Shoot Day - Evaluation Task

What did you do the day before, to set up for your shoot day?

Since our shoot day was on a Monday we couldn't prepare the day before as a group, but their was still things we had to do, individually to prepare. I made myself a checklist of everything I had to do on the Sunday as to prepare for the shoot day which can be seen bellow:

I will now go through the reasoning for the points on my checklist: Firstly I need to charge and bring my speaker, because on the shoot day we needed a speaker to be able to play the song out loud when we were in the hotel, and I needed to charge it so that it didn't run out of battery on the day. I needed to speed the song up by 200 percent so that we could play it on the speaker so that joe could lip sync at that speed and then we would slow it down by 200 percent in editing and we would have a slow motion effect on his performance sections and I needed to import the sped up version of the song onto my phone so that I would be able to play through the speaker on the day. I needed to charge my laptop and phone on the day so that I could access them if I needed them and to be able to play the song which was on my phone, on the speaker. I needed to pack the story board and the shot-list into my bag so that I would have them on the day to be able to look at what exact shots we were going to need to film. I needed to look back through my blog because I wanted to refresh myself of our vision for the music video so that I knew exactly how I wanted everything set up and to look on the day of the shoot. I needed to lay out comfy clothes because I wanted to wear something comfortable and which I could move around easily in on the day, and because I didn't want to waste time on the morning of the shoot picking the outfit. I needed to remind all of my group members and my actors of what they needed to bring to the shoot day so that no one forgot anything, screen shots of the message I sent to my group members and our actors can be seen bellow. Finally my lat point was to go to sleep early so that I would be well rested for our shoot day and would be able to stay concentrated all throughout the day.

How did you feel when you woke up on the morning of the shoot day?

On the morning of the shoot day I woke at a normal time of around 7:40 and felt still a little bit tired from a long weekend because that weekend I had gone back home to Switzerland for thanksgiving and had only arrived back on a plane the night before. Although I was a little tired I was still excited for the day, accompanying the feeling of excitement was a feeling of nervousness. I felt nervous because it had been such a long time that we had been preparing for this shoot and I was worried that it might not come out exactly as I hoped. Instead of becoming anxious I managed to keep calm and I want through my checklist once more to make sure I had everything with me, which I did and I then left to school for a big breakfast.

How well prepared were you when you arrived for the shoot, what did you have to do before you could start shooting?

Transcript: We arrived in the edit suite as a group with all of or equipment at 8:40 in the morning, which was 10 minutes before our set meeting time with the rest of the production assistants because we wanted to have time as a group to make sure we had everything we needed and to assign our selves rolls for the next few hours. When we met with the production assistants we decided we were going to begin by filming the studio shots, then go to the hotel, and we would then see if we had time to film the rest of the Guildford outside shots as well as the Peaselake corridor shots. We now had to prepare our actors and create the set. We decided that Hannah would be in-charge of preparing our actors because she was in-charge of doing Hannah’s makeup and she had Hannah’s costume. That left me, Kai and Gustavo to create the set. Our set was not very complicated but it did take sometime to set up. We first had to put black curtains around the walls of the studio so that it would be completely dark when we filmed. We then had to vertically screw 5 red light polls to a plank of wood as to be able to emit our desired red lighting effect we desperately sought after. Once that was done we had to take out all of our filming equipment as to be able to shoot our video. We needed the camera, a tripod, the speaker with the playback music on a connected iPhone, an iPad which would do as a clapper board and finally a microphone to pick up the sound. Once this was all set up we checked in with our actors to check their costumes and makeup, and once we made sure everything was alright with that, we were ready to film. (Bellow are photo’s of our set in the studio:)

Describe how the studio looked like when you started to shoot, how well do you feel you managed to create the look of your concept?

Our set in the studio looked very minimalistic and very simple, very red and very darker as we wanted it to be. We began to film with our actors behind the red poles, with the red poles in-front of them and in shot, we got all the shot we needed of this, but as a group we were not content with the way this was looking on camera and we agreed that this wasn't what we wanted our video to look like and that we had already had an idea of what we wanted for the studio shots which was simple red lighting with a black background, similar to Vic Mensa’s video for “U Mad”, which can be seen bellow:

This was the look we were trying to achieve and so I tried in several different ways to try and attain this look that we were looking for. I began by trying to put our actors behind the red polls but very close to them and to place the camera between two of the polls so that they couldn't be seen on camera. This did not work, the lighting was to straight on and was to flat on our actors’ faces and was just not that visually interesting. I then decided to try and just find the right look with my eyes, I took my actor, Joe, and placed him inferno of the red polls stop that he would be silhouetted but this did not work. I then tried to put him to the side of the red polls, so that the red lighting would be hitting him from the side without having the polls in shot, i saw how the light hit him with my eyes and I thought it looked really good, so I consulted with my group members and showed them and they agreed and so that it is how we filmed the rest of the studio shots and I think it turned out really good and really true to our vision of simple red lighting on our character with a dark background. Photo’s of the set can be seen bellow:

How did you divide the roles on your shoot day, what role(s) did you play?

