Construction Post 3: Week 3 Production

This week was used for filming our real shots. We had to organise everything around our school timetable, which is already full of lessons. Managing how to deal with coming straight from a lesson and thrown into the studio, where our shooting took place was, to me, the hardest part as well as usually having to deal with 13 hour days at school.

The studio- the set/our location for the week

DAYS 1-2

The Priority for the shoots on these days according to our shoot board was:

Extracts from Monday's storyboard

• Our individual beauty shots
• Individual spotlights
• The group one shot singing the whole song in one set up (so we have a base to away to from other scenes during editing) 
• The majority of our chorus dance shots in most setups done.

However the inevitable issue of time made achieving all of these in those two days very hard that we realized we had to re-shoot many of them on days where we had less planned. I was responsible for noting down which shots we didn't get to do and reorganize them for another day.

After Tuesday- star means it needs re-shooting
and has been rescheduled while crossed
out means the shot has been filmed

e.g. Tuesday's shoot-board had the most re-shoots labelled out of the whole week- this was because some shots had to be done due to either lighting issue which had taken up too much time and gotten in the way of filming or that it was realized afterwards that the lighting didn't look right

Me setting up the focus of the camera
for the filming of our red silhouette set up
 on monday

Before Tuesday

Monica and I sorting out
the red spotlight floorlight

I'm proud of how well our spotlight shots went. For me and Thakshana's spotlights, we were able to film them in just one take! That was because after our test shoot part of the feedback we got from our teachers was that we should spot the turret lights to make the circle we make as tight as possible. We learnt that spotting the turret light on the cyclorama rather than the black curtains wouldn't distort the circles and also keep them in a tight shape. Using the 'Trouble' music video by Neon Jungle, we decided to frame this shot at an MS. 

Reflecting back on the first day of shooting:

DAYS 3-4

Day 4 was the day where we started utilizing our main and exciting setups. For example the strobe setup and the panel backdrop. 

Since we weren't able to test these setups beforehand it was really also a session used to improvise and the decisions we made on the spot, I feel, were really good decisions in terms of creativity and making the best of what we had. 

Little Mix-'Move' (inspiration)

E.g. the strobe setup we had planned for to be with a black backdrop, but we realized that you wouldn't be able to see our faces with just the flashing strobes alone. So I had to go up to the lighting desk and fiddle around with the lighting until we could agree on something that suited our theme but still hadn't before yet.

Example of lighting progress on day 4

We had achieved a lot of lighting progress during day 4 as opposed to days 1-2 before. I think this is because we'd gained a lot more confidence on what we wanted from lighting by also using day 3 of shooting to watch over and reconsider some of our previous shots with adjustments to them. This meant that we didn't end up spending as much unnecessary time on fiddling with the lighting for each setup. Below is an example clip of us in the middle stages of fixing the lighting for Angela's shot. 

Thakshana, Monica and I watching back
the chorus dance shot we just filmed

Filming me and Monica's chorus
 dance shot

Analysis on one of our chorus group dance shots

DAYS 5-6

Shots completed: Days 5-6 were used to either re-shoot any scenes and to do all the shots that needed the most complicated, industrial set up. This included all the group one shots (singing/ playing with balloons etc.) Thakshana's individual verse and any more chorus dance shots. 

Setting up the D4MES graffiti backdrop, trying to make
it industrial looking

Us trying to sort out the lighting
for Thakshana's Industrial setup

This setup was definitely the hardest to work out the lighting for because the floor-lights kept creating shadows or would end up being concentrated (spotted) in a certain area rather than flooded the whole way through. We decided to just film through it all; in editing we would be able to work around the distraction of shadows.

I was able to learn a lot about directing and the importance of constructive criticism as I was in charge of filming Thakshana's shots with Aaron (one of our male actors).

At first both of them felt really awkward doing such an intimate shot in front of the camera and weren't really sure how to continue their movements for the long period of her verse as you can see from the video on the right.

However after a few more takes and us three brainstorming ideas on how they could move around the huge space they had on set, we were able to come out with a decent shot, exampled by the clip on the right.

Preparing for filming the dinner scene:

  

General Problems faced:

1) Focus- The auto focus on the camera wasn't working so had to be handled manually, this led to problems with shots going in and out of focus every time the camera changed distance from the subject (person in front of the camera). An example of this can be found below.

2) Actors- Some of our actors, for their own personal reasons couldn't make the days we asked them to come in and act for us, which caused a bit of hassle as we would have to reorganize our shoot board and change our individual schedules

Solutions found:

1) Focus- Sometimes the problem of focus was inevitable, since we wanted the majority of our shots to be handheld and fast moving, so and we would just have to edit around it. However where we could move the camera around slower (in order to give the camera more time to focus on a subject and thus not become blurry, like in the example video below) we did.

2)Actors- We had to be flexible around our actors as they have their own personal lives and we were asking a favour from them to help us out. So when they couldn't make a shoot for various reasons, we had to work around them and swap shots from a day when they are free to do in place of the day they aren't free, so as not to waste time.

Construction Post 2: Week 2 Production (photo-shoots)

This week was predominantly used to carry out our photoshoots.

The times we booked to shoot were:

Tuesday 7am-12pm
Wednesday 9am-11am
Thursday 4pm-8pm (Back-up)

At first we thought the times we booked to shoot were too long and we wouldn't need ALL that time but after the first day of shooting we realised that a lot goes into the preparation of a shoot (e.g make-up, changing/ wardrobe malfunctions that may occur, changing lighting set-ups and practicing/deciding poses) way more than actually taking the photos. 

