Construction Post 3: Week 3 Production

We spent the third week of production taking any final promo shots for our website and social media pages out and about on location. This included having the band members be in costume and going out and taking photos in various locations. We chose a park as one of our locations as it shows the more human side of our band members, extended the authenticity of our band, as well as a bus stop for another location, which helps with the authenticity and emphasises the fact that we are based in London, which will help to appeal more to our London audience. We were able to use Emilio's Nikon camera and various lenses to take the photos, which meant we got a nice variety of professional standard shots with different depths of focus to help the shots synergise with our band's brand and aesthetic.

Casey and Hugh Tyler in a tree.

Our audience feedback showed that these photos were specifically relatable to a London audience, making the band seem more authentic and appealling. They also thought the band seemed really cool in their outfits around suburban areas.
Our teachers both said that these promo shots showed a great deal of personality from our band members, therefore appealing to our audience by creating voyerism.

WHAT I LEARNED:

Hught Tyler in front of a bus.

• I learned how to use some of the different lenses that Emilio had brought, which I found very interesting and useful. This has widened my knowledge of photography and has allowed me to have a greater understanding of photo composition and style.

CHALLENGES WE HAD TO FACE:

• We needed to stay safe when shooting with an expensive camera on location, so we stayed mostly in open public spaces and we were well-behaved around other members of the public.
• Tom was not available for this shoot session, so we had to work around that by mostly taking shots of Hugh and Casey, as they are siblings and the front members of the band. 

MY CONTRIBUTION:

• I took photos of Emilio and Jack when I was not in the shots, including some of Guy Chapman on the swing.
• I modelled in many of the shots that involved Casey.
• I helped to choose locations for the shots that were appropriate and safe for our shoot.
• I helped to plan and direct our shots so they looked authentic and suited our brand.

Construction Post 2: Week 2 Production

Week 2 of production was focused on getting our photo shoot for the album cover complete. This consisted of taking high-quality photos of our band members in costume against a white background in high-key lighting. To do this, we were able to use the mini-studio set up in our school that had lighting units, diffusers, and a white wall in order to get the best quality photos possible. We took a variety of shots for each band member in many different poses and framing. The group shared out roles evenly and we all hoped each other with the technical aspects of photography.

Jack in the photo shoot.

Tom in the photo shoot.

Emilio in the photo shoot.

I think our photo shoot went successfully, as our aaudience seemed to really like the photos and how the band showed a lot of personality in them.
Our school technician also said they were all technically good, with good lighting and focus, while our teachers said they were appropriate for a band website and album cover.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• I learned how to use the digital camera in conjunction with the synchronised lights to take a high quality photo. For example, I know now that when using a bright flash, to set the ISO to a low number like 100 so that I can achieve a high quality photo with  nice lighting.
• I also learned how to work efficiently in a photo shoot, which will definitely benefit me in later life. For example, I learned how to quickly fix lighting issues (by changing the intensity on the lighting units, rather than any camera settings).

CHALLENGES WE HAD TO FACE:

• We didn't have a lot of time to take our shots, as we were only scheduled in the timetable for using the mini studio for a few periods. This meant that we had to use our strengths to work efficiently so we could get a large variety of shots that we could use in both the album cover and the website.
• It was difficult to take candid looking shots of the band members during the studio photo shoot because it felt quite unnatural for the people in front of the camera. To overcome this, we had conversation between all the people present, mostly with whoever the photographer was at the time, to help ease the person into the role and look more relaxed on camera. 
• We only had around half an hour to use with Tom. This meant we really had to plan our photo shoot in advance to make sure we got everything done in time to be prepared for his shots, as they were in our last slot. Luckily, we had finished all of our other shots by the time Tom arrived, so we did not need to rush to much and we were still able to take a wide variety of shots with him in.

MY CONTRIBUTION:

Me as Casey Tyler during the photo shoot.

• I took some of the photos that I wasn't modelling for, including some photos of Jack and Emilio.
• I modelled for the shots of Casey Tyler.
• I helped to set up the lighting arrangement, including the placement of the lights and their intensity.

Construction Post 1: Week 1 Production

Our first week of production was our shoot week. During this week we used the school studio to film all the shots we neededd for our music video using the professional standard lighitng desk, sound desk, and cyclorama for a high quality shoot.

CHALLENGES:

• Organising an ensemble cast for our first day of filming, which took place on Saturday the 4th of November.We had to make sure they all knew what to do in the video, how to act in the school and how to get to places in the school. In order to keep them in the loop with this sort of information, we gave them all a quick briefing at the beginning of the shoot day, meaning that we would have an easy and efficient shoot day ahead of us. It also meant that the cast were aware of health and safety precautions they needed to take while working in the studio. In order to keep their energy levels high, we provided snacks, music, and frequent breaks, ensuring the best performance we could get out of them.
• Creating an infinity scene using the cyclorama, as there was an obvious dark line where the wall screen met the paper on the floor. We spent Monday morning trying to fix this using sheets of paper to connect the floor and wall screen, but was still obvious on camera, and made the space look more messy. In the end, we decided it would be beneficial for the shoot and the video to leave the cyclorama with the line between the wall and the floor. We felt this was the right thing to do because all the shots we had taken on Saturday were taken in this set up, and we were unable to retake these. Additionally, we felt that as we were creating and indie and home-made-style music video, the line between the wall and the floor would match the aesthetic of our video. This sort of set-up has been used in other indie videos that have a similar aesthetic to our own, such as Vampire Weekend's A-Punk.
• Our worst challenge that we had to face happened on the Thursday of our shoot week. We scheduled in a slot of looking back on our footage and checking if we needed to use our back-up shoot slots to fix anything. Unfortunately, we discovered that the footage from Tuesday, our most productive shoot day, was corrupted, and it hadn't transferred to the iMac properly when dumping it. This meant that we had to re-shoot our shots form the Alice in Wonderland and Singin in the Rain shots. Luckily, we had both Friday and Saturday scheduled for back-up shoots, so we had enough time to re-shoot all the footage that was corrupted, although it was a shame to have to re-shoot it. Additionally, all the footage we took after that realisation, we dumped twice and checked the footage thoroughly after dumping it.

Vampire Weekend - A-Punk. This is an indie music video that has a similar home-made aesthetic as our own, and also has an obvious difference between the wall and the floor.

Our audeince feedback showed that this would not be a problem, and many of our audeince members said they wouldn't noticce this with all the other mise-en-scene going on in the video (such as the hand-made props).

Our teachers also did not think this was a problem, as we showed them many other music videos that also have this, and how they have used that lo-fi setting to appeal to their audience.

MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE SHOOT:

• I played the main character int the video, so did the lip-syncing during band and solo shots, as well as acting as Casey and Casey as Alice.
• I filmed many of the shots in the scenes I was not in, such as Emilio's solo performance shots and Jack's solo performance shots.
• I helped to create some of the set-ups, such as the Mortal Kombat set up and the Singin in the Rain set up. This involved using the light desk in order to change the colour and intensity of some of the studio lights in order to get the right feel of the shot.

Here is a slide show explaining some of the ways I helped on set.

R+P Post 33: Reflections on my role and contribution during research and planning

I contributed a lot of work to this project, as did Jack and Emilio.

PRE-PRODUCTION:

• Helped to make the props, such as the slot machine.
• Gave lots of influential research examples for our website, album cover, and music video. For example, I gave the example of Alvvays's website as one that has a similar aesthetic to the one we hope to achieve.
• Helped in getting people together for the Saturday shoot with an ensemble cast.
• Helped to come up with ideas or a music video int he very beginning of the project.
• Came up with some good tracks when deciding our track of choice.
• Contributed ideas towards the shot list and set-up list.
• Helped to create flat plans for the digipak panels and for the website.

PRODUCTION:

• Performed as the lead singer of the band.
• Helped with creating the lighting set ups and filming the actual shots.
• Took photos of the other members of the band during the promo shoot.

R+P Post 32: Test shoot and rough edit

We did a test shoot in order to test how our ideas, lighting set-up, and shot framing would work on camera before the real shoot. This meant that if we needed to change anything,we had the time to and it wouldn't waste time on the real shoot. Additionally, it meant we could test how our performances looked on camera.

The test shoot revealed things we needed to change about our set-ups. For example, the Singin in the Rain lighting set-up had really nice lighting in real life, but on camera it made our faces too dark, and did not show the lights from the lamppost well enough. We then changed the lighting to a mix of white, yellow, and red lights so that we could light up the centre stage, but still achieve the colour we wanted.

Me checking the lighting on the Koolertron monitor.

Me checking my performance in between taking shots.

Jack coaching me with performance to make sure I get the look and feel of the character right for the video.

One of the things that did work on our test shoot was our band's performance. the test shoot showed that our performance worked on camera with the light pink lighting and the different framing, and that our performances looked accurate. Also, the fun relationship between all the band members really worked on camera, and we were good at making our sibling relationship look fun and silly.

Here is one of our test shoot band shots, complete with costumes, props, and lighting.

R+P Post 31: My call sheet

We combined our call list with our shoot board, as it was easier to see who was needed, when and why. For example, we could see what shot we were doing at a certain time and then quickly and easily reference the call sheet to find out who was needed.

Page 1 of our shoot board, which includes the call sheet. See "R+P Post 20: My shoot board" for the full shoot board and call sheet.

WHY A CALL SHEET IS IMPORTANT:

We can tell other people in advance when they need to be in the studio and what they need to do. For example, Tom is not in our media group, so we gave him a copy of the call sheet so that we could ensure he would be in the studio when we needed him. Additionally, we used Lily as our make-up artist, and she also doesn't do media A2, so we gave her a copy so that she would know where to be and when, and what make-up she needed to bring.

R+P Post 30: My shoot-board

We created a shoot board so that we could stay organised on the shoot, and to make sure that we wouldn't miss any shots that we had planned to take.

We created our shoot board set-up by set-up, as well as based on the times our actors and make-up artist were available. This meant we needed to include our call time for all the people who needed to be there.

Here is a presentation of our shoot board pages in order.

PROS OF MAKING A SHOOT BOARD:

• Helps us to stay organised on the shoot.
• Ensures that we take all of the shots that we need in the amount of time we have.
• Allows us to set up the studio in advance and tell people when they need to be there.