Transcript: On the shoot day we split the production roles in accordance to experience and how much someone liked a certain role. Gustavo because of his large interest and skill with music was put in charge of the playback as well as the clapper board and also took a large part in the lighting. Hannah was in-charge of taking care of our actors and doing their make up as well as taking care of their costumes, also because Hannah is a dancer she was in-charge of teaching Hannah the choreography and making sure her dancing looked good. Personally I had the most experience in our group operating a camera, so I was mostly behind the camera on the shoot day filming everything because I as well as the rest of my team felt that I would be able to capture our vision correctly along with this I took a large part in directing our actors on what they should do. Kai was in-charge of the set and making sure everything looked good, she is also a very good communicator and a people person so she was verged at making sure everybody on set was informed about what was going on and what was going to happen.  (Bellow are some photos of me working the camera:)

What do you think that you personally did particularly well?

What problems did you have on the shoot day, how did you solve them?

Our main problem on the shoot day was time, we found out early on that we were not going to have enough time to film everything we wanted. We needed to film the studio shots, we needed to film the Peaselake corridor shots, we needed to film the Hotel shots and finally we needed to film the outdoor shots in Guildford. We had a tough decision to make, weather we were going to film all four locations or maybe just three locations and rush through the process and maybe not have all our footage come out to good, or we could only film in the studio and in the hotel but have really good footage. We ended up following the motto “Quality Over Quantity” and decided to only film in the studio and in the hotel, because we would rather have a limited amount of really good content rather than a lot of average footage. Another problem we encountered on our shot was with Hannah’s costume, everything was going well in the studio, and we finished filming all of our studio shots of Hannah, but then a school official entered the studio and told us that the school would not be happy with Hannah wearing such a revealing costume and that for the Hotel shots we would have to cover up the bottom half of her body more. As a solution to this problem we went up to the dance department in our school because we knew they had dance tights that they might be able to lend us, which they indeed did so we go Hannah to wear tights under the shorts for the hotel scene and everything went well. Bellow are shots of Hannah in her first costume in the studio and in her altered costume in the Hotel room:

Which part of the shoot do you think was most successful and why?

Transcript: In my opinion the most successful part of the shoot was the second half of what was filmed in the studio. By this I mean the part which we filmed with the red light coming in from the side of the shot and lighting up Joe and hannah from the side without seeing the tubes. I believe this to be the most successful part of the shoot because it came after having filmed our characters behind the red tubes which as a group we didn't like and we were afraid our video wasn't going to look good. When we first set up the camera there we fell involve with what we were filming and we all agreed it looked awesome. Another reason I think that it was so successful was because of our decision to use the “Slow Smooth” setting on the camera when filming Hannah, this meant that for three seconds we could film Hannah in super high resolution, and at an extremely high frame rate, which means we get a really good slow motion shot which I think came out incredibly well.

Which part of the shoot do you wish had gone better and why?

Transcript: The part of the shoot which I wish had gone better was the the first few shots we took in the hotel room. The reason I wish this part of the shoot had gone better was because we had hadn't been in the room for very long and we began filming relatively quickly and I believe we hadn't experimented with the lighting in the room enough at this point, which in my opinion lead to some not very good lighting in the first few shots we took, they were to lit up where as I wanted something quite a bit darker with most of the red lighting hitting our actors rather than the white walls, which is eventually what I managed to achieve throughout the day. I wish it had gone better because Im afraid that those first few shots don't look as good as they could have and that the lighting in those shots will be inconsistent to the rest of the lighting in the video.

How well do you think you managed your talent (actors)?

I think that I managed my actors quite well. Starting firstly with Hannah, I feel I did quite a good job at making her feel comfortable, dancing around a bunch of people in a very revealing outfit is not the easiest thing, and it is very easy to feel uncomfortable, but I think through constantly showing Hannah what I had filmed so that she could see for herself that she was looking good and the fact that I was very professional and constantly kept talking to her as she was dancing her telling her what I wanted was very important in making it look good and making sure she didn't feel uncomfortable. Another scene where the directing of my actors was quite difficult but that I think went well was during the kissing scene in the hotel. Once again this can be a quite awkward situation (making out with someone else several times whilst many people are watching and filming), I think it was important that I act completely professional and to show to them that it was a professional and artistic scenario, to be able to do this I made sure I didn't laugh; I told them what I wanted to see, for example what I wanted them to do with their hands, like run them through the other persons hair; and when it came to the actual kissing I didn't talk and simply let them do their thing. 

