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.

R+P Post 32: Test Shoot and Rough Edit

Our Test Shoot Schedule- My group is coded in yellow

Behind the scenes footage of our test shoot

What we learnt from our test shoot:

 1) Communicating with Actors

The Saturday morning session of our test shoot, was when we were bringing in our male actors in order to film their shots. However although as a group we had an idea of what each wanted to do with our guys during our individual solo singing shots we realized then that we weren't ready to give them clear direction and that it was something we needed to work on. 

Below is a clip of me trying to explain how we wanted one of our actors, Will, to act during his scene with Monica

   2) The need of an extra camera operator

We realized that if the four of us are going to be in the music video and doing group shots, none of us will be able to operate the camera and therefore will need an extra pair of hands. We decided to ask one of our friends who too is taking media at A2. This is because they will have already have had a lot of experience with working with cameras.

   3) The importance of keeping to time

We weren't able to keep to time for several reasons and in the end weren't able to film all the shots we had planned on our shoot board to get through. We realized the areas we had to work on to be able to resolve this issue so it wouldn't happen during our real shoot and thus hinder the quality of our edit due to a limited variety of shots:

• Get to the studio on time
• Leave more time for setting up lighting/backdrops and getting ready (makeup & costume) 
• Set an allocated amount of time for a shot and keep to it, do not overrun into the time allocated for the next shot
• Take more managerial control over our actors
• Allocate the responsibility to one person who everybody else will respect the authority over when it comes to keeping to the time of the shoot board

Below is the final version of our rough edit

R+P Post 31: My Call Sheet

A call sheet has a logistical purpose. It is used to inform the cast and crew of where and when they should report for a particular day of filming. It is usually listed by "call-time".

According to our Shoot board, our shoot sessions were broken up into whenever any of us didn't have a lesson, according to our individual timetables. This at first glance looked really confusing and so we thought it would be a good idea to create a call-sheet in order for us to be able to organize our individual timetables into one big and clear organisational sheet of when each of us should be at the studio and ready to film.

There are many benefits to this as it would lessen the chance of us getting confused about when to be at the studio, our shoot location.It would also make telling our actors when we'd need them easier; thus decrease the chances of misinformation being passed onto them and us having to repeat ourselves when letting them know when to be ready.

R+P Post 30: My Shoot-board

Extract from shoot board for test shoot:
Friday 6th November

Extract from shoot board for real shoot:
Monday 23rd November

We decided to make several separate shoot-boards, one for each day we shoot because we are planning to shoot for two days during our test week sessions on the 6th November and 7th November, then for a whole week starting 23rd November.

Important extracts from it:

• Image- we use the shots we drew from our storyboard to not only give the person operating the camera visual direction on the framing and position of the camera in relation to the subject of the shot, but also to give whoever is in that shot some sort of an idea on how to stand/ move in that shot
• Time- The main reason a shoot board exists for is so that every member of cast and crew knows what shot is going to be shot when (since music videos aren't really shot in a chronological order) so that time isn't wasted when calling the specific actors needed for a specific shot. It would help us keep to the time we're given to use in the studio so that we don't overrun on some shots and then end up missing out on shooting other shots
• Set up no.- Instead of taking down and putting up different backdrops and wasting time on setting up the appropriate lighting, by using a shoot board we can organise what kind of lighting and backdrop we'd need for when so that we can efficiently make use of time and,for example,do all set up 1 shots at once instead of spreading them out randomly 

Reflections on using it:

• Using a shoot-board helped us make the process of filming efficient and less time-wasting
• It helped us give the person who was helping out in filming for us greater clarity on the movement of the camera
• The fact that it was all compiled into one big spreadsheet but still separating it out by each shoot day made it not only easy to read and understand, but also reduced the amount of paperwork we had to carry around

R+P Post 29: Rehearsals

Our main priority for the rehearsal week was our dance routine for the chorus of our chosen song and testing lighting. This was because we planned for quick lighting and editing to be an integral part of our music video due to how powerful and fast paced the  instrumentals of the song were. Also many urban music videos and girl groups tend to have some kind of choreography within them.

Our Rehearsal schedule- our group is highlighted yellow

'Don't Kill the fun'- Sevyn Streeter

Because our girl group has to appeal to street/Rnb fans, they thus have to emulate an urban, street with a feminine , classy energy. So we wanted the choreography 

we do to be of the hip hop dance style but with a sassy flair to it, like in the GIFS on the side. 

'BOSS'- Fifth Harmony

 Some of the inspiration behind our dance moves we found on YouTube from workout sessions by 'The Fitness Marshall' and random hip-hop choreography videos. Some examples of the videos we looked at can be found below.

                                                    The fitness Marshall- 'Worth it' workout

'Trap queen'- Matt Steffina Choreography

A short clip from one of our rehearsal sessions

We were also able to book sessions at our school studio and test specific lighting set-ups so that we can save them as memories on the school computer database so that when it came to the shoot day all we'd have to do is switch straight to the memory where all our lighting is already keyed in and then just manually move floor lights and studio lights in the correct positions. 

Thakshana and I testing our Silhouette lighting set-up 

Organizing a rehearsal week helped us prepare for the test shoot and work out if the ideas we had written on paper would work out on camera and if not, made us rethink our ideas before it was too late. Not only that but it helped us realize whether we'd be able to pull of a dance routine as people who've never danced professionally or even casually before. 

