Evaluation of Shoot Day

Evaluation of Shoot Day

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

Although our shoot day was on Wednesday 20th November we started setting up our set and equipment on the Tuesday, the day before. This is because our set is large and complicated and so needed an extra couple of hours to set up. On the Tuesday we set up the elevated floor, which enables us to do a crane shot through the set and the floor, so we can give the impression of a dolls house and put the shots together in post production. We were mainly focused on creating our bedroom and bathroom scene as these were the first shots that we filmed on our shoot day. After building the elevated floor, we covered the floor in a pink carpet, similar to the one in Annabel's dolls house (the dolls house which we used). This is important for continuity as it is advantageous to get all the little elements right to make it a good music video. We then built the walls around the elevated floor, making it begin to look like a set of rooms. After doing this we began to add the little touches to the bedroom set for example the bed, the duvet, the pillows, the bedside tables and lamps and other finishing touches. From this moment on we began to envision our bedroom as it was being created and was coming to life. We were a little worried that the walls in the bedroom scene would look bare as they were a plain white so we decided that before beginning shooting tomorrow we would put some wallpaper up and Francesca agreed to bring in some paintings from her house to make the bedroom set look more like a real house. After building the bedroom set we checked that we had all our props and that we knew exactly where they were. We did this so that our shoot day would flow smoothly and not have any major glitches. As there was a video shoot on the Tuesday we had a limited time of an hour and ten minutes to set up our bedroom and bathroom scene before the studio got shut down so we only managed to do the bedroom scene. If I could re-do the Tuesday I would get into the studio earlier so we could have created more of our set and would have had less to do on the Wednesday. 

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

On our shoot day, I woke feeling excited as we had been planning our music video for a long time and it was finally happening. I was eager to begin and see how it looked with the finished set, our cast in their costume and the band performing together. I was also slightly anxious that something was going to go wrong, for example we wouldn't have one of the props we needed or that we would have to change something during the shoot or that it would just look bad and not how we envisioned it. 

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

I would say we were pretty well prepared as everyone arrived on time and nobody forgot anything and everyone knew what they had to do. However I don't think we had prepared our set enough as we still had to do a couple of hours of building in the morning before we even started shooting. That was stressful as I knew we were getting behind, and that we had to hurry up and complete the set. Before we could start shooting we had to put the divider up to separate the bedroom and bathroom set, complete the bedroom by putting up the wallpaper as a headboard behind the bed, the pictures behind the bed and around the room. We then had to create the bathroom scene and put up the sink, the bath and make it more like a home. After this we set up the lighting so that it looked realistic and after that we were ready to shoot our first scenes.

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

When we started filming we had the bedroom and bathroom set completed, with the wall and doorway in-between. I think we created our concept well, especially since we had limited time to set up.

How did you divide the roles on your shoot day, what roles did you play?

I participated in a variety of roles during our shoot day. I helped build the elevated floor and during the building of the bathroom, a painter was required to paint one of the boards we were using as the wall white so I volunteered and painted the walls. I helped to build the set as I don't mind the heavy-lifting. When we started shooting I helped to shoot a number of the bedroom scenes, including the lamps and the clocks changing. When we filmed the band performance I was in charge of the clapper with the timecode. This is important for post production as it is essential to fit the timecode with the song so that the lip sync and band performance fits with the music exactly. I  helped to direct and tell the band what they should try doing and how they should act, especially with our lead singer in the large instrumental. I also controlled the lighting during the bedroom scene in the narrative as we could not only rely on the lighting from the lamps to light our actors but I also had to add additional lighting at the same time the actors turned on their side lamps. 

What do you think you personally did particularly well?

Personally I think that I directed particularly well as helping the actors to understand what it is they have to be doing not only helps them but also makes our music video look more professional. I also think I controlled the lighting well as it was beneficial to get the additional lights turning on at the same time that the actors turned their lamps on to make it look more natural and more professional. I enjoyed controlling the clappers as I had never done this before and it was quite a simple but important job.

