Francesca Summers: November 2013

The day before our shoot, our group met for a few hours before the end of the day to start setting up the first set for the next day. This involved making the cardboard props, such as the guitars, toaster, scrabble board and lamps. The set walls were also set up with a divider separating the separate the bathroom and bedroom. The day before I brought in all the props which I was allocated to bring in, such as the side tables, lamps, the polka dot duvet, the alarm clocks and the picture frames and canvas’s, as well as the large amounts of cardboard boxes which we needed for the drum kits.

Before shooting the video, we has to dress the sets, this included painting some of the walls and putting the furniture in place. We also had to set up the dolly tracker and the extra lighting we needed especially in the bathroom.

Our set looking like a stereotypical dolls house, with similar furniture. Above the bed there was a canvas painting of a beach which looked like paradise, which contrasts and fits without theme that everything is perfect, when on the outside everything is not perfect. The studio had a professional look to it with the sets being lifted on tilts which abled us to transition down a floor into the living room or basement. I feel we managed well to create the perfect dolls house image, with every detail filled, for example having a wallpaper head board and a polka dot duvet.

During the day, all the group had the chance to shoot. I began the day by providing the majority of the props. Throughout the day I shot all of the tracking shots which consisted of the transition shots from one from to the other, such as the transition from the bedroom to the bathroom for both the boy and the girl, using the dolly and track. Whilst filming the band performance, in some sections we decided to have the strobe. In some cases I operated the strobe light, doing this you increased the strobe beat and decreased the light, making the room darker, but with the flashing strobe light. Furthermore, I also shot and filmed many of the close up shots of the band, such as the shots of the drummer, guitar and other shots such as the guitar player’s tapping feet to the rhythm, which was effective. The facial shots of the band members were also shot by me as well as the mid shot of the band in the basement, when both normal and with the cardboard instruments. I feel that I was successful in choosing the effective shots and when shooting the transition shots.

On the shoot day we realised how time consuming out concept was, this was mainly because we had to change the sets and furniture. We were very pushed for time, however I feel we captured many great quality shots which can be used in our music video. In order to meet the time deadline we had to eliminate some of the kitchen shots and to change our ending idea. However, the ending shots, I feel are more effective and portray the message of the doll’s house stronger and clearer. We also had to remove the shots including the TV in order to finish the entire shoot. When decorating the bedroom set we realised that we didn’t have enough flowery wallpaper to cover all of the walls, which we then changed into a bed head board, which worked and looked good. The day before the shoot we realised that a kitchen for the kitchen set hadn’t been provided. So we had organised to come back to my house to film the kitchen sets. However, on the day of the shoot, a cooking hob had been provided as well as a kitchen sink and fridge, therefore allowing us to film in the set. Because of this sudden change we decided to shoot the band performance before the kitchen and living room scene, just in case, so that we could have a band performance band when editing and shoot the scenes at a later date.

Personally I think that the transition shots from the different floors where the most successful, these were filmed by using a crane. In order to make sure we included the main shots we needed we should have made a list of shots which we needed and this would have helped us be more organised as well I Feel that we managed our actor and actress well as well as the band members, by explaining clearly to them what they needed to do and organising there costume and make up for them.

In the edit I am looking forward to seeing the quick cuts of the shots of the normal band and the cardboard band cut next to the shots of the band with the strobe light. Our teamwork though out the shoot day was good, with each of us dividing of do to different things which needed to be done.