RC - Shoot evaluation

Yesterday evening Casey, Josh and I continued filming for our music video after our first shoot in the half term. It was our aim to carry out the majority of the shots that we had storyboarded, including shots that we wished to re-do from the last time, this resulted in thirty-six shots needing to be recorded; with this aim in mind we knew we had a lot to do.

We had arranged to meet at Casey' house (the good girl's location) at 5pm for our first round of shooting; we decided that it would be easier to convene with the shots that we wanted to re-shoot first, these consisted of the character profile shots of the good girl getting ready to go out, so to be compiled into our opening montage sequence.

After editing the footage we had filmed over the half term we knew what shots needed to be improved and the shots that needed to be expanded on; we followed our storyboard religiously and also referred to our call sheet as a way of aiding us. This ensured that we completed all the necessary shots and also made us aware of how many filler shots were needed as well, in order to avoid a lack of footage.

With the re-filming of the good girl sequence the shots that we amended and added included:

• MS of good girl looking in the long mirror with the lead singer singing in first person mode of address in the corner of the shot
• as above ^ but from a different angle
• ECU of good girl putting on lip stick
• ECU of good girl picking up keys
  

We knew that with these shots we had to pay close attention to the mise-en-scene because we found with the previous shots that these aspects did not work particularly well due to the lighting being too dull and the surrounding props in the bedroom (i.e., the poster behind the mirror) making the shots look too cluttered, resulting in a distracting effect.

Here you can see the old shot compared to the new shot; although it is not completely clear the mise-en-scene in the right image has been made to be minimalistic (only including the props we felt were essential to the shot) as well as the lighting being slightly brighter; altogether this combines to make an image that is more aesthetically pleasing.

Obviously I could not film this part of the sequence as I was performing, which goes for Josh as well in a lot of these shots, this meant that this sequence was mainly filmed by Casey.

On top of this we decided that we would also film the character profile shots of the bad girl getting ready but in a different room from the good girl. These shots included:

• ECU of bad girl putting mascara on
• CU of bad girl putting on shoe

Both Josh and I filmed this sequence due to Casey performing, we all took part in the direction.

Using CUs and ECUs are very common in music videos, so we felt that the use of these types of shots were essential in producing an effective video. We came to the conclusion that by using CUs and ECUs we would also avoid the risk of any distracting mise-en-scene, especially when filming the house shots, as with this sort of location it does tend to have an amateur appeal to it.

In the same location we then moved onto filming the good boy sequence, these shots were situated in the study, as we felt that this room would be perfect in aiding this character's profile, where we purposely placed the good boy in front of a book self so to underline his intellect.

These shots included:

• CU of good boy doing up his tie
• ECU, low angle shot of good boy sorting out his parting
• CU of good boy putting his musical instrument into its case
  
  

It was then our aim to use Casey's corridor to carry out the 'backward shot' sequence of the lead singer (Josh) putting on his coat, so that it had the effect of the coat flying onto him. We felt that by carrying out this particular shot we would be challenging ourselves when it came to editing, something that we felt was needed to be done at A2 level. Due to Josh performing in these scenes both Casey and I filmed this part, with all of us directing.

After completing the shots in Casey's house we finally made our way outside so that we could film more of the lead singer, particularly the shots of him making his way to each location. I would say that we found these shots quite difficult because of the lack of lighting, even when using the light on the camera. However, whilst filming this part we found a church in Tonbridge, where the lights in the church car park provided a silhouette effect, which we felt looked compelling aesthetically. The presence of our actor during these scenes was very useful because he provided an extra set of eyes; helping us to play around with more ideas. We have to be careful not to become too closed in in this project, as it is easy to get too engrossed and to forget that other peoples feedback and opinions are essential in the creation of our video.

After this we drove to our next location, which was our school in Tunbridge Wells, it was here that we had planned to shoot the good boy sequence, with the intention of presenting him as an intellect and a 'do-gooder'; making sure to follow the stereotype of a good boy.

Some of the shots that we had planned to record at this location included:

• ECU of good boy looking at his watch
• CU, pan-up of good boy waiting
• MLS of the car with the good girl, bad girl and lead singer inside, pulling up to pick up the good boy
• MLS of car pulling away

We all took turns in filming this section, as well as using a tripod for the shots that we were all in. These particular shots proved rather difficult in comparison to the previous ones, due to the inclusion of the car; trying to position the car in each shot correctly proved difficult when everyone was in the shot. This could suggest that if we were to film this part again we might need to consider having an extra person on site, other than us or the actor(s), in order to provide another set of eyes.

Overall, I do think that this shoot went well, considering how long we were filming for and the wealth of footage that we did manage to capture. Although some areas did prove problematic, we found ways (in most cases) to creatively overcome them, even coming up with potential shots on the spot. I think that this element of improvise has been developed from the number of reccies that we went on before carrying out the real shoots. As a group I do feel that we worked collaboratively, taking it in turns to film, direct and perform; it was obviously harder for Josh to film since he was performing in most of the shots, despite this, when he did film he did do a good job. I have a feeling that lighting may manifest to be a problem, as we were filming very late at night and even though there were lights I do not think they provided enough visibility. However, I don't think we can fully know how our footage is going to turn out like until we get to the editing stages...