There is an extreme amount of planning and preparation that goes into a shoot day. This is because of many reasons such as the expense of keeping a film crew on location with all the equipment required to shoot a pop video. This is why we created our call sheet, to let everyone in the cast and crew know what will be happening throughout the day. However, there were some instances where we had to make elements of it up on the spot because of how late we decided the treatment for our pop video.
We shot our pop video on the new Sony NX5 HD video camera. This meant the media recorded would be to quite a high quality and it would be on card format making it quicker and easier to transfer to the computer for editing. This camera is very easy to use and we just used the internal microphone as we were not recording sound so felt no need to attach an auxiliary microphone on a boom pole.
When organising what would happen when throughout the day we paid close attention to the shooting script to try and get as many similar shots done as possible, this would also help to eliminate continuity errors. Continuity errors could occur if we decided the make up should be changed or if any of the band decided to change their hairstyles.
In the shooting of our video we had to think in detail about the lighting and how we would need to light the band in order to create some shadow but not too much otherwise their features would blacked out. We also did not want any of the lights we used to be shown in the video and as the camera would be orbiting we had to use lighting from above. This worked very well as it created a seamless lighting environment and we did not have any camera stands or leads in the frame. The lights we used were spotlights above each member of the band. These we mini-blonde lights and brought out just enough detail and created enough shadow the make it look effective but not enough to black out any features of the band members faces. This meant we did not use any 400W Redheads or 2000W Blondes.
During filming we all tried to vary our roles quite a lot so we all felt as though we were integral to the crew, because we have a group of 4 we did often have times when we had too many crew to do the jobs. There were 3 main jobs, which were essential to the filming, as well as one other that was less important. The main 3 were cameraman, director and playback. The fourth job, which we created, was looking after the band and ensuring they had all the necessary props and costumes. This also meant getting them drinks whenever necessary and taking them to lunch. Another job that we created was photographer; this is because for the digipak we would need several images and felt this would be a very good opportunity to capture these as it would be difficult to photograph The Toy Hearts again given that they live in Birmingham. Due to the nature of our set, often only 2 people would be able to be inside the set at any one time.
We had 4 main sets in our pop video. We wanted to use as many different sets as possible to supply some variation as a full length pop video of the same set could become slightly tiresome unless some really special camera work supplements it. We had already decided our 3 sets, however at the end of the day we then added one more set to our line up. This is because we felt that another element could add another dimension to the video and widen our target audience. The first set we used was a plain black curtain; there were many reasons for this very plan approach. The first and most predominant reason was that we were going to do close ups against this background and wanted the audience to focus as much as possible on the performance. We thought a plain background would ensure the audience would not be distracted. The second background was just a jukebox and 3 or 4 bar stools. This was to add some sort of narrative element to the video as it showed the type of environment they might perform in. The second set we used was a bar environment with 2 bar tenders and drinks being served, this helped to add a contrast between the very plain black curtain and the more busy bar. The fourth and final set was a “gig” layout. We put the band up on a raised platform and set up some cinema seats in front of the platform. We chose this on the day to try and widen the target audience as the band may now appeal to a younger generation.
We encountered many problems throughout the planning and making of our pop video. They started very early on when we first decided to use The Toy Hearts as they were initially very unresponsive and were very slow in email correspondences. We found out after we had discussed commitment issues that this was because they were touring in USA at the time and were struggling to find Internet access in remote locations. This made us very weary early on as we were unsure of their reliability and did not want to do planning for the video if we could not use the real band. This is because we wanted to create an original video using some form of alternative music and wanted to use an organically created band as we felt they would look more natural on screen. We also decided we wanted to use The Toy Hearts because they moved away from the typical “indie” music that is expected from people from our age group and wanted to break convention and make something which looked and felt more professional to the untrained eye.
The second problem we encountered was the possible treatment for the video. We were all very lost as to what treatment to give the video, as we knew we wanted to use the real band but couldn’t think of an appropriate treatment that was realistic and accessible. As a group we had lots of ideas, however not many of them were very safe or reasonable. We knew we wanted to create a very simple video which moved away from special effects, CGI and green screens, we also knew 3 sets we wanted to use but we didn’t know how we wanted to shoot it. However, we did come up with an idea but not until 3 days before shooting. This meant the storyboard we had created didn’t apply and a lot of the work on the day was improvisational, this did provide us with a lot of flexibility, which was nice. But it did also mean the shoot day was very stressful as we had to make a lot of it up on the spot.
The third problem we faced was a possible location for the video. Initially we had planned to shoot in a big country house near Winchester. However, that fell through due to wildlife living there and us not being allowed to disturb them. This posed us with a big problem as we only found out we couldn’t use the location a week before our shoot and we would now have to completely re think a location. After looking on the Internet and getting lots of prices for location we eventually just chose to shoot in our school’s TV studio. We decided this would be an appropriate location providing it was decorated accordingly. So we had a meeting with the set designer and came up with some appropriate sets that we could shoot in. Thus we chose our 3 sets as our group thought they appropriately fitted the band’s image and the type of environment we believed would represent them in a positively.
The fourth and final problem we encountered was the storyboarding aspect of the planning. We did not have a solid, concrete idea until very late on the in the planning process so we did not know what to storyboard for. This meant we had to storyboard for the treatment we had at the time and if it changed we would just have to improvise when it came to the shoot day. I did like this freedom to improvise on the shoot day as it provided us with some leniency and flexibility to do what we wanted. However, it would’ve been nice to know exactly what we were going to do, as it would mean we could’ve planned the shoot day better.
The one shot that I really feel worked well was the “gig” set. I feel it looked really effective. We constructed the set and then went on with our orbiting camera technique, the camera tracked into the set of the raised platform and the 8 cinema seats. I felt this seemed very interesting as the camera tracked into the scene, thus creating a point of view as if the audience is only fleetingly looking into the scene.
I feel the shoot day all in all went very well. There were some very unexpected events and some, which we had planned and accounted for. I feel we got on really well with the band and they were very willing to take instruction, they also looked really good behind the camera. They also made a real effort to look good for the video and they brought their own make-up artist, which made our jobs easier as we could concentrate solely on the shooting of the video. The band also did a gig in the dining room towards the end of the day to try and sell some of their albums and raise awareness of the band and it’s image, this went down really well and they sold several albums. This may also help the views for our video as more people within the school will know what type of music they play and what great musicians they are. I think the shot day went very well considering the late change of treatment. However, it may have been nice to know exactly what we were doing from an earlier stage so we could’ve planned better for the day. That way we may have not over ran on the day and would’ve finished within the allotted time. If it were up to me I also would’ve filmed our video earlier on so we had a longer amount of time to edit it, as it is fairly post production intensive.