 PRE- SHOOTING

 Angel doing her make-up and hair

Me doing Monica's hair

 Thakshana and I practising some poses

Angela and Thakshana working out the floor light which had malfunctioned and delayed our Thursday shoot by 2 hours

SHOTS REFLECTIONS

Originally we had planned to only use Tuesday and Wednesday as our shooting days, however we realized after looking back over our shots  on Wednesday that many of our group shots could not be used due to either one of us having our eyes closed/looking somewhere else or blurry shots etc. 

So in preparation for Thursdays shoot we decided to change our outfits for the all black theme and all wear dresses as well. We also realized that we need to after every shot is taken, to look back on it and make sure it's okay (as in our positioning and focus of the shot)

In the end we were able to get shots we were happy with and could edit later on

OUR GROUP SHORTLIST:

Construction Post 1: Week 1 Production

This week was used as preparation for our real shoot which we agreed to do during the 3rd week of construction. Our priority for this week was:

1) Start and finish making our backdrops (the graffiti set and the panel backdrop)

Preparing our panel background

Preparing our graffiti backdrop

2) Organize booking times for our photo-shoot

The times we booked to shoot were:

Tuesday 7am-12pm

Wednesday 9am-11am

Thursday 4pm-8pm 

3) Finalize our storyboard 

Our finalized storyboard

Our storyboard in the making- me in the editing process of it

4) Email our school janitor to set up our industrial backdrop/set for us

The Scaffolding and ladder we asked
Mr.Armani (the school janitor) 
to set up for us with the 
graffiti backdrop we made

The email we sent Mr.Armani

5) Design our logo

Initially we wanted an urban feel which symbolized our band attitude

1st draft

2nd Draft

We ended up wanting a more sophisticated look which would incorporate 3 iconic colours we could use as synergy for our website

The final design of our logo

6) Start outlaying our website

We used the same synergistic colours of red, black and white, which we used in our logo

The first draft of our website
using stills from our test shoot

R+P Post 33: Reflections on my role and contribution during Research and Planning

I feel that I contributed a lot into the researching and planning we did as a group, however I would say more towards the planning side rather than research.

Jobs I solely completed on behalf of the group:

• Ordering/ buying props

Screenshot of when I was researching what brand of
spray paint to buy for our backdrop

The fabric shop in Edmonton green we bought
 the translucent cloth we needed for our panel
backdrop

• Creating the shoot board and proposed set designs list

Screenshot of when I was creating the shoot board

• Drawing the Album cover flat plan

Before drawing the album cover I took a look at the research of conventions from other girl band albums we did as a group and compiled the examples I thought were the best ideas and used them to draw our each panel of our album cover.

Jobs I was part of completing in the group:

• Setting up/working out the lighting for each set-up

I didn't realize that with lighting comes extra precision and need for detail- the wrong angle of a barn door on a studio light could distort the shape you want your light to be or its intensity- It's not just a switch of a button which is what I thought it was. I'm satisfied with the ideas we came up with when testing out and playing around with the lighting but am extremely excited about the red flood silhouette as I think it looks the coolest and really encapsulates what we are singing about in a symbolic way.

Thakshana and I moving the studio lights
around for red silhouette scene

• Filming 

During the test shoot, in preparation for our real shoot, I took a hands on role with filming most of Thakshana's individual shots while Angela and Monica were in lessons. It helped me get the grips of how to use the camera, because I realized how hard it was to keep in control of the focus (since Auto-focus didn't work, you had to do it manually) and my framing, I realized was actually very poor. It was good to have practice before our real shoot.

Amber filming and I on playback (music)

• Creating the set-ups list

Creating a set ups list helped us figure out how many backgrounds we'd need to prepare for (make/ buy materials to create the specific look we want/ test the lighting during the rehearsal week)

Proposed set-ups document

• Acting

Being in front of the camera during the test shoot was a very fun experience for me. During the rehearsals and especially the test shoot I was able to work on my expressions and making it seem as though I was a real girl band member.

• Creating some of our backdrops

Me and Thakshana sorting out the Panel Backdrop

We had to be very inventive when creating the Panel background. We used translucent cloth which had the ability to let light through so that we could use floorlights positioned behind the cloth in order to get that glowy effect. We also used gaffa tape to create the border lines.

R+P Post 32: Test Shoot and Rough Edit

Our Test Shoot Schedule- My group is coded in yellow

Behind the scenes footage of our test shoot

What we learnt from our test shoot:

 1) Communicating with Actors

The Saturday morning session of our test shoot, was when we were bringing in our male actors in order to film their shots. However although as a group we had an idea of what each wanted to do with our guys during our individual solo singing shots we realized then that we weren't ready to give them clear direction and that it was something we needed to work on. 

Below is a clip of me trying to explain how we wanted one of our actors, Will, to act during his scene with Monica

   2) The need of an extra camera operator

We realized that if the four of us are going to be in the music video and doing group shots, none of us will be able to operate the camera and therefore will need an extra pair of hands. We decided to ask one of our friends who too is taking media at A2. This is because they will have already have had a lot of experience with working with cameras.

   3) The importance of keeping to time

We weren't able to keep to time for several reasons and in the end weren't able to film all the shots we had planned on our shoot board to get through. We realized the areas we had to work on to be able to resolve this issue so it wouldn't happen during our real shoot and thus hinder the quality of our edit due to a limited variety of shots:

• Get to the studio on time
• Leave more time for setting up lighting/backdrops and getting ready (makeup & costume) 
• Set an allocated amount of time for a shot and keep to it, do not overrun into the time allocated for the next shot
• Take more managerial control over our actors
• Allocate the responsibility to one person who everybody else will respect the authority over when it comes to keeping to the time of the shoot board

Below is the final version of our rough edit