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

I feel that I contributed a lot into the researching and planning we did as a group, however I would say more towards the planning side rather than research.

Jobs I solely completed on behalf of the group:

• Ordering/ buying props

Screenshot of when I was researching what brand of
spray paint to buy for our backdrop

The fabric shop in Edmonton green we bought
 the translucent cloth we needed for our panel
backdrop

• Creating the shoot board and proposed set designs list

Screenshot of when I was creating the shoot board

• Drawing the Album cover flat plan

Before drawing the album cover I took a look at the research of conventions from other girl band albums we did as a group and compiled the examples I thought were the best ideas and used them to draw our each panel of our album cover.

Jobs I was part of completing in the group:

• Setting up/working out the lighting for each set-up

I didn't realize that with lighting comes extra precision and need for detail- the wrong angle of a barn door on a studio light could distort the shape you want your light to be or its intensity- It's not just a switch of a button which is what I thought it was. I'm satisfied with the ideas we came up with when testing out and playing around with the lighting but am extremely excited about the red flood silhouette as I think it looks the coolest and really encapsulates what we are singing about in a symbolic way.

Thakshana and I moving the studio lights
around for red silhouette scene

• Filming 

During the test shoot, in preparation for our real shoot, I took a hands on role with filming most of Thakshana's individual shots while Angela and Monica were in lessons. It helped me get the grips of how to use the camera, because I realized how hard it was to keep in control of the focus (since Auto-focus didn't work, you had to do it manually) and my framing, I realized was actually very poor. It was good to have practice before our real shoot.

Amber filming and I on playback (music)

• Creating the set-ups list

Creating a set ups list helped us figure out how many backgrounds we'd need to prepare for (make/ buy materials to create the specific look we want/ test the lighting during the rehearsal week)

Proposed set-ups document

• Acting

Being in front of the camera during the test shoot was a very fun experience for me. During the rehearsals and especially the test shoot I was able to work on my expressions and making it seem as though I was a real girl band member.

• Creating some of our backdrops

Me and Thakshana sorting out the Panel Backdrop

We had to be very inventive when creating the Panel background. We used translucent cloth which had the ability to let light through so that we could use floorlights positioned behind the cloth in order to get that glowy effect. We also used gaffa tape to create the border lines.