An Account of Our Shoot Day

“Demonstrating how the decisions made reflected the institutional and audience demands for the product.”

In the run up to our shoot day we were required to produce several pre-production documents that formed the basic structure of our production file. We had to provide these for our cast and crew. These included CD’s with the edited track on, Lyrics and sheet music of the edited song so as the band could learn lyrics and basic chords to enhance realism when shooting. We also created a shooting schedule and call sheets so that the cast and crew knew when they were needed. For our convenience we made costume, props and location lists. This made it easier for us to have everything ready for the shoot day, as we were the first group to start filming.

Creating the shooting schedule is a very crucial part towards making sure that your shoot day is going to run smoothly. It also means that you wont find yourself in the painful situation when reviewing the rushes on the following day and realising you forgot to film one very crucial shot, which is desperately needed for the narrative to make sense. So to avoid this and to make us feel more prepared and in control of the situation we put together a very thorough shooting schedule; for both timings and a detailed shot by shot list which worked in conjunction with the storyboards. (Shown bellow is an example of our schedule.)

*Shooting Schedule*

When we were casting our band we were given free picking from any of the first years on a first come first serve basis, yet if we wanted any of the second years to be involved we needed to get them ‘Blue carded’ meaning acquiring the signatures of all of their teachers and housemaster giving permission for them to miss the days lessons to be involved. So this meant that we needed to get our requests in as soon as possible, however we decided that before we cast the band it would be best to screen test them individually and all together to make sure that they came across with the ‘correct’ look on camera for our video; and secondly we needed to check that they worked well together as a band and looked comfortable as a group. Once we had done this and felt that they would give us the best performance we requested our first year cast and set about blue carding the two other second years.

We had chosen the song ‘Like Eating Glass’ by Bloc Party however this song in its full Album format lasted for 4:22. We wanted our pop promo to last a maximum of 3:30 but preferably closer to 3:00; so this meant that we needed to edit the song so that it was shorter. We did a few drafts of the edit yet each member of the group had favorite parts of the song for example at ….. the impressive drum fill takes place, the verse at ….. and we didn’t want these to be taken out. So after many different cuts using the editing software Sound Forge 4.5 we had an edit, which lasted 3:00.

Having created all the pre production documents we now felt very organized and ready for the shoot day. Now it was time to go through the production file and start to buy, rent, acquire permission and make the various props, costumes sets and locations needed. So final preparation for shoot began.

For the costumes we literally went around begging, borrowing and stealing any ‘old school’ duffer coats we could get. We went round houses and charity shops and by the end we had a collection of different colors, sizes and designs that we chose depending on how they fitted the cast and what they looked like all together. We also had to buy some white china plates to be smashed, we got more than one so that if it took more than one take to get the shot we had enough plates. For the set in the studio we had to buy enough wallpaper to cover the walls. We had agreed sizes in earlier pre production meetings with our lighting and set designers.

We also had the challenge of renting a snow machine to create the effect of snowfall inside one of our locations. This proved very difficult within our tight budget we had, in the end we came across a machine that created a substantial spread of snow that didn’t need an engineer to be hired out with it and didn’t cost too much. We also had to order liquid to fuel the machine; so we had to estimate the length of time we would need to be spreading snow for.

The only major problems that we encountered before shooting was that after the long and grueling process of finding a snow machine that fitted our criteria and that was free for when we needed it; we eventually booked it. Then the following day they got back in touch saying that they had double booked us and they were renting all their machines out to Harrods for its in store Christmas experience. So we had to fins a new one very quickly.

Also we had a last minute unreliable cast member dropping out on the evening before we shot the video. We had to act on our feet to replace him with someone with the same type of image as we had done screen tests and they had all worked well together as a band. Luckily we found someone that we could use.

From 1 O’clock the day before our shoot we were aloud into the studio to start to make and put together our set. We had to wallpaper both of the 2 8ft by 12ft boards we had as our backdrop. We then had to turn the newly wallpapered walls into what needed to look like old dilapidated damp torn walls. We also had to paint wooden strips to make them look like wooden floorboards. Once this was all done we were fully ready to start shooting the following day.

On the day of our shoot we had arranged to meet at 8:45 giving us half an hour maximum to get everything and everyone in and ready to start filming at 9:15 latest. We then split up the rest of the morning into sections of time for shooting the whole band together, then the guitarist, then bass, then drummer and finally ending with the singer. If we stuck to the schedule this gave us ample time to do all the allocated shots in each of the sections. Luckily this went well and we didn’t over run on time.

