RC - Shoot evaluation

Last night Casey, Josh and I completed our final shoot, which was situated in Hastings. Our aim was to film the last part of our music video, which would include shots of all four of the characters together enjoying a night out in town — primarily in the arcade. We wanted a series of footage that would contrast nicely to what we already had, in terms of lighting and setting/location. We then also had to complete the last sequence for our character profile shots, which would be of the bad boy.

In reference to our storyboard there were a number of shots that we wanted to achieve and quite a volume too, although are prime concern was to film filler shots. Therefore we decided that we would film the arcade section first being aware that these would take the longest. However, because we knew that the previous shoot we had been on was the one where our bulk of footage was filmed we weren't as daunted about filming this time.

We all took turns in filming and directing, however, because Casey and I were mainly part of the performance scenes Josh did a lot of the filming. This worked out quite nicely as the roles were reversed in our last shoot, being that Josh was performing for most of the shots.

Looking back at all the shoots we have been on I do feel that we have all contributed equal amounts to our music video in terms of performing, directing and filming, which I believe is the best way to go for creating a product of the best standard and diversity.

It was our focus when it came to filming in the arcade to record a range of footage that really captured the essence of a group of youths enjoying a night out. Despite thorough planning on our part for this shoot previous shoots proved that improvisation can also aid our success,

therefore as well as abiding by our storyboard we allowed ourselves to embrace any moments of filming inspiration; personally I think that this element to our filming really helped our video to cross over from being slightly contrived

to realistic. This genuine appeal to our shots allows audiences to relate to the storyline as well as the actors, and as a result makes our video more believable due to the authentic feel that is created. We found that although acting is a necessity in producing a music video, filming when the actors are not completely aware is also beneficial.

Here is a list of a selection of shots that we completed on our shoot:

• Over the shoulder shot of the bad boy aiding the good boy into the car boot (filmed and directed by me)
• MS of the bad boy stumbling out of a bush (filmed and directed by me)
• ECU of one of the arcade machines
• Moving, MS the good and bad boy on the dance machine (filmed and directed by me)
• MS/CU pan of the bad boy standing and drinking outside the pub (filmed and directed by me)
• Moving MLS of one of the arcades from inside the car
• Moving MS of the good and bad boy playing air hockey.

We knew that with a music video you need continuous movement and for that reason we ensured that we were constantly moving when filming and tried our hardest not to have any static shots. I took this into consideration when filming the bad boy outside the pub, where in one of the shots I began with a pan that started from the bad boy's feet and made his way to his lower body, this then developed into a 180 pan that reached his face, where I then zoomed in to a CU of his face. This type of movement aids the narrative as the camera work allows the audience to really connect to the character in shot, giving you insight into the type of person he is. From the beer that is held in his hand you can see that he is playing the role of a young lad, who is up for having a good time; possibly drinking to fit in with the crowd? However, his solidarity in this shot suggests otherwise, where it can be believed that he is a young man who is in trouble or faced with troubles to explain why he would be drinking alone. Whatever the case may be each of these interpretations fit the characterisation of the bad boy. His stance suggests confidence, where he is leaning against the pub wall, it seems that he is comfortable in the place that he is in; this implies that he goes to the pub often. His attire is casual and accentuates the nonchalant attitude that he exudes, further enforcing his bad boy persona.

The variety of readings that you can get from this shot only proves how important camera work is in building narrative, which is why we made this our top priority in our shoot.

Overall, I was happy with the filming that we did in Hastings, considering the effort, time and money it took to get there. Altogether we filmed for about 2 and a half hours, excluding travel time, and despite this lengthy amount of time we did manage to accumulate a wealth of footage of reasonably high quality. This differed from our previous shoots where if we filmed for long amounts of time it would result in the lower quality shots, this was an effect that we could not afford to do this time around. Our only concern, prior to filming, was the how much space we had left on our SD card, taking into account that there is only about 2 hours worth of storage space on the card.