This weeks video was two weeks in the making!
Our first time trying to film the videos we had a bit of bad luck...
A week ago on a bitterly cold day, my brother Eliot and I went to Saint Mary's Church to start filming the Les Miserables video. We decided on the shots that we wanted and then started to film. It was really, really cold and Eliot's fingers kept going numb holding the camera - I just wanted to get the footage done as quickly as possible and then go back to a warm hot chocolate!...
Even though we were both freezing, filming was going well... well that was until a passer by decided to walk straight through our shot and ruined it! I had just reached the climax in 'I dreamed a dream'; I was emotionally belting out the song at the top of my lungs and then this guy (who was around thirty) walks straight past me and Eliot and ruins our shot!
After that we struggled to do anymore takes; we were worried that someone else might follow suit and also walk through a shot...
The most disappointing thing was that the take the man ruined was the best take by far; Eliot had got some beautiful angles of the church and I was giving it everything I had emotionally (sigh). Afterwards we both felt cold, annoyed and disheartened and so decided to go home and refilm the Les Miserable songs on a warmer day...
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This Friday (26th of Feb), was a lovely warm day so we chose to refilm the footage . This time we asked our Mum to come and help us! We had two very important jobs for her to help us with; one was to switch on the backing tracks and the other was to stop people walking through our shots! She did a great job! The picture below is of Mum crouching by my amp so she wont be seen in the shot!
Somethings in life are both ironic and amusing... Eliot and I experienced something very unexpected as we were setting up the shot for "I dreamed a dream"... the same guy who had spoilt our shot last time came up to us and said "Are you singing again? I really enjoyed that last time, at first I thought it was a record, are you a professional singer?"...
.We were very surprised to say the least; Eliot's response to me after he had gone was "isn't that ironic", to which I replied "yes very ironic". It was nice of the man to say what he did and it was good to know he hadn't ruined our shot deliberately. I guess it just goes to show that not everything is how it seems - because you better believe in my mind I had painted him as a malicious nasty shot ruiner.
It was encouraging to get good feedback before we started filming, as technically we didn't have permission to film in the church yard and it wasn't like we were being quiet (I always get nervous singing when I don't have permission too). I had also brought along my massive amp this time so I could hear the backing music better and so the Church and Graveyard was very loud for a long time time (we ended up filming for two and a half hours)!
Still we had no problems this time and because of how warm it was it was actually a very fun experience! It was especially fun seeing our Mum crouch and hide in interesting places around the church yard so she wasn't caught on camera!
When lockdown ends, I will be sad to stop filming with my family. I have really enjoyed spending quality time with family as we are learning a new skill of trying to make music videos together. I am very blessed and grateful for my loving and amazing family!
Thank you so much for reading!
Please check out the video below:
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Photo taken by Eliot at the Church!