Blog Post 62 - Stage 3 - Design & Filming - Original Footage Part 1

Having now looked into the video trailers that are already out there in relation to the trailers of the previous series' of Ashes to Ashes, I feel that these have helped me in regards to starting to think of some ideas as to the route that my promotional video will take.

At this early stage of the design phase I have decided that I will be making use of both footage that has already been used in the previous series of Ashes to Ashes, but also original footage that I will myself too. I am hopeful that by combining both the previous footage and the original footage that I have taken myself then this will result in a professional end result for a promotional video.

To begin with I have decided to split the production and creation of some of the original footage that I have in mind into a series of different stages, or scenes, and the reason behind this is firstly due to filming constraints. At this moment in time the weather and environment was "just right" for filming to commence at my chosen location which meant that it was important to take advantage of this and commence filming. 

In regards to this part of the original footage filming I decided that first of all I wanted to go ahead with filming some video clips of some car chase elements. As previously mentioned in a variety of different blog posts in the past the different cars play a large part in the series and therefore this is one element that I felt needed to be well chosen and also well thought out.

To begin with the situation that I decided on was in relation to two vehicle being used - the main character's car of the 1986 Ford Capri and a 2010 Citroen C4. The inclusion of the 1986 Ford Capri was an easy choice to make as that was obviously the main characters car and therefore was always going to feature in the promotional video. The other car, the 2010 Citroen C4, was chosen to feature as the modern car in this scene - as previously mentioned there the main plot behind this video was that Gene Hunt's world had flipped and therefore had gone into the future with his 1986 Ford Capri - with this in mind Gene would be trying to apprehend the criminal and whilst doing so would be in his car from his era of the 1980s.

In regards to the filming element I decided to make use of my iPhone 5S which I felt would provide adequate quality for both audio and visual aspects. The iPhone 5S has a rather impressive video camera in that it records in 1080p HD and also at 30 Frames Per Second which meant that this would be more than adequate and high quality for the sort of production that I was looking to make. Also, the 5S has improved video stabilisation too which is a useful feature to ensure that no camera shake or wobble is evident.

For this my design entailed a total of 5 different scenes within this part of the original footage and these included the following:


Scene 1 / 5 - Drive Past and Stop

Scene 1 / 5 - Drive Past and Stop

The first scene of this part of the original footage would entail a sort of introduction into the scene and this would be the modern car driving past the camera and accelerating at speed and slowing down to the an obvious stop. As an extra benefit to the location I decided to use then area that where the car would be driving past this meant that there would be a trail of dust following the car too - this would in theory add to the effect of speed which I hope will come across as a subtle detail in the end. For this particular scene I decided to mount the camera to a tripod and position it in such a way that I was then able to start the recording, get into the car, drive past and stop, and then walk back to the camera and stop the recorded. As for this scene I was doing all of this on my own and this was the route that I felt was the best to take, although there was admittedly a lot of "wasted" video at the start and end however during editing this could be trimmed down.

Scene 2 / 5 - Criminal in Action!

Scene 2 / 5 - Criminal In Action!

The next scene that I wanted to create was that of some criminal activity occurring and for this I decided to I needed a willing volunteer to help due to my choice of filming angle that I wanted not being possible to be held by the tripod that I had. With this in mind I ended up crouching down rather low to the ground to steadily hold the camera in place whilst my willing volunteer was carrying out his acting. After I had found a suitably suspicious looking budding volunteer and donned him with a fetching balaclava and youthful looking baggy clothing I was ready to begin filming. For this scene I decided that I wanted the criminal to run past the camera and perform a sort of car jacking scene whereby he would jump into the car and drive off with lots of dramatic wheel spin and smoke going everywhere to add to the effect of a quick getaway. Once instructed what I was looking to get from this particular scene filming commenced and I was very pleased with the end result, the wheel spin combined with the clouds of dust and loud engine revving exhaust sounds added to the end effect.

Scene 3 / 5 - Alternative Angle.

