Shoot Day

Our shoot day went very well. I drove up to the station in the morning and parked my car and was in Waterloo by 10am, our meeting time. Unfortunately a few people were late so we didn't start our shoot until 11am, however I used the hour I had spare to scout for any more locations on south bank. I managed to find some lovely spots such as a colourful art wall as well as a great spot by the river. We started the day at the top of South Bank where we shot the dance that Josh and Gracie had choreographed with help from myself and Ben's direction. We ended up building quite a crowd due to the talent of the dancers which gave the performers lots of energy but luckily the crowd did not effect and of the shots. Myself and Gabe (my friend who came to help us shoot) politely told people to walk behind the shot whilst Ben was shooting this part of the video.

Sorting out equipment before the shoot

After shooting this for about an hour we we walked down south bank to our second location which was a large brick wall, we managed to get some great shots with the slider we had on hand which also helped for stabilisation. Our good friend, Jacky, was also on hand to help the process and brought along his shoulder rig and Canon 5D which was fantastic help as the shots were exceptionally stable.

Providing the dancers with warm coats between takes

After this we stopped for a snack break as we were all getting hungry so we ate some food to refuel and we were on our way again. We were very lucky with the weather as it did not rain at all so we could get all the shots we wanted. Me and Gabe both brought along our bluetooth speakers so we were able to play the song out loud for the dancers so they could hear it above the busy London crowds so they could stay in time. This worked really well as the dancers could get into the dance due to the volume of the speaker.

Directing the dancers

As a whole the day went exceptionally well and we got some great footage in the limited time we had. We are now looking forward to filming the performance on our given shoot day of the 13th November.

Costume Update

This would create unwanted attention

We originally wanted the dancers wearing typical dancer gear, however, as we are no shooting on the streets of London these types of costumes, such as shirtless, are impractical as Josh would get very cold and it would cause a lot of unwanted attention from the public.

This would create unwanted attention and would be cold

FOR THE BAND

To fix this problem I messaged Josh and Gracie to let them know about the change of plan and to inform them on what I would like them to wear for the real shoot.

Looking for Locations to Shoot

Unfortunalty as I have work commitments today I was unable to go up to London and look for suitable loactions to shoot tomorrow, however I have taken the time to look for potential locations to shoot around the south bank area which is where we will spend most, if not all of our day. I have used google maps to take screenshots of appropriate places to film the dance.

A busy bridge right off south bank would look great by the river. 

South Bank itself with its beautiful surroundings and street performers.

If possible, inside the tate modern as they have an amazing open plan floor with fantastic natural lighting making it great to shoot and dance there. 

Hyde Park, although it is busy, if we are able to find a nice spot this will look lovely I am sure, as long as we have time. 

Preparing for our Sunday Shoot

After finding out that our actors could only shoot from 10-4 on Sunday, I decided to prepare some snacks to prevent a lunch break so we could work for as long as possible as we had little time. If we were to stop for lunch it would probably have taken over an hour which is over 1/6 of our available shooting time. The video above shows a few bits I had prepared.

Copyright Permission

I have sent an email to the copyright holders 4AD to ask for authority. Here is the attached email I have sent. In order to legally publish the song on YouTube we needed to ask for permission and as Daughter are signed to 4AD I emailed them. They also produced the song so I knew these would be the right people to ask.

Change of Plan

We phoned Josh and Gracie to find out if they are available on our given shoot day, however we were given the unfortunate news that they are unable to shoot on weekdays. Originally we were gutted as we thought we would have to change our idea however, Luke, came up with a plan to shoot some of it during half term with Ben's canon 7D, a great camera. We all thought it was a great idea and started jotting down places we could film which meant we could shoot in London along places such as the embankment and the tube which was not possible before. This has expanded our idea tremendously and also had the idea of shooting the whole video up in London while we were there. This would include using Gracie filming a performance as well as the narrative alongside the dance. We thought this because then the video is more likely to flow. However we are still likely to shoot in the studio as well with a different performance so we have two performances to choose from.

The huge advantage of shooting up in London is that, as long as myself, Ben, Josh and Gracie are free, we have a much more flexible shooting schedule so will probably be more flexible with timings. Unfortunately, Ksenia will be flying back to Russia during half term so will be unable to accompany us on the shoot. We will still go ahead with our original shoot day as well as this one and we will collaborate all our footage in the editing process. I believe we have done a great job of turning a big negative into a huge and exciting positive.