We stuck very close to our storyboards in the shots that we shot but then after we had filmed all of them we experimented and improvised with different shot ideas. I am very pleased that we did both as this gave us the certainty of having everything that we needed but yet we have lots of more free experimental footage to add in and if needed replace some of the boring and mundane shots we originally had in our storyboard for example the close up shots of the singer we had in our storyboard were far more basic and ordinary than the shots we now have using focus pulls, tracking shots, extreme close ups and tilts.

The technology used during the shoot was a JVC … Video Camera. We were running the camera through a 30” plasma monitor screen. This meant that it was very easy for the 1st AD to watch the shots and make notes of what’s been filmed and what still needs to be shot; also it makes the job of continuity much easier. We were using 4 redheads to light the set; 2 on each side at different intensities and some using diffusers. We had the playback of the edited song running through a powerful PA system, which meant that the drummer could hit the drums properly whilst still being able to hear the beat that he needed to follow. Likewise with the singer meaning that he could actually sing along, this enhancing the realism on camera without him feeling embarrassed by everyone hearing his voice.

The production roles that we stuck to on the shoot day were: one member taking on the task of DOP (Director of Photography) involving the responsibility of being the one on the camera filming; occasionally swapping around with other group members. We decided that one person would be the Director as it would be less complicated for cast if they only had one person telling them what to do rather than having lots of people shouting different things at them. Then the last member of the group was Producer, Continuity and 1st AD. This was me; and I was generally liaising between everyone making sure that everything and everyone was where they needed to be on time. As 1st AD I was in charge of the shooting schedule and was keeping the director and DOP aware of what the next shot setup would be and which shots we had left to shoot.

We decided that we were shooting to many boring and mundane shots that looked unimpressive and amateur. So we decided that we needed to be more adventurous and brave to just start improvising more freely as having artistic shots is one of the main themes that makes our pop video different from the rest and hopefully will make it stand out from the crowd when it is completed. So we really had to do something about this. Some members of the band were giving the performance more effort than others, so we had to get everyone to start performing to the same level so that they looked like a solid unit as a band.

After lunch we then moved to shooting at our second location, the manor house ‘Leith Hill’. We all got in the minibus with all the kit, cast, props and crew that we needed. We only had a very small amount of shots to shoot at this location so we didn’t feel rushed. This is the location which we were using the snow machine, and we hadn’t tested it before we arrived. The snow didn’t disappear after a few minutes like it had been advertised to us as doing so, resulting in much time having to clean the snow off the walls and floor to do a retake of a scene. To avoid this we had to do many rehearsals without using the snow and then having one chance at the shoot once the snow was turned on.

I was generally very pleased with all of the studio shots as the overall look of pretty much all of the setups were how I had imagined in my mind before hand. This was due to our very thorough planning and our strong involvement with the setup that took place on the day before hand. This however just got better and better as the morning went on and finishing off with the series of tracking shots that we shot. These were my favorites as I feel that it gives the video that extra professional touch.

I felt that the afternoon’s work in Leith Hill did not go quite as I had wanted. The reason for this is that we had acquired permission from the residence of the house to use it, but we hadn’t asked the national Trust who actually own it. Just as we had turned on the snow machine for the first time blasting snow everywhere a National Trust representative came round and finding us there was slightly apprehensive of us being there. This made us feel that we were going to get into trouble so we felt rushed to get out and wrap the Leith Hill location. This coursed the shots to feel rushed and not as artistic as we had planned therefore there wasn’t such a strong link linking the performance element and Leith hill as we had planned through the use of shallow focus, focus pulls and artistic shots. We had to stick to basic, quick shots that would get the footage we needed and mean we could get out as soon as possible.

The only way in which we deviated from plans was after lunch when we took too long filming the smoke to add in as breath to the band in after effects. This had not been scheduled for after lunch so this put us almost an hour behind schedule in arriving at Leith Hill, because of this Leith Hill is not shot as well as I had hoped. Apart from this we remained as planned in every aspect.

If I had the chance to do it again I would not redo any of the work from the morning in the studio of the performance element; however I would have got full permission to use the location Leith Hill so that we could have spent longer in there getting the shots to the best of our ability and not just getting them done as quickly as possible. Also possibly sticking tighter to the shooting schedule after lunch, which would have given us more time with daylight at Leith Hill, we also ordered too much snow liquid, which was very expensive, and finer more accurate calculations could have saved some money on that.

So all in all it was a brilliant day that has led to a very successful pop promo.