Filming Day!

Natalia Muñiz Blasco
Mar 21, 2022
5 min read

Updated: Apr 2, 2022

Hi everyone!

Last Saturday 5th of March I filmed almost all of my music video and took the pictures and videos for the digipak and social media. It was a hectic weekend with a busy week leading up to it, getting all the equipment ready for action and turning my room into a studio. I wanted to take the chance to share here the story of how everything turned out!

Hope you enjoy this post!

xx Natalia

The Saturday of the Shoot:

On the morning of the shoot, I tidied up all of my room, taking books and all decorations into another room and leaving only several selected props on the shelves. After this, I set up all the equipment and the mirror and carpet ready for action.

My friend came slightly later than expected which made me a bit nervous and reminded me that I should arrange the shoot next time slightly earlier to allow time for any late arrivals and still have enough time to film everything. However, that also gave me time to fiddle with the gimbal and practice some of the camera movement I would film on the indoor scene.

Once she came, we got straight to work with deciding her outfits from all the ones she had brought, and applying some makeup; then, it was finally showtime! :)

How the filming went:

Filming the shots from the first verse was generally easy, we ran through the storyboard and were calm and even took the time to film shots several times. We then went outside to film the first chorus taking advantage of the glimpses of the Sun (as it was not the sunniest day). Afterwards, we had lunch and then got back to work, filming the second verse and instrumental chorus which took some time because of the transitions (from the first verse to the second chorus, and the second chorus to the instrumental), and because of the multiple changes of outfit. Afterwards, we also had to film the last part of the first chorus (just one more transition) and by then the sky was a bit cloudier.

At this point, I decided I was not going to have time to film the whole thing in one day, and decided to focus on the indoor scenes knowing that I could film the outdoor parts easier than the indoor ones with all the changes I had made to my room.

The climax and last scene were the most stressful scenes to film. By this point, I had a stressful moment where I did not know if I was going to be able to finish. I was tired and anxious about finishing the last scene which was the hardest because of all the transitions; however, I took a deep breath and got through it, and I am happy with the footage I filmed in the end. After the filming, I stayed up and edited the last part of the footage which made me feel much better once I saw it looked good. There are a couple of shots that I need to film again, but they are simple shots and I don't need my actress for it.

The Sunday of the Shoot:

Sunday was a much more chilled day of filming; I only filmed with my actor in the morning and I spent the afternoon tidying up and filming some final shots for the music video with the whole set up.

I woke up and realised I would love to have a blue filter for the light to achieve the blue-pink look, so I ran to the euro shop and got some blue filter on the spot. I then face-timed my male actor to choose the outfits he would bring, and then had time to set everything up again, especially the post-its saying "BUSYHEAD" and the setting with the giant teddy bear and the colourful props.

This is me testing the lighting for the shoot:

The shooting was quite smooth, we chose an outfit and I shot the mirror picture several times before I got the frame I wanted, which is why I recommend taking many pictures until you are happy with 5 at least. Then, we shot the pictures and videos on the carpet, which was very funny as they are a bit abstract even thought they work well in the editing process. With the blue and pink lighting, I had wanted to shoot in front of the mirror but it was hard to angle the lights correctly without them appearing in the mirror, so I chose a white wall in my room. The ring light had to be placed closer to the actor than the key light with the blue filter as the key light had more intensity even at the lower intensity levels.

Afterwards, we filmed the videos with his guitar and he was a natural. I gave him some questions to answer on the spot, and I will have to subtitle the videos as they are in Spanish. I also gave him my phone to take some videos speaking to his "fans" on the social media page. Then, we finally went outside to film, with the same location as the first chorus in the music video for continuity. I tried three different leaves backdrops until I was happy with them- when the Sun came out, it became harder to have goo-looking pictures without "rakoon eyes", so I relied on profile pictures and the third leaves backdrop which avoided the harsher highlights.

Sunday Afternoon:

Sunday afternoon I exported everything into my computer and then shot all the equipment videos as well as the video of the cross-cutting scene with the bin getting fuller with post-its. I also filmed the "holes in my false confidence" shot which was a bit hard because the holes weren't visible on the notebook, so I placed the blue filter behind that page to make the holes look dark and noticeable. I used the tripod to film both shots as they relied on the bin and notebook staying on the same place and their contents changing.

Lessons Learned:

Here are some of the most important take-aways from the filming day overall:

The gimbal was essential to good-looking, smooth shots
Starting to film earlier to have more time at the end
Try to film over more days to have time and perfect all the shots you take
Don't forget to film any shots (:
The storyboard is definitely essential to film smoothly without having to think the shots on the spot- but, filming some extra shots is also good just in case.
Film more BTS!!
Film the most difficult shots more than once! (In the editing process, I regretted not having tried to film the 360º more than once, even though it doesn't look bad, as it could look so much better).