EVALUATION OF SHOOT DAY

NANCI KELHAM

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Introduction

Today was our shoot day in which we filmed the 1920's jazz club element, futuristic element and mad scientist element to our music video as well as an extra tap transition section danced by Oriana to help the transition between the 1920's and the futuristic. I have been thinking about our shoot day and considering what went well and what could have been improved in order to evaluate the shoot day.

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

• One of the things that didn't go very well the day before our shoot day was that the production group who were filming on the day before us finished late and so we got into the studio much later than anticipated in order to build our set and this immediately messed up our schedule. Chris and I proceeded to start making decisions about our set design and how we wanted things to look such as how many black flaps we wanted across the black as well as how many we needed in order to create depth. Chris and I discussed our options with the set designers and we decided that because there were only 6 black flats on option that the best idea as we wanted the space to look like a room but not be too large or too small of a space as it needed to be appropriate for the dancers to be able to do their routine properly but not too much empty space that would need to be filled. This went well as Chris and I were able to come to an agreement about having 3 flats along the back and one on either side diagonally which created the length and depth that we had hoped for.

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

• When I woke up on the morning of our shoot day I was feeling nervous as I wasn’t sure whether everything was going to come together and I was also feeling a bit apprehensive as I was relying on different people to do different jobs and remember to bring various things such as makeup and hair materials as well as bits of costumes and props. As well as some apprehension I was also feeling excited as I was looking forward to seeing our idea finally come to life and watch it all come together.

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How well prepared were you when you arrived for the hoot and what did you have to do before shooting?

• We were very prepared when we arrived on shoot as I had remembered to bring everything that I was supposed to bring including bits of costumes for the dancers as well as copies of our call list, our shot list, storyboard and images of our set design. When we arrived in the morning our first job was to finish setting up the 1920's jazz club element as this was the part that we were filming first. We had to put up the curtains on the back wall as well as drape some maroon velvet cloth over two boxes at either side of the set and add some plants to make the space appear more like a room and make it into a more inviting atmosphere. Chris and I were responsible for setting up the 1920's element as Evelyn was playing the role of the violinist in our video and so she had to have her hair and makeup done. This was a slight issue as it meant that there were one extra pair of hands missing. However, the set designers helped us to get everything sorted.

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Describe what the studio looked like when you started your shoot and how well you managed to create the look of your concept.

• We started with the 1920s set up and it had a rostra along the back for the musicians to play on and then a wooden floor along the front for the dancers to dance on. There were two plants placed on either side of the rostra in order to make the set appear more realistic and give it more life. There were also two large cubes that were draped in maroon cloth at the front of the set up which acted as tables in the jazz club and they had flowers and tables lamps set up on them. I believe that our set design for this element successfully established the era that we were trying to create as well as filling the space nicely and giving the dancer enough room to move around. I believe that the set up looked aesthetically pleasing and it also worked well with the 2910’s time period and look that we had in mind.

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What was the next step involved in the preparation before you could start shooting?

• One of my next jobs was reminding the makeup artist of what we had in mind for the 1920's element. We wanted quite natural look with some dramatic dark smokey brown eye shadow and a red lip for the 3 dancers as well as the musicians. The makeup artist was able to recreate this look for us very effectively and I was very impressed with the makeup and I feel like the makeup really helped to establish the era that we were trying to create.

• At this moment, the dancers were not quite ready and in their costumes and therefore I suggested that we should start filming the musicians first as they were all ready in terms of hair, makeup, costume as well as warming up their instruments and this allowed to us to stay on track in terms of timing right from the beginning as we worked with who was available at the time and this gave the dancers the opportunity to have a bit more time to do their hair and makeup as well as go over the choreography with each other.

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How did you divide your roles on the shoot day?

• Due to the fact that Evelyn was one of our musicians in this section we weren't able to allocate her a role within the production group as she was performing. We were worried that this would become an issue but luckily we were bale to handle this with the help of Luke who took charge of the camera for this section. I was in charge of the sound playback which involved using the Ipad and showing the numbers to the camera before we started each shot so that when we are editing we know what point in the music the shot can be used for. I was quite apprehensive about taking on this role at the beginning, however I quickly became comfortable with the technology and got my head around what this role required of me and I was able to carry out this role very efficiently. I also took on the role of the director and the art director as I was helping to make decision about what kind of shot we should be using, give the performers instructions as to where they needed to stand as well as generally make decisions regarding to look of our video and this helped the shoot to go along smoothly and gave me the opportunity to make decisions on behalf of the other members of my group.

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What roles did you play?

• During the filming of the futuristic element I took on the roles of sound playback and director again as I was instructing the dancers on where to stand and I was making decisions on what shot to use and what we wanted to film net as well as doing the sound playback at the start of each shot. This was something that worked very well as I did a good job at both of these roles and although it was difficult to juggle both of the these roles during the shoot I managed to alternate between the two quite well and I got a hang of the sound playback as the shoot progressed and this made it easier for me to give instructions to the dancers and musicians at the same time.

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What do you think that you personally did well?

