around with. I took the original idea of a confrontation but , with the help of the others in the group came up with an idea allowed for this to occur. We decided to make the Gorilla and the love interest look like tourists asking for a photo as opposed to the original idea of the hair picking on the bench. I tried to be as creative as possible with this shoot and one which stood out was the use of the low angled shot of Matt being grabbed by the gorilla whilst Matt mimed the lyric of ' I get so mean around this scene'. I placed the camera as low as possible to show the fear of the character as he is being beaten up by the gorilla.