SHOOT DAY

The shoot involved half a day building the set in the room we were to use as a TV studio. We also rigged the lights then. The actual shoot was one whole day with two hours at the end to strike the set. We completed all our shooting in that time period, in one day in November 2010.

In the morning of our shoot day, our only two cast members and a member of the crew was in a maths exam, therefore our first two hours were spent painting the set, sorting our shots, getting paint, and finally putting up the trapezium. Our set was quite simple, a room with 3 walls, the 4th being where the camera films from, with two doors. We decided to paint our set pale baby blue, which is a neutral colour, therefore creating a relaxed and easy atmosphere to begin with. We painted the doors yellow, to stand out against the blue, but also because they are complimentary of eachother. The colours are also quite French 50’s style which is the atmosphere we were trying to put across. One of our cast members is a talented gymnast and knows how to work on a trapezium, so we hung up the trapezium ready for the later shots. Another thing which we did which was necessary for the believability of the pop video, was to have a camera is a fixed position. We measure the distinct that the camera should be away from the back door and the front of the set, and we locked the tripod and position and left it there so al of our shots could be filmed in wide.

Once the cast members were back from their exam, we began filming. Following our call sheet, we did the shots which were of the singer around the room. We picked out the first costume for the singer, and placed her in the set. We then filmed in wide and had another camera, getting close ups and different angels in order to have a range of shots. She performed the whole song, dancing and singing around the set, we did this initially to gain a feel for what we wanted to accomplish. After doing this, the singer performed in different areas of the stage, going from the left to right, front to back etc. We did this in order to create the material needed for jump shots. After performing the song in one costume in different areas of the stage, we then changed her costume again, and we did this throughout the day: performing necessary bits of the song in a costume, then doing similar in another.

We got the material needed in the first 40 seconds of the song, and then we needed to get the painted splattered across the wall. We did this by getting metallic buckets upside and wrapping it in cling film, in order to get a bounce, and then putting the paint on top. We also covered the drum sticks in cling film aswell so we did not stain them. We chose bright colours like: pink, yellow, purple and green which would reinforce the abstract and crazy mood. The band member were a bright orange jump suit, and sunglasses, and began hitting the buckets with the paint on. We filmed all the different buckets being hit in close up, and after used a wider shot. We had to get the timings just right in order for Lukas to hit the drum, and someone out of sight from the camera to splash paint across the wall, and therefore the timing was crucial for it to be realistic. After each bucket was done, we then splattered paint across all the walls, without filming, and left it there to dry.

After lunch, we did a few more shots of Ruby, the singer, in different costumes performing around the set, and then decided to get the trapezium out. We did a range of shots in order to have plenty of material to play with in post production. We filmed Lukas, who was talented on the trapezium, doing different positions and swinging round, and then we decided to put Ruby in the frame aswell. She sat on the trapezium like a swing lip sinking, whilst Lukas moved around her. After performing the song in this position, we realised that Lukas being in the frame aswell did not work, so we decided to do a few shots where only Ruby was sitting on the trapezium singing the song. We attempted a quite difficult position on the trapezium, where Ruby had to hang from Lukas’ feet, this was hard to pull off due to Ruby being in mid air and considering the factor that she could fall and hurt herself. Therefore we filmed a few close ups of her hanging, and then we filming the wide, removed a crash mat from under her for a few seconds so it would not be seen.

There were a few shots which we wanted to get to incorporate into our piece. We decided to get a ladder where Lukas would climb up, and then Ruby would climb down, therefore in jump cuts it would seem strange to the audience. We filmed this mainly in wide. We also got a group of people to enter the room wearing strange hats and jackets and to walk out again, which would add to the quirky concept.

Finally, what we needed to do was film the first layer to act as the cinema seats. We did this in front of a green screen, therefore we needed to move the cinema seats facing the green screen, up on a platform. We moved the camera facing it in a wide shot to look as though it is in a cinema. This part of the layer was relatively hard as it all had to be done in one shot. We played the music and got a few extra people to walk in as members of the cinema audience. We had to film this a few times until the timing was perfect, because we needed to sort out when people could be entering, and at what point Ruby, the singer, comes out into the seats to sing to herself.

In order to explore each job on the production team, our group changed roles regularly throughout the day. However, most of my day was spent sorting out the costumes for Ruby, and directing the action on set, whilst Felix and Victor did the camera work. I did much of the directing because I had an idea of how the video should look. We filmed on the Sony NX5 camera, one which stayed in a fixed position and another which we captured different angles on. We used the spotlights from the ceiling pointing towards the stage; we did this because we wanted the lights to create a neutral atmosphere, and the performance of the band so subvert that. We also used the Arri 2000, Park Hand and Fresnel lights, along with red heads and 1 blonde.

There were a few problems that we encountered throughout the day. One of these was the paint scene where we had to splatter paint across the wall in time with the bucket being hit. This was a problem because it took us a while to get enough paint to splash, the buckets to work for the bouncing, and get the camera angles needed so it looked good. Also, after splattering the paint, we had to wait for it to dry, and therefore this wasted valuable time that could have been spent filming.

Another problem that we confronted, was the generally performance of Ruby, the singer. Although we knew through the storyboard where she was going to be on set, and when to be lip sinking, we were unsure of some of the movements to coincide with the music, due to us not being dancers. However, the problem was lessened by Ruby, who was a dancer, and therefore knew how to improvise with the music.

A major difficulty in the day was timing. Due to the first two hours being spent getting ready and not filming; the rest of the day was on a tight schedule. This meant that some of our shots are not as precise as we’d hoped because we had to slightly rush.

A shot that really worked was when Ruby was sitting on the trapezium, and we tilted up her body. This imitated a composition rule because the tilt meant that Ruby’s face was last to be seen, and therefore the audience was anticipating her expression, and also it was good in advertising her aesthetically pleasing body. Another shot that worked was when we placed the camera on the floor, and had Ruby crawling towards it. This was good because the camera was at the same level as Ruby, therefore creating intimacy for the audience. It also effectively separated the two layers of the video, making that shot seem like it was the film being watched, thus confusing the audience slightly.

However, there were plenty of shots that were unsuccessful. One of these was the filming of the paint splattering. This was very difficult because the timing was crucial, and it became apparent that the paint would not realistically spread far across the walls after being hit, therefore this shot was not as good as hoped. Another shot that didn’t work was when Lukas was performing on the trapezium, and he stood up, he was taller than the set. This meant we had to limit his movement otherwise it would not look good on camera, however shots like this, shown right, where he is below the trapezium worked very well.

The day as whole was relatively successful. We effectively created the quirky atmosphere of the pop video, through the abstract and random costumes and the performance of the band. However, I felt we did not get as many shots as we’d hoped, and therefore this proposes a slight problem in post production and editing.