• I believe that I did a very good job at operating the sound playback as I became comfortable with the new technology quite quickly and I was highly efficient at moving the track to the right moment between shots so that we could work efficiently and as quickly as possible. I also believe that I did a good job at managing our talent and directing our actors as I was firm with what I wanted them to do and I had an idea in my head as to how I wanted it t look and I communicated this clearly with the performers in order to make my directing skills effective, especially with the dancers.

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

• Once we had finished filming the futuristic section we realised that we were way behind schedule and that we had seriously run over in terms of our call list. In order to save time and get everything shot a lot quicker I suggested to my group that we split up and some of us stayed in the studio to film Oriana's tap section whilst some of us went out to the shipping container to film the mad scientist sections. In addition to this we also had some of us clearing out the shipping container and setting up this element whilst the others were finishing the filming of the futuristic section in the studio. Through the use of splitting up the workload by different people taking on different task it meant that we were able to do two jobs at once and therefore this helped us to speed up our shoot.

• I continued to do the sound playback and direct the Oriana tap section whilst Evelyn and Chris handled the mad scientist sections. This worked out well as I was able to do the sound playback and direct Oriana whilst Evelyn did the camera work and Chris did the sound playback for the mad scientist sections and this meant that were all using our appropriate skills to get everything done effectively and efficiently.

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What part of the video was the most successful and why?

• I believe that the mise-en-scene in our video was really effective and our sets, costumes, props, hair and makeup were of a very high level and I was particularly impressed with the efforts of the dancers and the makeup artist. I feel like because spent the time rehearsing a set routine with the dancers as well as coming up with a good concept for the hair and makeup and communicated this clearly with the makeup artist it meant that these elements went smoothly on the day as they were well planned and thought through.

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Which parts of the video do you wish had gone better and why?

• There were many things that didn't go very well including our time management as we underestimated how long the changeover for the sets would take as well as how long the hair and makeup would take, splitting up the jobs equally between the three of us due to the fact that Evelyn was bus playing the violin for the majority of the shoot and the lip sync element for the mad scientist was not very good as our actor didn’t follow our director very well and so as I am not sure whether the lip syncing was of a high enough quality to use.

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

• I believe that I took on the role of the director well and that I was very efficient in terms of getting the actors to follow my instructions. I believed that we managed the dancers and the musicians well as we were able to give them clear and specific instructions as to what we wanted them to do and this helped us to communicate our ideas effectively to them.

• However, I found it much more difficult to manage the actor playing the mad scientist as I felt as though h was not responding to my instructions very well and this made it hard to progress with what I wanted him to do. For example, I suggested that he should sing the lyrics out loud as this would make the lip syncing much easier, however he ignored this advice and continue to mouth the words making it very difficult to decipher what he is signing as his lip syncing abilities were not incredible.

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

• I really enjoyed seeing the entire thing come together on the day as this made me feel a lot more at ease. I particularly enjoyed getting really involved with the shoot and showing off my skills as a director as well as acquiring new skills in the form of the sound playback operator. I enjoyed directing the dancers and musicians as they responded well to my instructions and this helped as I had specific ideas in my head about how I wanted things to look on camera.

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

• I’m really looking forward to seeing Oriana’s tap section in the edit as this was the element that I felt most excited about after the shoot as she is an incredible dancer and the tricks that she produced on camera were fabulous and looked really cool and the lighting and set up really complimented the dancing and I think that this element could look very effective and capture an audiences attention very well.

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

• I feel like in some aspects we worked well together as a team, however in other areas we didn’t work well together. We worked well as a team in terms of the fact that we were all on the same page in terms of what we wanted to achieve from the shoot day in terms of how we wanted things to look, what shots we wanted to get, what order we wanted to do things in and generally we all had the same vision for the video which helped us to work as a team.

• However, I fell like we didn’t help each other out during the day and it felt as though I was reasonable for a lot of different things and at times the other members of my group were not pulling their weight for whatever reason. I feel like it would have been better if we had spilt the responsibility and the jobs up evenly and shared the workload on the shoot day as I feel like some members of the group were more involved than others and so there could definitely have been some improvements made to our team work skills.

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Are there any lessons that you learned from the shoot that could help make your next shoot more successful?

• Looking back, I think that we made a bad decision casting Evelyn in the video as this meant that she was needed in front of the camera for the majority of the day rather than operating the camera and this also meant that we lost an extra pair of hands to help throughout the day. If we were to go back and change things the first thing I would change would be to not cast Evelyn as it mean that she wasn't able to help out as much as we would have liked her to.

• However, on the other hand I know that she will repay the group by taking charge of the editing process and she will spend the most time editing our video as not only will this help her to feel settled with her contribution to the group but I also believe that she has the best editing skills out of all of the members of the production group due to the skills that she has acquired from being a part of the Hurtwood Film Academy.

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

• There may be some changes that we need to make to our website and album artwork in order to make them fit with the music video more effectively. For example, we may need to consider how we are going to show the transition from the 1920’s element to the futuristic element clearly within the website and artwork as well as how we are going to present the mad scientist's star image within the other products. I think it is going to be important for us to consider the colour scheme that we used in the video and incorporate this into the other products as well as make sure that there is a strong and clear link between the music video, website and album artwork in order to create a cohesive campaign.

Conclusion

• Overall, our music video was a success in terms of the fact that we filmed everything we wanted to film and it looked good although there were many things that could have been improved upon and could have worked out better.