Music Promo - Evaluation of shoot day

The day before our shoot, we ran into a few unexpected problems. First of all, we had one of our two dancers come down ill, and therefore she was unable to participate in our video the next day. We managed to find a replacement but our problem was she didn’t know the dance that we had previously choreographed so my group held a last minute rehearsal where we tried to teach her the dance. Having simplified the dance to make it easier we then had to focus on setting up. More bad luck meant our second dancer then became ill later that day, so we had lost both our original dancers. We were unable to hold another rehearsal as by this time it was too late in the day, we then found another back up and had to organise for them to rehears last minute the morning of the shoot. On top of organising the dancers, we went to the studio the afternoon before and began to set up for our first element which was our biggest and most complicated set up the ‘Wheel’. There was last minute painting to be done as well as moving general lighting and props that were in the way. We then ran I lighting test and tried out different colours experimenting what would work best, despite having the pink and blue colour scheme in our head we had to make some alterations as some lighting looked better than others. Once we had set up as much as we possibly could before we shot, we began to go back to our dancers and try on costumes hoping everything would fit their different body shapes to our original dancers who we’d brought costumes for.

Waking up the morning of our shoot day, was extremely stressful I believe my whole group agreed we felt like all our plans and organising was falling through at the last minute. However, once I got to the studio I started to relax into it. My first job that day was to track down our two dancer and artists, and find the make-up artist who we had never met although talked to over email. Once we got our artist on to make-up, one of the group members went down to the studio to begin setting the camera up, whilst I stayed with the dancers to start running through the dance in an attempt for them to learn it as well as possible before shooting. Luckily our first set was all ready to go, all we had to do was turn on the lighting and get our artist in and out of make-up and costume as quickly as possible.

When we started shooting at about 9.30 we felt we were on schedule as we took into consideration the time it takes for make-up. I personally loved the look of our wheel, it was a stressful process trying to create it and get the idea on our head out to the set designers and all achieve the same look. So I was so pleased as it looked great and the lighting showed the silhouettes of the girls perfectly they looked crisp and clean.

 As I have previously talked about we split up the roles on our shoot day to give a clear outline of who was going to do what. I was in charge of sounds playback and lighting as well as being the general Art Director. My main job on the day was to focus on the set, costumes, props, make-up and continuity of the shots. Whilst Amr and Ella were cameraperson and director/producer. We felt we spilt our roles up to what suits us best. I believe the jobs we divided between each other, fit our strengths the best. Throughout the takes I had to hold the playback device in front of the camera and the artists/dancer at that time, this was crucial so in editing we know which shot is what. On top of that I needed to be a good art director, throughout the day I had to keep the costumes organised, so we could minimise time in the changing room and maximise time shooting. In terms of make-up I spoke to the make-up artist on a regular basis, keeping her up to date with what was going on, on set so we could prepare for the next make-up look. I staggered the three girl’s make-up in order of who we needed the most and when, so I had her make up our main artist first then focus on the dancers second so we could shoot all the lip-sync section first as that is the most important, in terms of footage we need. I thought, I balanced being on set for the play-back and pointing out potential continuity problems as well as sorting costumes and going to get props last minute in the best way possible.

On shoot day, I did run into a few problems for example I was in charge of collecting a main prop of ours the traditional looking chair. The chair actually belongs to the headmaster of our school so therefore we only had a short time to use it. I ended up wasting valuable time because I had to wait for the chair to be ready, as it was in use when I was hoping to collect it. This wasn’t a major problem as luckily the set change we were doing at the time took longer than expected so on set they were not waiting. However, I could have easily avoided the situation by planning ahead and asking what time exactly I could collect the chair. Another problem that caused two major disruptions was our singers make-up, her false eye-lashes kept falling off, therefore we had to stop and get them redone. The problem I faced was that I didn’t realise one was peeling off, so now looking through my editing footage there is a few continuity problems as one shot the eye-lash is fine and the next it looks different. To solve this I am going to have to have to ignore the shots with the eye-lash peeling off, hopefully we have enough footage that this won’t be too much of a problem but it defiantly could have been avoided. My last key disruption was sorting out the dancers, getting them to learn the dance as quickly as possible the morning of the shoot. I would say this was pretty unlucky on my groups behalf as we felt we had planned ahead as best we could, the only thing that might have saved us was teaching the dance to multiple dancers in detail so we wouldn’t have this last minute panic where both our original dancers pulled out.

