7th Day of Filming - Park scene (22/11/2010) by Diranjeet Sohi

This day of filming was the last day until we moved onto the editing process. We found

a perfect location in Buckhurst Hill, which again was chosen for its tranquility. The playground scene was supposed to again depict the isolation the bear feels. We placed our main bear on one swing, and another bear beside him. I pushed the other bear on the swing, while the main bear had no one to push him. The way in which we filmed this scene would certainly pull at the heartstrings of the audience. We used a variety of shots and framing to give a stuffed object, emotion. Close ups conveyed the bear's sadness that the other bear was loved. Moreover, we decided to include the suicide note scene at the playground.

We taped a pencil to the inside of the bear's paw. So when we made him write it looked

as if he were doing it himself. We hit the problem of the 180 degree rule, which meant we had to film this scene again. Our very last shot was of the entire playground, empty. This was not in the storyboard however we needed an extra shot just in case we needed to introduce the setting.

6th Day of Filming - More London scenes (21/11/2010) by Laurence Ewen

For our 6th day of filming, we returned to central London where we set out to complete the montage scene. This is the part of the music video where it shows the bear situated in different iconic places in London, to suggest his desire to seek out a greater understanding of himself in the world and try to appreciate the sights of the city.

After arriving at Westminster and leaving the station, we were immediately greeted with a sight of Big Ben just as it was about to turn noon. Deciding to make the most of this fortunate occasion, we rushed to an appropriate area where the clock tower was in a clear view so we could take a close up of it. Then after take a couple shots in another nearby location with the bear in the foreground.

Next, we set off to an other location nearby for the montage scene: Trafalgar square. Shooting for this scene was fairly simplistic, though we had to make sure the bear didn't fall over in the wind, and it attracted some attention from passers by which made us slightly concerned that someone would take it during the long shot of the bear sitting on Nelson's Column. Buckingham Palace was also a landmark that we decided to include in the scene. It is culturally significant to England and portraying the bear by the building suggests how he is questioning his place in the country and if he really is recognised by others as an equal.

Our last destination for the day was St James park. This was where we filmed a few shots of the bear being kicked by a stranger, and we paid close attention on ensuring that we used our creativity to make the scene as entertaining as possible. The mixture of close up and medium shots emphasise pity for the protagonist, and the planned use of a slow motion in the editing process as the bear drifts through the air would elaborate this effect further.

Lastly, we planned to show alternating shots of the bear sitting on a bench looking up into the sky while cross cutting with visuals of the birds flying above him. Then when the shots return to the close up of the bear, perceived bird droppings would land on his head, to enhance the audience's empathy for the character. This was done successfully, and the solution used to imitate the appearance of bird droppings was yoghurt mixed with mud, dripped onto the bear from above.

* All group members shared the role of camerawork and directing.

5th Day of Filming - Bus Stop scene (20/11/2010) by Diranjeet Sohi

Initially we wanted to film the bus stop scene earlier on while filming on other locations, however there was not enough time. Therefore we chose to film it separately on a Saturday morning as the location would be the most suitable. The bus stop we chose (Bancrofts School bus stop in Woodford) was perfect because it was empty, it conveyed a sense of loneliness. For this particular scene we used Alex Brown's cousin. We needed a child to make it as natural as possible. An adult would certainly not play with a teddy bear. In this scene, Alex's cousin was to play with her teddy bear, to make our teddy bear feel unloved.

Filming began quite smoothly. However, when it came to handling the bear we came across many problems. First our fingers came into the shot, as well as the reflection of the shelter. Then we tried using a rod to push the bear off of his seat. It was not working because the bear needed to look like he was attempting to get off, but ending up falling off anyway. Instead it appeared as if he were just toppling over. In addition the rod kept appearing in the reflection.

Nevertheless we managed to overcome these problems.

We also met continuity problems which we swiftly avoided. People who arrived at the bus stop would probably not appear in any other shots we would film. Thus, we waited for them to leave before resuming filming. The whole group were unanimous with this decision. Furthermore, we filmed extra shots of certain parts, and changed the angles to give more variety. This decision was extremely useful when we came to the editing stage because we were able to be precise.

Upon finishing, we took the opportunity to film the bear falling to the ground. This shot was filmed on our first day of filming. Unfortunately, that particular shot had the bear bounce off the ground and out of frame. Therefore, during this day of filming we filmed an additional couple of shots which helped in terms of timekeeping.

4th Day of Filming - Tower Hill scenes (16/11/2010) by Alex Brown

On 16th November, we went up to the Tower Hill area of London to film the opening scenes of our video, as well as part of the 'London montage' scenes.

We got off the Tube at Tower Hill tube station, and found a 'business like' area close to Tower Hill.

We decided

to film the opening scenes for our video on Cree church Lane (around the area of Aldgate and

Fenchurch Street), which we thought was an ideal location.

The area we choose was fairly quiet, but still had many people walking past, like most areas in central London.

This scene shows the homeless bear sitting on a towel in the street, and with a tin. He was sitting against a fairly run-down bu

ilding, which was in quite a rich, business area. This helped to show how he was an outcast of society, similar to the run-down building amongst the smart and modern buildings.


We spent around an hour and a half filming here.

We then moved on to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, to film part of the 'London montage' scenes. Here we filmed the homeless bear looking at Tower Bridge, as well as sitting outside the Tower of London. We enjoyed filming here as there were many tourists who were also filming, and some even took a photo of our bear.