When it comes to the directing of Joe, I think I did a pretty good Job as well. An example though of a way I think I made mistake whilst directing Joe though was during the studio shots, Joe was just lip-syncing standing their with his hands in his pockets, so I told him to start making gestures with his hands towards the camera, and it looked good, but in moderation; Joe ended up doing these hand movement a little too often and I'm afraid that it might turn out a little comical when put together due to the fact that it was so frequent. An example though of when I was successful in my directing of Joe was during the scene where Hannah dances on him, whilst he is on the chair. I feel I did a good job because at first he wasn't quite sure what emotions he should be feeling as the character, and so I started saying words which I felt would help him understand the character and what he would be feeling in the moment, a few of the words I stated are as follows: Seduction, Magnetism, Desire, Tease etc. Bellow are some photos of me behind the camera directing my actors:

What was the part of the shoot you enjoyed the most?

The part of the shoot which I enjoyed the most was filming the “Slow Smooth” slow-motion footage of Hannah. The reason which I think i enjoyed that part of the shoot so much was primarily due to how good I managed to make it look. It was enjoyable because it was a product of handwork over a few months of planning the music video’s and it was where I was able to see that it was going really well and that it was looking as I wanted it, which I think made the process very enjoyable. Another reason why it was enjoyable was because it was challenging, the slow smooth seeing lets you film in very high quality and at a very high frame rate but the catch is you can only film for 3 seconds, so it was a challenge to try and get the best 3 seconds of footage you could which I found to be quite an interesting process and one which I really enjoyed.

What are you looking forward to seeing the most in the edit?

What I am looking forward to seeing the most in the edit is the studio footage of Joe. The reason for this is because of the way I have filmed it, I took to shots of Joe, one medium close up shot of him lip-syncing and one long shot of him in the same position lip-syncing; Having done this, I will be able to put both pieces of footage on top of each other in the edit, and bellow both shots I will place a “matte layer” which will be black, and then I will be able to change the blending mode of both video layers from “Normal” to “Multiply”, this will allow me to have both the shots to gather next to each other showing the red lit medium close up shot and the long shot side by side in the same shot, with the MCU on the left and the LS on the right, and I believe that this will look very unique and will help make our video stand out from others, but not only that I believe that it will impress people and will be a good opportunity to showcase my post production skills. Bellow is a video of some of the smooth slow footage:

How well do you feel that your production group worked as a team?

Are their any lessons you learned today that could help you make your next shoot even more successful?

I think that the biggest lesson I learned from my shoot which would help me on a future shoot, is about time management and the time expectations you set yourself. Going into the shoot day we expected to film 4 different scenes in 4 different locations, the studio scene, the Peaselake corridor scene, the hotel scene and the Guildford street scene. We had planned to film all 4 in one day, and I realised that we largely over estimated how much we could film in a day and still make it look good. As I have already explained we were left with the decision of choosing between filming 3 or 4 locations but having really average footage or only filming two scenes but having great footage, we decided to only shoot the two scenes. I have learned how long it really takes to film a very good looking scene for a music video and that in the preproduction stage of your shoot you have to plan your video around how much time you have to film it. I think this is a very valuable lesson that will hopefully really help me in my next shoot as well as in the pre-production stages of my next shoot.

Are there any changes you might need to make to your website and artwork, in order for them to fit in with the video that you have shot?

We haven't commenced creating our website so at the moment their is nothing we can change about it in accordance to our music video, but one thing we have done is our album artwork. As can be seen from the comparison of photo’s bellow from our album artwork and photo’s from our shoot day, their is one major difference, the color. Our album artwork is normal coloured, color wise it look pretty much the same as it would look if you saw it with your own eyes besides for the fact that the colors are slightly darkened. Contrary to this our music video is completely red, every shot is lit with red lighting, this is clearly not reflected in our album artwork; So we will probably have to make changes to our album artwork so that it is more red. Though in contradiction to this, I do believe that an album is an entire body of work which most of the time includes about 14 songs, and I do believe that it is slightly weird to think that an actual artist would base his album artwork off the music video which was done for one of the 14 songs in the album; In my opinion the album artwork should reflect the album as a whole body of work and that music video’s are for giving visuals to individual songs and should not have an impact over the look of the entire album.

Album Artwork