After much anticipation and planning, we finally arrived at our shoot day. On the day prior to the shoot I collated a shot list and organised a shoot schedule in order to ensure we remained stringent and well organised. We also tediously printed out the lyrics onto numerous pieces of pristine white card for our 'lyric card' shots. We purposely selected a font that looked as though it could have been hand-written, and were very happy with the way they looked. When waking up in the morning, I had a distinct feeling of being excited for what was to come but also nervous under the knowledge that despite our extensive preparation things can still very easily fall apart.
We had spent a few hours of the penultimate day before in the film studio attempting to construct our set. We pre arranged the blinders and neon pyramid for the final set up of the video, as these were the most demanding in terms of manpower. We also hung the infinity background onto the rigging at the top of the studio. Having not being able to find one sufficiently large piece, we opted for two single pieces of infinity paper which we would them tape together on the morning of the shoot. In the early part of the shoot day, this was our first task. With our production team we stuck the sheets together and then lit them to an extent where this connection was seamless and invincible as we had hoped. We also prepared a 'GoPro' camera by attaching it to part of the upper rigging, and setting it to its time lapse feature so we had another interesting shot to cut to during the edit. This would run for the entire day and would capture the whole process. However, these jobs took much longer than we expected and unfortunately set us back by just shy of an hour on our shoot schedule. We used this spare time to prepare the band by dressing them in their costumes and briefing them in considerably more detail about the shots we were going to do and in roughly what order. When we eventually started shooting on the first set up (infinity background), we were delighted with the way it looked and the effect it created was perfect, warranting the time we spent aligning it. We knew we had to try and make up some time from here on so we got to work.
Bearing in mind that my group consisted of only two people as opposed to the more regular four, myself and Rachel had a tough challenge ahead of us to balance our time between different responsibilities. In order to this, we assigned each other key roles that we stuck to through the majority of the day. I took on the majority of the filming work with Rachel taking responsibility for the play back and syncing with the clapper board. Since we are both Photography students, we equally shared the chance to take photos of the band in some of the different set ups which may prove useful in relation to the Digipak or website. Personally, I felt I performed well in terms of direction. I am a confident speaker and felt comfortable vocally directing both the cast and crew to help achieve what we wanted. I had a clear image of each shot in my mind and was anxious to make each one a reality, especially once we saw how well the set was brought to life. Our video was difficult to shoot due to its chronology and need for continuity, with various bits of kit being added at specific stages preventing us from doing many takes of the whole song. I feel I was able to keep the production team and cast organized in close conjunction with the storyboard to make sure we were shooting the right clips at the right times during the song, so that everything was in sync. Overall, I was keen to get involved with everything happening related to the video and was constantly directed towards being pro-active and making things happen so that we did not rest upon our laurels.
During the course of the day, we encountered a few minor problems. Undoubtedly, the biggest of these was the time constraints. Due to the miscalculation in when we thought we would begin shooting, we were behind schedule in the morning period. It became quickly apparent that we would most likely not have time to fit in the shooting of the 'recording studio' section, which we had scheduled for the end of the day. This worried me and forced me into trying to get things done quicker and possibly even taking short cuts. This was not conducive to the quality of the video, leading Luke and I to have a conversation with him suggesting that we could arrange to shoot 'pick ups' on another day. This was heavily reassuring and allowed me to take the necessary time on each shot to achieve the right standard and 'cover every base'. With this pressure off, we maximized the time we had in the studio and ended up shooting in there for a further two hours then we planned allowing us to achieve even more within the day. We did this to the extent that we feel we may have enough footage to cut a video together without the other section. However, despite this we still plan to do the 'pick ups' as the cutaway is important to our video thematically.