Before leaving to go home, we also successfully filmed birds flying in the sky (which would go with another scene where the bear is the target for bird droppings). We managed to film everything just in time, as after this it started to get dark fairly quickly.

This day of filming was a good day of filming for us, as we managed to film everything we intended to.

Photos courtesy of Alex Brown.

* All group members shared the role of camerawork and directing.

3rd Day of Filming - Car park scene (15/11/2010) by Meryl Cariaga

We decided to film in a run down, eerie car park (the Clements Road multi-storey car park in Ilford town centre), as this is the scene where the teddy bear compensates on commiting suicide, this is the last scene of the music video as it reflects his lonliness and has given up on being lonely.

The location of the car park is in ilford as this will add the sense that the bear is still within a

busy environment, we specifically needed to use this location as it has a number of floors, where we filmed at the top to enable more variety of shots to be included. For example, a panning shot of the landscape, not only will this give a sense of busyness but also to convey the mood of the bear, whether or not he will jump off.

Also, we had included shots of the bear walking towards his suicide spot, we found this difficult to film, as the strings we initially used to move the bear were faulty, so we had to hold the bear. This at first, was difficult as we had to think of a way to move the bear without showing the hands of the puppeteer, however we found a way around this. To succeed, we simply lifted the bear above the ground, for the puppeteer to hold it at the bottom, he could then "bob" across, as the camera will only be filming from the waist up (medium shot). We included shots of him climbing the stairs, not making the puppeteer apparant of course. We found this very challenging, as there were positions the puppeteer had to create in order for them not being see in the camera. We found that long shots will not aid this, and only close up shots will hide the puppeteer, as they are cut out of the frame of the shot.

We filmed variety shots, including point of view shots, for example, of the bear looking down, over the ledge of the car park, we did not use the tri pod for this as wanted to create an effect which will seem like it is the bear looking down himself. In order to do this, we held the camera and mimicked the actions of the bear; jaggeg and bumpy, whilst carefully moving the camera over the ledge.

This last scene will create a cliff hanger as the audience will not know whether or not the bear commited suicide. This effect will be created through the editing technics we will use; a fade out of the bear looking down.

2nd Day of Filming - Lounge and Alleyway scenes (9/11/2010) by Alex Brown

For the second day of filming on the 9th October,we used a house belonging to one of the group members for the scene where the bear looks dispairingly in to a warm, happy household where the bear's former owner (who accidently dropped him in a busy high street) is sitting on a sofa with another bear enjoying watching television. The original bear is shown to be sad and jealous while looking in to a happy bear with an owner who seems to have already forgotten the original bear.

We filmed a good variety of shots on the day, which are mostly internal shots; of the television, of the former owner and other bear sitting on the sofa, and shots of the bear looking in the window. We also filmed externally withthe bear looking into the window. Unfortunatly, looking back at the shots we filmed, some of the external shots show reflections of the camera and some members of our group, so we may have to re-shoot these shots.

We also found time to film the bin scene, where the lonely bear is desperate for food, so finds a bin along an alleyway, and gets inside it to rummage for any sign of food. This was also filmed at the same location. We are not certain if all of the shots are of good enough quality for putting in the video, but we can easily re-film these shots if needs be, as the location is very easy to get to and to use.

1st Day of Filming - Flashback scene (8/11/2010) by Laurence Ewen

After we completed a sheet detailing what will be done on our first day of shooting, we were ready to film our first scene. It is the scene showing a flashback of the protagonist bear where it is seen to be in a shop alongside many other cuddly bears. One by one, these other bears are selected, until finally theprotagonist is left alone with no buyers. This ends in the bear being bought but falling out of the buyer's bag onto a street pavement as she is walking away from the shop.

Our initial choice for the shooting location was a local charity shop. This is because charity shops are not normally too busy, and with their strategy of helping people in need, we thought these non-profitable organisations would be more willing to help a group of A-Level students in their coursework than most money-driven businesses. After looking at possible advantages and limitations of different charity shops we were aware of in the area, we decided on the Cancer Research UK shop in Loughton.

The day before shooting, we visited the shop to ask for permission for the filming to be done, explaining in detail what we would like to do, how long we would be there for, and how many of us there would be. The person we spoke to was very understanding of our situation and we were appreciative of their acceptance for us to do the filming as we had hoped.

On Tuesday 2nd November, the production phase of our music video had begun, with us arriving at Cancer Research UK ready to film. We first greeted the person we had spoken to the previous day, and we were directed to an area in the shop where we could set up our

equipment. Props included approximately 5 bears (one protagonist bear including others which

could also be used if necessary), a bag (which the bear falls out of) and a 'sold out' sign

which was displayed when all bears except the protagonist had been taken away from the shelf.

The shooting was successful and we managed to finish the filming after about an hour inside the shop. We then thanked the owner of the shop and filmed a few shots outside, comprising of new ideas that we felt would improve the scene where the bear falls out of the buyer's bag.

In the next Media lesson, we will plan for our next day of filming, to continue our progress in the completion of our music video.

Animatic Storyboard- Meryl Cariaga, Alex Brown, Diranjeet Sohi, Laurie Ewen

After completion of our storyboards, we filmed all the shots from each sheet and imported them into iMovie. We then compiled these shots in order with timing and music in the background.

Unfortunately, we found that we did not have enough shots for the 3:50 length track. As a result, we have decided on new shots to include to fill in the missing space. This has been done in detail in written form on a separate sheet.

EDIT: We created more storyboards to fill in the missing space. This included to 'suicide note' scene, the dust bin scene, more shots for the car park scene and more shots for the lounge scenes