 I believe the most successful part of our shoot was our first element the “wheel”. I think the footage we were getting looked great, and the artist and the dancers all made the most of this particular set up, moving around it striking different poses. I also think as a production team we were at our most productive in the morning, during our first couple of hours. Everyone was extremely focused on their task and we were communicating well with each other, and I think it was a really crucial and important few hours that we made the most of.

 I realise that our shoot could have gone better after lunch, we had a pretty slow turn around between our sets in the afternoon. This was partly due to it being after lunch, and we were all starting to tire from a very full on morning. However, I think I could have had our dancers ready for the screen element and in sync earlier than I did. As a group we seem to lack a bit of focus compared with the morning. I felt we wasted a bit of time and this had a knock on effect throughout the afternoon as we were then behind schedule and rushed for time, meaning we had to compromise on some of the shots we were hoping to achieve and scrap them, so we could complete our whole shoot in that one day.

 I think I managed our talent very well. I made sure they knew what was going on, throughout the day they were also aware when they were needed and given a bit of warning to get ready. The main thing I did to make sure they were happy was constantly check on them, I personally find the idea of performing in front of a group of people very daunting and so I made sure they were comfortable and always knew what to do. This was important as I think everyone felt they could relax into it and not feel pressure, particularly our main girl who had to lip-sync/dance/ strike poses all as the same time. When they weren’t needed I made sure they knew how long they had off, to go and take a break and re-hydrate so they didn’t stress about not being back on set in time. Overall I think our 4 actors all got on with each other which was really important as they spent so many hours together so it was good they too appeared to enjoy themselves.

 The part of the shoot I enjoyed the most was first thing in the morning, when we shot our wheel element, I personally felt that I was happy and excited watching our wheel, finally come together. After all the planning, meetings and organisation it took to create it. I was so relieved when it was finished and how great it looked especially once lit with our artist inside.

 I am really looking forward to seeing the rapper in his chair, during editing. For me this was a bit different to our other elements and it stands out because of its unique look, with the fur hanging of the chair, and our male wearing gold chains and baggy jeans. I love the rap part of the song, and so cannot wait to put it all together as our opening shot in the final music video we create.

In terms of my production group working as a team I think we did a superb job. For me communication is key, and I believe throughout the day we made sure to stick to our roles whilst helping each other in places if need be. We tackled any problems together and were able to make quick decisions for example cutting half the screen element when we were supposed to have it lit from the front as well as back. As a group we knew we were short of time and we had enough footage of the screens back lit that we could manage without it being front lit. Overall I was pleased with how we worked together. As the famous American industrialised Henry Ford said “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together…Is success.” I believe we have worked as a team from the very first meeting we had in our group to now, and I believe we will be able to carry it on right the way through to editing creating our website and album artwork.

 The main thing I will take away from today, is learning to manage time better for my next shoot. I believe my group did a pretty good job, however we ultimately had to rush some parts, that I believe we could have prevented from simply being more organised. In terms of having our actors ready to go with hair and make-up quicker little things like this would give more time on set. However, I think considering it was my first shoot I am happy with how it went.

 I don’t think there are any major changes we need to make for our album artwork or website design so they fit into the genre conventions of our R&B music video. Although I want to think a bit more outside of the box, when developing my album artwork so it is not simply our artist posing although this will reach out to our target audience which is hugely important, I believe we can add something unexpected/extra to make our album and website stand out even more. This may even help to widen our target audience to more people.