Since the initial drafts of the project, my plan was to use an original camera from the time period of the video clip. Therefore I picked up an original videotape camera from the 90s, the gv-dvl355e. This camera. runs with mini DV tapes which essentially are "mini cassettes".
(Actual Panasonic tapes used throughout filming, provide 60 minutes of filming time)
These gave me huge problems throughout filming since they got stuck from time to time and also had to be rewinded analogically instead of digitally. This meant that every time I wanted to repeat a shot the tape had to be rewinded instead of the present ease of just going to a point in the filming timeline with a click on a screen.
However, the biggest complication happened due to the old age of the camera. Throughout the whole filming process a "head cleaning required" error occurred, this meant that the Mini DV Tape holder had been used for so long (years) that it had difficulties reading the analogic tape, which would lead to some errors when watching the video. Suddenly the film would turn black and white, white spots would appear in the middle of the screen, lines would make the video ineligible, etc. This made the filming extremely more difficult and draining since I had to take the tape out constantly in order to clean it.
(Example of one of the tape errors)
Despite both of these being the biggest difficulties, other things were also impeding the process:
- The age of the camera made the battery drain really fast which meant we had to be charging it constantly in cafes and other spots.
- The hours of light were very little and made us repeat filming a few times.
- Difficulty with lip-synching due to the speed of the song.