Props

Props we will get

I will get this

This is what it should look like

Josh our dancer will bring his skateboard along

These props are fairly easy to get as I have a shop nearby me so I volunteered to get the baby powder to give the drum a cool art effect which could metaphorically convey the fact that the relationship is breaking down and going up in smoke. Additionally Josh can bring his skateboard as he also skateboards. 

Props we want the school to get

These kind of props that we are requesting the school to get for us are things that we are unable to provide for ourselves and that the school is much more likely to have. Such as:

Low Tom Tom drums x2

Bass Drum Sticks

Retro Microphone

A shopping trolley

Multiple hanging lightbulbs for around the room

Designing the Studio

Ksenia has designed this drawing of what the studio may look like for our set for the performance. However, we have discussed this and there are a few changes. For example, the lightbulbs may be slightly lower at around the head height of our performer, either Romany or Gracie. Romany is 5"7 and Gracie is of a very similar height. This is to light up their face enough as that is likely to be the only light in the room. The light bulbs will likely be dim and not bright as this may take away from the beautiful effect and may be blinding to watch. The drum kit is unlikely to be there when the performance is taking place, however some shots may include it. Additionally the wallpaper in the background will be ripped so show the deteriorating relationship. Other than that, the set is kept very simple to match the song.

Polydor Records

Emily and Hanan work for Polydor Records as producers. They are video commissioners. Polydor Records is part of universal music. There is three people in each department. 

I learnt that the video commissioner over sees the whole music video process. When they get given a track, they have a budget set based on how many copies they expect to sell. They manage everyones expectations, a lot of the time the artist has a different opinion. The brief decides whether we want the artist in the video itself, if its a dance act, often no artist however of it is One Direction or Ellie Goulding, for example, then yes. 

Lots of directors now a days want to show narrative videos so it can help them get into film. They put together a brief in which they get the ideas from a director. They try not to send out briefs to more than 5-10 directors as don't want to waste peoples ideas trying. Dance tracks are effected as not much publicity

Treatment

This is best when it is summed up in the 1st paragraph to keep the readers attention and make it as easy as possible for the reader to understand. 

Years and Years- King

Shot in LA, they found some persons swimming pool to shoot. The pool was freezing to shoot in so they had to get this shot as quick as possible for the actors sake. 

International artist budget would be £100,000+ on average and UK only artist is about £30,000.

The video commissioners are always on set to make sure everything runs smoothly. They don't ever want to fall out with anyone and always want to leave people happy. Commissioners have to be there during a shoot day to make sure everything is going ok

In a studio, however, it is much more controlled with much more set up. 

If you get the right location its all pretty much set up for you however much more can go wrong such as weather and pedestrians. 

Research in Guildford

Over the weekend I went into Guildford to look at different locations that we could shoot the couple scenes. I found a lovely path on the high street where the couple could be seen laughing and smiling for one of the shots. I asked Ben and my friend Cassie to pretend to be the couple and took a couple of pictures to see what it may look like. The location is very beautiful and looks very clean and modern which is the kind of vibe we are thinking of going for in our music video. 

Auditioning Callum

I have sent an email to Callum asking him to come to our casting tomorrow to see how he looks on camera and what he can bring to the video. I have suggested a time, which hopefully he can make, and I will wait for a reply of confirmation. 

Casting

Lead Singer: 

We have decided to cast Romany Henry as our singer after auditioning her where she proved that she would match the song perfectly. She was confident in front of the camera and matched the star image we were looking for. She had great presence and took any direction we gave her exceptionally well. We knew the track needed to feature a face that would match the voice of the track, someone that looks individual and good looking. This is why we picked Romany as she matches the description perfectly.

Romany- the lead singer we have cast

Drummer:

Our drummer needs to look slightly individual and different to suit the track. We wanted Tom Saville for our video due to his long hair and cool dress sense however he is already taking part in many music videos so he is unable to take part in ours. Therefore we are going to audition Callum Henderson, who plays the drums, to see how he looks on camera. Although he doesn't quite fit the track, we are thinking about applying dirt/ make up to dirty his face. He is a fantastic drummer and I'm sure will do a great job on the video.

Callum- the drummer we are thinking about casting

Tom- the drummer we originally wanted to use

Boy Dancer/Actor:
We are lucky enough to know Josh Baker who was a contestant on Got To Dance and Britain's Got Talent who is an amazing dancer. Therefore it was a no-brainer to cast him as the lead dancer in the video. We asked him to perform some of his work for us and we watched many of his YouTube videos in which he proved he was perfect for the part. Below is just one of his many fantastic dance videos to give an insight of his capabilities. He is the dancer on the right. He has also attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School in which he was given acting training.

