Evaluation of the shoot day

 The day started out very stressful at first, because of a missing guitar. But after I took care of that, the rest of the day was more or less smooth sailing. I was mostly in charge of making sure the cast was wearing the correct costumes. I brought in some costume options myself for the cast, mostly for David and Ari (the guitarist).  

I also brought in all the props that were agreed: costume options, sage, crystals, vintage posters, vinyl records, tarot cards, lighter, two boxes of fairy lights and clear jars (which we ended up not needing). I brought my camera, so that I could shoot extra footage and behind the scenes. 

The band was a delight to work with, they didn’t create any problems and we listening to every instruction. They did a great job on their part. I spend most of the time on set either directing or filming. I also kept making sure the band was okay and that they felt relaxed, especially during filming. To help them feel more comfortable, I’d join into the performance, from behind the camera. I really enjoyed the camera filming, especially the handheld shots. I did struggle a tiny bit with this, but only with the weight of the camera, but I managed to film the whole duration of the song. Then I filmed all the shots of the whole band together in a still and then I filmed all the shots for the main singer, these were really good, I learned how to maneuverer the camera while filming, to create the best footage. 

*I'm stood taking this photo

The music video was filmed in the 3 planned and discussed set ups. The first set up where we filmed the whole band, was the wooden shack with a projection screen behind it with the beach on it. There was also real sand on set. This set up looked very realistic on camera and I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The whole band fit in perfectly and I managed to film a lot of footage in this set up. 

 

The next set up was the one where we only filmed the main singer. We still had the projection screen, but with a projection of a night scar with a big moon. This was a very moody set up, but I liked it. This one also looked realistic on camera. Kate did very well, lip-syncing and performing. I was happy with her performance, because she took on board every suggestion I made. 

 

In this set up we also filmed a shot of the props ‘coming out of the sand’ and a ‘lighthouse’ light shining across. This was a very cool shot and I want to include it in the final edit. There are no band members present, just the props that I provided. 

The last set up was my favourite, because it was my idea, plus I got to be the lighting designer for it. I enjoyed this section of the day probably the most, because I had a large impact on how the footage would look. The concept of these shots was to see the band members auras and vibrations. So, we had a screen and a light shining through it and a front light. I would design the colours for each band member and during filming control the contrast, saturation and brightness. I also made sure the band members knew what they were doing during filming, because I combined filming their silhouettes against the auras to bring out the colours more and then during filming, I turned up the brightness of the front lights to see their faces. 

We completed all the filming ahead schedule and had no major complications during the day. I was very satisfied with what my group achieved, and I think we managed to get all the footage we needed and a lot more extra footage too, which is useful. The next steps are going to be editing the footage. Maia will be the one in charge of the editing for our music video, but I will also get involve and edit.