Holding out for a Hero

Originally slated to be the second video produced (and completed during the Brum Guild Elections 07 period), this slipped back in the schedule due to me seeing a lot of potential complications ahead.

In theory this should have been simple. For starters, there's only one character in it. Unfortunately this is counterbalanced by the fact that the completed video would be about 6 minutes long. From past experience, I knew that getting 6 minutes of footage would take a very long time. 6 minutes of interesting footage could have taken forever.

A big problem with these videos is that they all need at least two people - one to prance about like an idiot and be in the film, the other to hold the camera. Whilst I'm always available when I need me, other people never seem to be.

Some parts (namely the 'getting into costume' and 'wanted' shots) were filmed by me, and required a load of takes to ensure I was actually in the frame. Most of the rest would have been almost impossible if not for my 'willing' volunteer Emma.

On location

Filming took place in 3 main locations - my garden, Preston Sands (Torbay, not the other Preston), and Delamere Forest. These are easily identifiable in the finished video as 'the grassy bits', 'the sandy bits', and 'the bits with trees in'.

Preston

The Preston Sands shooting came about right at the beginning of preparation for the video, when I hadn't really thought about what footage was needed. We were visiting Emma's parents (who lived by the sea) and I didn't want to waste the opportunity to have some pretty scenery. In the end, the shoot was crammed into a few minutes before we headed back home.

The first thing I filmed (armed with my new 2 gig SD card so I wouldn't run out of space as quickly as I did with the previous videos) was the approach to the sea. Originally, this was to have come out of the house, down the road to the beach, round the corner, to Captain Chair on some rocks I'd spotted the previous day.

The tide can be an annoying thing.

We started filming, got down the road, and then saw that the tide was almost all the way in. Without getting very wet, the rocks were unuseable. Panic. Still filming, we walked along the sea front, desperate to find somewhere else to shoot. Some more rocks were found, but some annoying southern kids were playing on them. With no other choice, we had to go for the 'standing on the beach' option (can you spot the break in the otherwise continuous shot where I had to stop filming, then recommence and try and make it look like it was all one thing?).

The 'overhead' shot of Captain Chair leaping into the air and attacking the camera with his axe proved equally problematic. As shown in the 'outtakes' at the end of the video, this required repeating the jump a hell of a lot of times. I can proudly state that I did all my own stunts...and as a result had some very sore legs afterwards.

Of course, this being a sunny day at the beach and my 'shoot early in the day so no one will be about' plan having failed, people were starting to gather. Old people looked on wondering what on earth was happening, and mother pulled their children away from the crazy person.

Delamere Forest

Once again filming took place against the clock as it was starting to go dark when we arrived (and was fairly black when we left). We got most of the stuff done that I'd wanted, though obviously a bit of time for repeat takes would have been nice. (Note: it looks a lot more light in the photos below than it actually was).

The garden

My garden was the easiest, though my attempts to film from lots of different angles to make it not all look like it was shot in the same place didn't really succeed. I should have put a little more effort in and travelled outside a bit, even at the risk of being beaten up by chavs. It is also very obvious that my lawn was in a desperate need of a cutting.

Post Production

This process was integrated with filming. After each shoot, a period of attempting to stick in the footage somewhere in the final film followed. Unfortunately, no matter how much was shot there always seemed to be a load more holes to fill. The random dancing bits came about in an attempt to fill in the bits where I had nothing else. And, yes, I did still a couple of bits from previous videos.

Each film is a step forward in complexity, and also with each film my understanding of how the editing package works advances. With this film I wanted to play about a bit with what I could do - hence lots of flashy transitions and other related stuff. Couldn't really get away with this in a 'proper' video, but its fine for music videos.

The 'Outtakes'

This was my chance to share the pain and torment I had to put up with from the camera girl. There was a load more 'amusing' bits of Emma vocals, but I ended up running out of song. Oh well.

- Damian, Feb-Apr 2007

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