Girl Dancer/Actor
Gracie, also a dancer, is Josh's girlfriend who we have cast as the lead girl. She is also an amazing dancer and we have seen this through videos that Josh has produced. One of the main reasons for casting her is the fact that they will have great chemistry on camera due to the fact that they are in a long lasting relationship. We realise the risk of them breaking up before the shoot but I am in the process of casting back up dancers just in case they don't turn up, despite committing to the project.

Josh and Gracie

Test Shoot

Here is the test shoot that we shot at school. Unfortunately we were unable to get Josh and Gracie for the video as they were in London, however myself and Ksenia stepped in to fill as much of the acting role as possible. Additionally, we used a video from Josh's YouTube channel to inter cut with what we shot as we were unable to get him. We shot with Romany in the studio which went according to plan as we knew we wanted her to be our singer as she fits the image perfectly.

When watching the video back, I have noticed that the opening shot of the couple, and many other couple shots look like home videos which is not the look we want to go for. Therefore, when shooting the real film, I think we will open with a long shot to establish the couple and so an audience will know that this is a fictional piece. Additionally, an idea struck that the singer should maybe be Gracie as usually the lead in a music video narrative is also the singer, this also calls for less rehearsal time and organisation than using a different singer. Close ups can also be used to establish the couple, especially extreme close ups and the use of lighting which will exclaim clearly that it is not a home video.

Another problem with the video is the speed. Some of the shots don't flow as the song is very slow and beautiful, so the shots of the couple are as well as the singer. However, the shots of Josh dancing were much faster and didn't look right and didn't flow with the video as well as we had hoped. We are therefore going to ask Josh to slow down his dance, especially the beginning and maybe incorporate a bit of slow motion in post production however this is not finalised yet.

Finally, the couple sections got a little boring after a while as it was quite repetitive, therefore, we need to think of other interesting things couples could be doing other than just sitting around smiling which gets tedious.

Music Video Treatment

We created a treatment so we would all understand the basics of our video and what we will pointing the camera at.


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Test Shoot

Yesterday we filmed our test shoot to get an idea of how our video may look if we were to shoot it with our current ideas. The shoot went well as a whole as we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted the performance to look like. We arranged with Mark, who runs the schedule of the studio, a sensible and appropriate time that we were able to film in there. The reason we shot a test shoot is so that if anything didn't look interesting or if something got boring then we will be able to fix it for the real shoot. We arranged with Romany for a perfect time that both us, her and the studio was free and we got to work. 

I think that the lighting and simplicity of the performance went well as it matched the song perfectly. The single light also added a great effect however we are likely to change this to hanging light bulbs around the singer because we feel this will create more of an atmosphere and emphasis the simplicity of it. 

We started the shoot by using an iPhone as thats all we could get our hands on. We had booked the studio to use as a space and got our lead singer, Romany, to try singing for us. She looked great on camera and the simple lighting effect really worked well. We were unable to get Josh and Gracie in unfortunately as it wasn't a convenient time for them and was too far for them to travel, therefore myself and Ksenia stepped in. In addition, our drummer was unable to turn up as he had to cancel at the last minute so Ben stepped in to play as he plays the drums. Unfortunately there wasn't a drum kit in the studio, which was poor planning by us, as we presumed there would be so we improvised with a table hoping that would work. However, in the real video we will make sure that we have a drum kit and our drummer is able to make the shoot. 

I sent an email to Romany thanking her for all her hard work, however she did not know the words well on the day as we didn't send her the words so I have attached them in this email so she can know them for the real shoot. 

Possible Locations and Ideas for Shots of the Couple

Here is a plan/notes I have constructed about possible locations and what some of the shots may look like, however many of them much darker. 

Location for Dancers- the boy is dancing around whilst  the girl is trying to constantly get his attention but he is in his own little world.

1st idea- Studio

Completely black studio, smoke and white lighting. Completely white clothing. This will create a contrast between the black and white colouring showing how their relationship has traveled from good to gradually getting worse. this will look beautiful and elegant. 

2nd idea- studio

Set built in the studio. A dirty, living room/bedroom with dark furniture and walls, maybe slightly dark red and maroon colours. low lighting with cluttered furniture. 

3rd- huge warehouse

long shot showing the distance of their video. slowly pans out during dance. Huge lights, little bit of red. Empty warehouse. Yellows and pillars.  similar to this however slightly darker lighting. 

Guildford- possible locations for couple

Cinema 

  

Park Bench

High Street

Train Station 

Meal at a restaurant 

Driving in a car

Fun fair   

Netflix and chill (pot noodle) 

Rain?

Smoking?

Sports?