Scene 3 / 5 - Alternative Angle

For the next scene, I decided that I wanted to have a bit of scene view jump to an alternative angle which is something that from Blog Post 61 - Video Research I found was common in the production of the video trailers and when carried out right it produces a good effect. With the last scene being that of the low angle from the right front hand corner for the vehicle, I decided that a good alternative angle would be that of a low view but from the passenger side rear whereas the car would be once again accelerating away. From this scene I did not need to any suspicious looking volunteers and therefore by making use of a tripod to hold the camera I was about to shoot this scene myself. In a similar fashion to that of the Scene 1 I once again was able to place the camera in position, start it recording, go to the car, drive away into the distance and then come back to the camera to stop the recording. This once again created an excess of unwanted video however during editing this could be cut down and trimmed. During the filming it was important for me to leave a few seconds gap between getting in the car and closing the door as to make the appearance of having two cameras filming his scene more professional and life-like. It was also important that when launching the car away from the standstill that I created a similar as possible wheel spin and amount of dust to that of the previous scene. All in all I was happy with how this went, although if I was to do it again perhaps a heightened alternative angle from and upstairs window could of been effective too.  

Scene 4 / 5 - Gene is Back.

Scene 4 / 5 - Gene is Back

This next scene I personally thought was one of the most important to ensure that it was filmed correctly as this was the stage in which the appearance of the main character would be first seen in his Ford Capri too. As this stage of the original footage was in regards to one scene I decided that I wanted to carry this on as the last seen area of footage was the car being stolen and driven off at speed. For this I decided to have the modern car drive from the left hand side of the camera and then for Gene Hunt to intercept the criminal and give chase at speed. To add more of a dramatic effect for this I once again decided that I needed to make use of a suitably suspicious looking budding volunteer and again donned him with a fetching balaclava. Once the props were in place I also instructed my volunteer to make a noticeable pointing gesture to where that of the Ford Capri would appear into the camera scene as to make it very noticeable that he was aware of Gene Hunt and that he was a known policeman and not someone to mess with! As there was going to be two vehicle being driven at once in this scene my prior organisation had to be well made and I once again decided to place the camera on a tripod at such an angle that both vehicles would be clearly seen during the scene. Once I set the camera to record I was able to walk to the Capri and once again leave a few seconds after closing the door as this would of not make the end result professional. As the two cars could not be seen due to being around the corner of a house my assistant did not know when to start, so by utilising the horn on the Capri he was able to move forwards and commence filming. After I had seen that he had made the dramatic pointing gesture I was then able to "fire up the Capri" and make an attempt to chase after the criminal. In a true car chase fashion I made sure that I made it dramatic as possible with copious amounts of wheel spin and I even managed to churn up the edge of some grass too to add to the effect. Coupled with the loud revving and wheel spin sound on the concrete floor all in all I was very happy with how the end result of the scene went.

Scene 5 / 5 - Capri Drive By

Scene 5 / 5 - Capri Drive By

For this final scene in this part of the original footage I felt that I once again wanted to to make use of an alternative angle for the previous scene as this is a technique that I had seen in the Blog Post 61 - Video Research and is something that I wanted to try and incorporate into my promotional video trailer too. As the final scene for this particular part of the original footage I felt that I wanted to nicely round off this chase scene and for this I decided that a close up angle for the Capri driving past would be the best way to round of this scene. For this I once again set up the tripod and camera and this meant that I could then walk to the Capri and drive it, at speed, past the camera. Obviously this would be a lot of wasted video however it is not a problem as this can be trimmed down for the editing stage of the original footage. In reality when editing only a couple of seconds for it driving past will be used however it is good to have all of the footage which can be easily trimmed down.

Having now taken all of the footage that I needed for this part of the promotional video this mean that I was now ready to put  my previously researched and explored techniques in Adobe Premiere to the test and begin editing. With this in mind this next blog post will be in regards to the editing and compilation stage of the original footage for this part of the promotional film.