account of shoot day

When placing the band on set we had to make sure that the mirrors weren’t covering them and that the light bulbs were correctly in place. As I predicted from set-up day, the single sided mirrors posed an issue since they spin and expose a non-reflective surface. We overcame this challenge in close-up shots by having someone stand below holding the mirror in place. I did this on a few occasions. The broken mirrors gave a great end result in achieving the narrative of the song within the broken relationship between the couple and as well as showing different angles of the band members simultaneously.

We instructed the band to wear their ever-day clothes in order to create a better link to the young fashion and also giving them a sense of normalcy.

I mentioned at the start of the project that I wanted to have a ‘light leek’ effect in the music video, where the lights would blur. The group agreed with this, which is why it is a key element in the CD digipak that I designed. On shoot day we each tried to get this ‘push-pull’ effect with the focus on the camera. This was one of our significant shots because the reason for the ‘push-pull’ effect was to show the inconstant relationship between the dancers and the narrative. The idea is to put these shots in the introduction and the ending.

When I was working on the sound by playing back the song, I became familiar with the lighting as well. I was considering using the Fresnel because it gave an indifferent colour to set. However, we designed the set with specific lighting and adding extra light sources would detract away from the strobe lights and light bulbs.

After shooting the band we filmed the dancers, Sophie and James. We allowed the dancers to get familiar with their working area and did a few test shots to see where the dancer would be at every jump, fall and turn.

I filmed for some of this section, in different angles to where the dancers would meet. We also decided to use a high angle shot by using the genie-lift. We wanted to give the effect that we (as an audience) are looking onto the story and judging it. The dancers had two costumes each for the day; casual wear and black dace gear. By doing this we are establish two sides to the characters.

We kept some mirrors and light bulbs in the background in order to create a direct link to the band.

I feel as though our production ran smoothly. The band members achieved the intensity we wanted in every take, along with the dancers putting a lot of effort into showing a passionate, aggressive and changing relationship.  I am glad with how neat the process was and how we did not come across any major issues.