There were many things that were really successful on the shoot day. The most obvious of these was the sets. The sets were extremely strong in their design, and there was a great contrast between the initial set and the one we finished the video with. The 'infinity' effect worked perfectly and was exactly what we desired. The final set was vibrant, cool and looked professional. The lighting created a superb atmosphere that was enigmatic and appropriate of the bands image. I believe this is testament to the work we have done into planning and visualising these sets, as they look near identical to our original drawings. Towards the end of the shoot we also unpacked and constructed the filming track to achieve some dolly shots of the band performing in the final set up. We shot the whole song a few times using this technique, and from what we saw it looked fantastic. The motion added energy and zest to the performance and we are really looking forward to editing it. Another positive from the shoot was of course the band. All members of the band performed their roles just how we wanted it and they were entirely believable as a young act. We had various comments from the crew regarding how real they looked, especially the drummer (Ben) as he mastered the rhythm of the song perfectly. This is something we exploited in filming as we could get close up shots of him perfectly hitting the drum rolls of the song. We gave them necessary breaks whenever we were reconstructing set in order to maintain their stamina and energy in performance. Towards the end of the day, when they were understandably fatigued, and it took some vocal encouragement and praise from me so that their playing remained at the same constant level, at what was a key part of the video. The bands performance is reflective of their commitment and the way we cast and rehearsed them extensively so that we could be ready and professional on the day of shooting. In terms of things that could be improved on the day then one could argue that we should have taken more consideration when planning the shoot schedule in order to fit in the cutaway sequence. However, on a hour to hour basis we were extremely organised and stringent in order to maximise the time we had. This was noted by one member of the band, who in discussion afterwards commented on the speed and accuracy with which we ran the day saying we were "completely on the ball".
During the course of the day, we encountered a few minor problems. Undoubtedly, the biggest of these was the time constraints. Due to the miscalculation in when we thought we would begin shooting, we were behind schedule in the morning period. It became quickly apparent that we would most likely not have time to fit in the shooting of the 'recording studio' section, which we had scheduled for the end of the day. This worried me and forced me into trying to get things done quicker and possibly even taking short cuts. This was not conducive to the quality of the video, leading Luke and I to have a conversation with him suggesting that we could arrange to shoot 'pick ups' on another day. This was heavily reassuring and allowed me to take the necessary time on each shot to achieve the right standard and 'cover every base'. With this pressure off, we maximized the time we had in the studio and ended up shooting in there for a further two hours then we planned allowing us to achieve even more within the day. We did this to the extent that we feel we may have enough footage to cut a video together without the other section. However, despite this we still plan to do the 'pick ups' as the cutaway is important to our video thematically.
There were many things that were really successful on the shoot day. The most obvious of these was the sets. The sets were extremely strong in their design, and there was a great contrast between the initial set and the one we finished the video with. The 'infinity' effect worked perfectly and was exactly what we desired. The final set was vibrant, cool and looked professional. The lighting created a superb atmosphere that was enigmatic and appropriate of the bands image. I believe this is testament to the work we have done into planning and visualising these sets, as they look near identical to our original drawings. Towards the end of the shoot we also unpacked and constructed the filming track to achieve some dolly shots of the band performing in the final set up. We shot the whole song a few times using this technique, and from what we saw it looked fantastic. The motion added energy and zest to the performance and we are really looking forward to editing it. Another positive from the shoot was of course the band. All members of the band performed their roles just how we wanted it and they were entirely believable as a young act. We had various comments from the crew regarding how real they looked, especially the drummer (Ben) as he mastered the rhythm of the song perfectly. This is something we exploited in filming as we could get close up shots of him perfectly hitting the drum rolls of the song. We gave them necessary breaks whenever we were reconstructing set in order to maintain their stamina and energy in performance. Towards the end of the day, when they were understandably fatigued, and it took some vocal encouragement and praise from me so that their playing remained at the same constant level, at what was a key part of the video. The bands performance is reflective of their commitment and the way we cast and rehearsed them extensively so that we could be ready and professional on the day of shooting. In terms of things that could be improved on the day then one could argue that we should have taken more consideration when planning the shoot schedule in order to fit in the cutaway sequence. However, on a hour to hour basis we were extremely organised and stringent in order to maximise the time we had. This was noted by one member of the band, who in discussion afterwards commented on the speed and accuracy with which we ran the day saying we were "completely on the ball".
Upon reflection, I am delighted with how the day went. We achieved some fantastic performance footage in a range of scenarios that I am really looking forward to cutting together. Things are likely to alter from what we may think we have in mind, as new creative decisions are always made in the edit, but I know for certain that we have a great base layer for our video. As far as we are concerned, things very much went to plan. I really enjoyed the directing aspect of the day as it is something I can see myself doing later in life. It is a fantastic experience to work in such a professional environment with this array of resources, and on a concept that you are passionate about and can call your own. Much like the day itself, the entire process has gone fantastically and I have really enjoyed working with Rachel. We have a decent working ethos knit together by a great friendship, and I would go as far to say that we have actually benefitted from being a pair and therefore being able to make decisions more efficiently and quickly. We have the same ideas and hope to finish creating something that we are proud of.
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