Shoot - Evaluation And Behind The Scenes Footage

My group shot our music video during this past Tuesday and Friday. Due to the amount and diversity of the material we were hoping to capture our group was decided that it would be appropriate for us to shoot over the course of two separate days. Throughout this evaluation of my groups shoot I will mostly discuss the shoot which took place at our educational facility but will also at times reference to our second shoot as it will have an enormous impact on the final cut of our music video.

The day before our Tuesday shoot we met with our producer and the rest of our team to prepare the studio and agree on other important aspects of the shoot. During this time we prepared the lighting for the morning element of our shoot, made certain that we have prepared a way of travel for our lead vocalist to arrive on time, and that we designated the right amount of time to every aspect of the music video we were hoping to capture. This process has allowed our team to begin shooting without any noticeable issues, which in turn provided us with more time to capture the performance elements. Perhaps the only elements that took longer than we anticipated were the application of make up on our performers and adequately setting up the camera.

The first studio setup we prepared consisted of a black background and different types of lightning set ups. Due to this we were able to prepare the different setups in quick succession and with little effort. Although now when view the footage I feel that the lighting setup provided to much contrast and is therefore at this point hardly usable as it can’t be tweaked without noise being created. On the other hand the TV setup, which we filmed in the afternoon, turned out to be more interesting and a bigger success than we anticipated. By placing the TV’s in interesting compositions and lighting them in different ways we created numerous visually appealing shots. Although our group was not able to take some shots of the TV’s that I hoped to capture, the overall turn out still satisfies and I know I can make proper usage of this footage while editing.

All the members of my group were interested in completing different tasks while on set. Therefore we decided to share roles and in the end we came to a compromise by which I acted as director of photography while shooting the dancers and as director when shooting the lead vocalist. I feel that this was the appropriate decision to make as I knew the vocalist prior to the shoot and was therefore able to direct her in the right direction when on set. We easily transitioned between jobs and by doing so were to keep on cooperating efficiently as a team.

When acting as the director and the DOP on set I did my best for the shoot to work out. For instance one thing I think I did particularly well was guiding the lead vocalist. I let our vocalist know what it is that we are expecting from her by using key words, which correlate to certain ideas. For instance when shooting one shot for the TV sequence I wanted our lead vocalist to look into the camera with a look of desire on her face. In order to achieve this effect I did not ask her for that in particular but instead asked her to look at the camera as if it was one million dollars. In other words I used key words and phrases that would indirectly allow me to pull out certain actions and emotions out of her. I think this was very successful, as I do not think I would have achieved the same effects by simply requesting desiring looks and amazing dance moves. Another thing I think I’ve done very well was positioning the camera while acting as the DOP.

In general the first and second shoots went really well. As a team we were able to work together to a high standard and have captured all the necessary shots that we required for post-production.