Construction post 1: Photoshoots

During this week, we assigned ourselves the task of getting our promo shots done. We came up with a schedule based upon when we could book the studio and when we were all available. In the end we decided to use the 7am-12pm slot on Tuesday, the 9am-11am slot on Wednesday and the 4pm to 8pm slot on Thursday as a back up.

Preparations for the shoot
We had to organize a number of things before we could take our photos such as:

• Book in someone to take our group photos
• Bring in all our outfits and make-up
• Do our hair and make-up

The hair and male-up process in particular took longer than we had anticipated!

Gift doing my hair for the fancy outfit shoot

Denim Outfit Shoot 

This shoot appeared to go well on the day as we took many shots in a variety of poses. Furthermore, when we looked back at the photos on the camera in between positions, we liked what we saw. However, after scrutinising them once they had been uploaded to the computer, we did not think enough of them were of the quality required as many were either blurry or were taken when at least one of us was not ready. Therefore, we agreed to reschedule this shoot for our back up day- Thursday. Initially, I was concerned about this because my hair would be out (in preparation for getting it done for the video shoot itself) but looking back I think that my natural hair (which can be seen below) actually enhanced my look.

We retook these shots in order to give a wider variety of 'perfect shots'

We were very pleased with our outcome the second time round as we had a bigger variety of good photos, which meant we could use them for the website as well as the album cover. I also noticed that our facial expressions look more professional this time round.

Classy Outfit

Our organisation for this shoot was not great. I had brought in my outfit which was originally a dress jumper, boots and leggings and Gift had brought in hers. However, Angela and Thakshana had asked to borrow smart dresses from a friend so Gift and I ended up looking too casual due to this. Additionally, the shoot was rushed and so we had limited time to get different positions and a decent variety. As you can see from the photo above, our positioning does not work, and this was the main position for most of the photos we took. Therefore, we also decided to reschedule this shoot for Thursday and Gift where I would bring in dresses to wear instead.

Our classy, black outfits

We were much happier with this outcome as we all looked smart, and our positioning was much better and looked more professional. I also really liked how Gift made use of my natural hair to give me a high bun. We felt like we could definitely use these photos on our social media pages or for our album cover.

Individual Outfit

Despite the fact that I could not choose between my outfits and so had to change in between taking photos, I was pleased with the outcome. I feel like I have the red sweater outfit to represent my sporty personality and the green shirt to represent my bubbly, vibrant personality. Also, the different outfits likens my photo shoot to the professional ones as many artists would wear different outfits for one photo shoot. 

Some of my individual promo shots

R+P Post 33: Reflections on my role and contribution during Research and Planning

As well as working as team, sometimes we carried out tasks independently in order to get things done quicker. Some things I did independently during research and planning are listed below:

Backdrops research

I looked on studio websites and YouTube to get ideas for our video

Co-operating with staff

I sent an email to my media teacher and the caretaker to inform them
about what was going on and to request permission

Researching props

I was attracted to the idea of using lasers and so looked for cheap
ones on Amazon. Luckily we didn't need to buy them in the end

Call sheet

This was a very simple list of times for who to be where at what time

Some things we all contributed to:

Filming/Directing

I filmed and directed most of Angela's solo shots in the rough edit as we had the same frees

Shoot-board 

This was a big job that involved us all - we needed to discuss things first
and to write in a description of how we each wanted our parts to be filmed

Reflections

I think I have worked well on my own and as part of my group throughout research and planning. Despite having a late start regarding our final idea for the music video, we have done a remarkable job to get back on track in terms of timing and doing all the planning in less time. I think our Whatsapp group as been a good platform for communication as we have not only shared photos/videos which act as visual evidence of our work so far but we also use it for reminders about plans for the next day or to ask each other questions. 

I think the biggest area that needs improving for the construction stage is organisation for the shoot. We need to be able to follow a schedule and direct our actors. Apart from this, I think our planning has been very in depth and useful. If we carrying working well as a team and keep focused, I am sure that our project will go well during the next stages. 

R&P Post 32: Test shoot and rough edit

Our test shoot schedule - our slots are in yellow

Myself and Will (my actor) on set 

A take of my solo

Us posing with our male actors - red flood lighting 

Our Test Edit

What we learnt from our test shoot and rough edit:

• It is important to be organised and follow a clear schedule. Occasionally we would make things up as we go along and not follow the shoot-board we had created. A coherent and concise layout of our planned shots and times would be better to have on set so we can ensure we are getting the shots we need. We should allocate time to put a good shoot-board together.  
• We must not waste time. In hindsight, we were probably not as productive as we could have been sometimes e.g. we would wait around for everyone to finish make up. Next time, if there is a similar situation, whoever is not doing anything should find something to do, whether it is sorting out the lighting for the following shoot or setting up the camera.
• We need to start deciding on/making our different backdrops. After watching the studio rushes from the test shoot and the rough edit, it was not hard to see that the majority of scenes had a white backdrop, making the video look slightly dull and less professional. Although we are planning on having a variety of backdrops for the real shoot, we did not have them ready for the test shoot. This was a reminder that we need to start making our backdrops and planning how we want our set to look for the real thing.
• We must communicate with our actors. The feedback from actors on set was that sometimes thy were not sure what they had to do. We need to give them clear instructions and better direction to avoid this next time.
• Punctuality. There was an instance where an actor was late and unfortunately it set back the shooting times a bit. For the real shoot we need to make sure as a group that we are always on time so that others are not waiting around and so it doesn't affect any production plans.
• We should work on our performance. Due to only having created the routine the previous week, our choreography was not perfect, and this is the same for our individual performances. Between now and the real shoot, we must work on synchronizing our choreography and individually work on our facial expressions.
• We need clear concepts for all our scenes. The rough edit showed that our dinner table scene was not up to scratch. We need to work out how to make this scene look better and more realistic and also what camera angles to use. 