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

On the shoot day we encountered various problems. When beginning band performance we realised we did not have a guitar strap or two amps so Francesca and I ran to the music tech rooms to get the equipment we needed. Luckily this problem was easily solved, unlike a few of our other problems. We found after setting up the living room scenes that we did not have the television that we needed for one of our scenes. This was a large problem as the television was a big component of the living rooms scenes and we needed to turn the television into cardboard. We found that the television could not be retrieved so we had to scrap that scene and instead change the scene with the scrabble in the kitchen to the living room. We decided that we could instead put band narrative in the space and this could actually be beneficial as we liked having the band performance to split up the narrative scenes. The biggest problem in my opinion was filming late. Because our sets were so complex we had to continue building them on Wednesday morning and unfortunately this took a lot longer than expected so we began filming a lot later than first estimated. The only way we could solve this problem was to build as quickly as possible and then be as efficient as possible when shooting. 

Which part of the shoot do you think was most successful and why?
I think the band performance was the most successful bit of the day as I really like the set we created for them with black floor and the brick on the walls. We also managed to shoot them relatively quickly and get a lot of nice shots of all the band members. I also thought that the shots of the band with the cardboard instruments looked a lot better than first expected and works well on camera. We got a large variety of shots of the band from a wide range of angles and we got a lot of extreme close ups of the guitars and the bands faces.

Which part of the shoot do you wish had gone better and why?
The one part of the shoot day that I would change is the building of the set. If I could go back, I would stay late on the Tuesday to ensure that the entire bedroom and bathroom set was built so that we could begin shooting first thing on the Wednesday instead of having to set up and wasting valuable shooting time. Although building our set on the Wednesday was understandable because it was a large set and there was a music video before ours, it was quite irritating because we wasted about two hours in the morning building before we started shooting which meant that we almost overran at the end of the day and the last shots were very rushed because we had to finish on time.

How well do you think you managed your talent?
I think our actors performed brilliantly. We gave them a brief description of what they had to do in each scene before we started shooting and then relied on our direction during the filming. They all acted excellently and stayed in character throughout each shot, meaning our shoot went smoother. When they were confused or lacking in knowledge, they were not afraid to ask and we were quick to inform them of what they should be doing. As continuity was very important to us, we were eager to point out when something had been done differently to the last shot and the actors were very accepting of our criticisms. I think our band performance went very well also as the band were willing to try anything we suggested, especially George who had a long instrumental and was open to try our suggestions.

What was the part of the shoot you enjoyed most?
I enjoyed seeing our finished sets because it finally felt like everything was coming together and they looked a lot better than expected. I also really enjoyed the band performance as this was a lot of fun and seeing the band perform the song well made the music video came to life and I think it made everyone more excited to see the band together as they are our star image. Seeing them work so well together and be willing to do what we asked, really impressed us all and it was definitely enjoyable to watch them.

What are you looking forward to seeing most in the edit?
I am very much looking forward to seeing how we manage to cut between the narrative and the band performance and seeing how it looks cutting between the band with regular instruments and the band with our cardboard instruments. The thing I'm looking forward to seeing most is the pan through the house because I would like to see how easily it cuts together and how realistic and impressive it looks.

How well do you feel your production group worked as a team? 
I think our production group worked extremely well as a team as we were eager to help the building and we helped each other out with carrying equipment. We split the tasks equally and if one of us needed help, someone else was quick to help. We decided everything together, and listened to everyones opinions to make choices that everyone agreed with. We didn't have any arguments or disagreements as we all knew that the music video was the most important thing so we all focused on that.

Are there any lessons you learned that could help you make your next shoot even more successful?
One lesson that I learnt from our shoot day was that making sure you have all of your props is essential for the shoot to be even more successful and that building the set the day before to ensure that we have as much shooting time as possible the next day is very important.

Are there any changes you might need to make to your website and artwork, in order for them to fit with the video that you have shot?
I don't think we need to make any changes as there are multiple ways that we could take our website and artwork and they would still fit with our video. We could choose artwork that fits with the narrative of the perfect couple, or the dolls house or the band.