Evaluation of shoot day

On the Friday before the Monday shoot day our group spent the afternoon, clearing and preparing the studio. As our studio sets were very basic, there wasn’t a great deal to be completed so this was a relatively easy job for us. It was more important that we collated all of the costumes from the costume department preparing us for the Monday morning alleviating any stress around what they were wearing. On the Sunday evening I collected all of the props that I was required to bring in and some extra items that I found around my home, this included; all of the bottles that I had been collecting, a large blanket, a teddy bear, a saucepan, paper plates, plastic cutlery, mugs and four camping chairs. I also collected a few items of clothing for Charlotte to vary her costume options.

On the morning of the shoot day I felt not only excited but also ready and prepared, I trusted all of the other group members with their responsibilities and we had been discussing matters over the weekend. It felt bizarre that the day had finally arrived after weeks of planning and coordination. On arrival we had all of the props, costumes, make up and most importantly ideas for the shoot. The main preparation once we had arrived was the decision process surrounding the hair, make up and wardrobe. The wardrobe was relatively easy to coordinate as we already had a rough idea of what each member was going to wear. On the other hand the hair and make up was more time consuming.

As the main feature of our music video was the woods segment we wanted to take a simplistic approach to the studio segments, the first set that we shot was with a simple black curtain to just have a large emphasis on the star image of the band, followed by a white sheet with our pre filmed and edited footage. I think the footage with projections will be very effective and will match the look of our concept due to the snappy editing that we had previously achieved.

A few major problems came up on the day, firstly one of our cast members didn’t turn up without giving us any warning. Luckily we had previously contacted Charlie Ridgeway as a back up and he was prepared to take on the task despite only being told an hour prior to shooting. Also, the studio segment ran over by around two hours. As a result, by the time we arrived we only had around half an hour of day-light to film. As a way of maximizing our time Sasha and two members of staff left the studio early to prepare the tents and the props. Fortunately due to our thorough set design this was task that could be completed without the whole production group present.

The woods was the main section and inspiration for our music video which we were all very excited about so it was a huge disappointment that we left the studio two hours later than planned giving us only half an hour of day light once all of the cast and crew had arrived. Though the cast was brilliant, I wish the filming in the studio was more concise allowing us get more footage in the woods of a higher quality, as some of the footage will most likely be too dark and shooting was very frantic as we all became rather stressed by the task. Moreover I only had a zoom lens with me to film with so it was very difficult to shoot shots wide enough in such limited time. Admittedly without the variation of shots in the studio the video could have ended up worse as a result.

Though we were incredibly happy with the cast’s energy and chemistry, and their overall willingness to perform. Perhaps if they known the song better we could have shot each shot in less takes, Ashen in particular hadn’t learnt the lyrics as well as he should have done despite our constant communication prior to the shoot. Also, I wish we had planned the costume and make up specific for each member more thoroughly, by planning a meeting with the whole cast to try on make up outfits before the morning of the shoot. Understandably this would have been very difficult to achieve as each member have other commitments yet it the time it took to make a decision and then carry out the hair/make up/wardrobe was a contributing factor to why we were so late to arrive to the woods.

Despite one of our actors not turning up, we managed to work with the actors very well. A couple of our group members knew the cast personally so it was very easy to communicate ideas with them.

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Prior to the shoot day we had organised each role, I was the art director, India was the cameraperson, Sasha was producer and Phoebe was the Director. My primary role was to coordinate the overall look of the video; due to the simplicity of the studio sets this role mainly took effect in the woods scenes. I also took up the roles of controlling the digital clapperboard. I also took on board the role of cameraperson in some instances; due to the time restraints in the woods scenes it came about that we needed to use Canon 5D, a DSLR camera, in the woods. Being the only group member knowing how to use such a camera it was my responsibility to film the daylight woods scenes. This task was particularly stressful as we had very limited time to film before it became too dark, yet I believe that I coped with the conditions well very well despite the pressured circumstances.

Despite the pressure of the daylight woods scenes, I found that part the most enjoyable not only because I was filming but because we all bounced ideas off each other due to the interesting location. The cast looked like they were really enjoying themselves in the fun environment that we had created, making the process a lot more enjoyable for us to capture. The part where there were projections onto the tents during the night time, was the most successful element of the shoot. The shots that we took we very effective due to their beautiful uniqueness, which was a result of our thorough preparation surrounding the tents, location and filming and editing the London and Dancing footage.

Overall, I believe that our production group worked well together due to our extensive preparation. In some instances I believe that we could have communicated better with each other to make the shoot more efficient, but this was mainly due to the complexity of the shoot.

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I am most looking forward to seeing the daylight woods scenes as they were really compositionally interesting to shoot; it was clear that at the time the cast were genuinely having fun so hopefully that should come out in the footage. Though at the same time I am slightly nervous as some of he later footage will most likely be too dark and perhaps out of focus.

Fortunately, there aren’t any changes that we need to make to the website and album artwork as we didn’t make it specific to the video, but more to the genre and some of the stylistic elements of the video which was our original inspiration.