R&P Post 31: My Call Sheet

A section from our Monday call sheet

A section from our Tuesday call sheet

Key features:

Crew call: This is the time we are all supposed to get there so we can start getting ready before the shoot
Make-up: This was so we had enough time to do our make-up before filming
On set time: This was the time by which all our preparation for the shoot had to be finished by
Break/Lunch: This was our allocated time for resting/getting fresh air/eating lunch
Tech call: This was so that we could get the equipment and set ready for our shoot
Finish filming.tidy up: We needed to leave time so that we could tidy up and then finally go home

The call sheet is important as it ensures that only the people that need to be there are called so that others are not waiting around. This was useful when we needed to use our male actors as it meant there was never a time when they were waiting around doing nothing. Overall, the call sheet was very helpful for our organisation.

R&P Post 30: My Shoot-board

A section of our shoot-board from our test shoot 

Why the shoot-board was useful:

• It told us what camera angles we needed for the shots which helped the camera operator
• It had planned shooting times that we needed to aim for, making the shoot more efficient 
• It acted essentially as a diary for the group as our school timetable and lessons were factored into it i.e. it would say 'Monica and Angela leave for lessons' 
• It had a description of the set up, allowing whoever is free to get the set and any equipment required ready
• It allowed Emma, our technician to know what we were doing and when which was useful for her 

R+P Post 29: Rehearsals

Rehearsal Schedule

We thought our rehearsal week should prioritise creating and learning a dance routine to the chorus and sorting out our various lighting set ups. The dance routine is extremely important to our music video, as it allows us to follow girl band conventions and give us a professional image.

Angela and I in the Seaward studio for a dance rehearsal

Gift and Thakshana performing our dance routine for the camera in a rehearsal session 

My group testing out the lighting

We would often watch the above video to warm up before we started rehearsing and also to inspire some of our dance moves. 

This choreography video was one of my favourites and had some good moves that we could use if we slowed them down and simplified them

We wanted our video to incorporate street/hip-hop dance moved to correspond to our street image. It makes our band more interesting as it means we can dance as well as sing. This is important for a girl band and it is a common convention, for example, below is a GIF from 'Don't Cha' by The Pussycat Dolls:

The schedule was very helpful as it allowed us to be organised throughout the week and know exactly how much time we could allocate for learning the routine/setting up our lighting. Organising a rehearsal week in general was beneficial to the pre-production stages of our task. It meant we could create dance moves to be incorporated into our video, test out our ideas regarding lighting and see if they worked or not and to see if everything we had come up with so far (performance, lighting) looked good together.

R&P Post 28: My Kit List

 

The camera that we used to film our music video was a Canon 5D Mark II. The quality of footage was incredible and it was not too heavy. I really enjoyed using this. We were able to easily attach it to a tripod for static shots or transfer it to the dolly for freer movement. As it was not too heavy, we could also hold it by hand and do handheld shots. Finally, we were able to change the lens of the camera depending on what we wanted to achieve. We flicked between two - a slow-mo lens and a regular one. The slow-mo one allowed us to distort images and was better at capturing light. 

Lighting desk

This was extremely helpful throughout the process. We could control all the lights in the studio and even the blinds which was beneficial for 99% of our shots. It was also extremely helpful as we could choose different colours which was essential as the majority of scenes in our video does not have normal light in order to fit in with the red themes.

Turret light (centre) and floor light (far right)

Two very useful lights that we used can be seen above; the Turret light and the floor light.
Turret light: this allowed us to create our spotlights, which we could spot or flood to our satisfaction. By clipping half a red filter sheet to the front, we were further able to get the half-red effect that we wanted. We could also loosen the light and move it, which enabled us to film the spotlight moving.
Floor light: this was very useful in adding light to the set when the studio lights were not able to do the job. It was very useful to adjust the height as it meant we could get the best lighting for each shot. For example, for Angela's shot it needed to be high and tilted but from a distance so that all of her could be lit.

Music desk 

This was so useful throughout our shoot. The Macbook had iTunes on it and so we were able to play our song on it. The sound was great thanks to the studio sound system being connected to it. This was good in different ways. It meant we could adjust the sound to a greater level than any computer could. It also meant that we could hear the song while we performed and finally, in case we were shy it meant that no one would hear our terrible singing if it was on really loud.

Television

We were able to connect the camera to the TV which was helpful as it meant everyone on set could see how we looked on the camera and so we could have a say too, not just the camera operator. However, at times it was distracting as we looked at the television rather than the camera.