R+P Post 28 My Kit List

Since the main focus of our music video is on the lighting effects and distortion of movements, we are intending to use a wide variety of kit in order to create such effects that will captivate the interest and attention of our audience.

Kit:                                                                             Intention:

Canon 5D MK II

•  To film all of our shots 
• For shots needing camera movement this'll either be handheld or with a dolly so that steady pans and arcs can be achieved and add to the movement of our dancing scenes
• We intend to occasionally switch between a slow-mo lens and the regular lens because filming in slow mo for some shots would add toward our intention of distorting movements

Lighting Desk

Music Desk

• The lighting desk we intend to use to create a red silhouette set up and create intimate low-key lighting since we were envisioning a dark theme behind our music video 
• But then at some points we hope to also to create an all white high-key lighting setup 

Turret Lights

Monitor

• The Mac is connected to the studio sound system so whatever music we play from the mac will be heard throughout the whole studio
• We want to use it to act as backing music in order to help our actors lipsync properly when filming and play songs that would get them in the mood for beauty shots
• We hope to have one of us from the group stationed there at all times while filming

• Turret lights are effective at making spotlights so we want to use them to create moving spotlights over each member of the band and film it in slow mo- this was inspired by the neon jungle music video "Trouble"

• We want to use a monitor, which can hook up to the camera we'll be filming on, because it would enable us to view everything we're filming on a larger screen; big enough for not just those filming/directing but also the actor at the time so they can see what they are doing as well

R+P post 27: Casting

Girl group example of use of male characters
for music video-Little Mix "Move"

The concept for our music video is 'Passion' and female dominance in a relationship between a man and a woman. For this we wanted to use 4 guys, one for each member of the 'D4mes' in order to portray this in a short performance across their individual verse. 

We needed guys who complemented the females, like it is done in other girl group music videos including males as exampled below. They also had to have some sort of 'urban' look to them, like the males below, in order to connote our theme and reach our street audience with their look.  

Casting ideals-urban look, variety of races and builds/height

After producing a shortlist of the guys we though would suit us, we then had to individually ask them if they were free and willing to be a part of our music video and make sure they were reliable and available- evidence of this can be found below.

In the end we were able to finalize our 4 guy actors.

Eddie- 18

Mario- 17 

Will- 18

Aaron- 19

R+P Post 26: Set design, locations and props

All our shooting will be done in a studio, since we have many setups and actors and it would minimize time spent on setting up equipment and be easier on our actors

Proposed set designs for performance sections of our video:

1) Individual Spotlight

'Trouble'- Neon Jungle

A still from our test shoot

We wanted to create an enigmatic beginning to accompany the slow starting instrumentals of our bands song. A slow panning

 spotlight across each individual of the band helps achieve this. 

To coincide with our synergistic theme of 'red' (because the track for our music video is called 'red planet' and its lyrics connote passion) instead of using an ordinary yellow spotlight that's used in 'Trouble' by Neon Jungle, we are using a red filter over a floor-light to create a red misty colour for our spotlight. 

2) White backdrop lighting

A still from our test shoot

'Move'- Little mix 

 This set design will only be used for our beauty shots ranging from MCU to CU framing. We wanted white, even though it deviates from our dark/mysterious/red theme, it's the brightest lighting and will exaggerate the focus we want to pull on the individual singer who will be singing at the time 

3) Panel backdrop 

'Naughty Girl'- Beyonce 

This set design, we figured we could place floor lights with red filters over them behind the panel board to shine like in beyonce's 'naughty girl' video and stand in front of the panel board like in Rita Ora's 'Black Widow' music video. This will not only keep the synergistic 'red' look we have going on consistent but also would look really cool. We're going to use thin white fabric, which will be able to let light shine through and gaffa tape to create the thick lines for each panel.

4) Lasers backdrop 

'Move'- Little Mix 

Influenced by the above music video, we want to use laser lights, but instead they'd be in a small dotted form and moving. This is to signify a scenery similar to what space would look like which connotes the 'planet' theme behind our tracks lyrics and it's name (for example in the second verse it says "I see the stars, the sun, the moon when i'm with you").

5) Red Silhouette Lighting 

A still from our rehearsal

'R U Crazy'- Conor Maynard

This not only keeps our red theme consistent but also is a really cool lighting effect which will be useful in editing with flashes from a silhouette to red lighting, 

especially during our dance sequences, and creates an mysterious aura behind our band. This mysterious aura 

will do really well in 

creating enigma for the 

audience watching

6) Industrial look

Group 4- Chaos Killed the dinosaurs

'Hall of Fame'- The Script ft. Will.I.am

Since our band is meant to have a street/urban look, we wanted to create an industrial type setting for the video. Looking back on other Latymer media A2 music videos on YouTube we were able to find props within our school that we could use to create this look. For example the scaffolding and ladder you see in the image above. 

Props we'll be using for our music video:

• Confetti
• Balloons (red and silver)
• Gaffa tape
• White fabric
• Spray paint (colours: red, purple, silver)
• Wine bottle 
• Ribena or sprite (to look like wine/ champagne since we're not allowed to bring it into our school studio)
• 2 tables
• 4 chairs
• Red/Burgundy tablecloth
• Scaffolding
• Ladder 

R+P Post 25: Costume, props and makeup

Outfit ideas for D4MES:

For our music video we plan to have 3 different sets of outfits. This is a common convention used for girl groups when making a music video- to have several changes of outfits. This is probably to give different looks for the group which would appeal to different types of people and thus widen their audience by dressing in majorly contrasting styles. We thought to do the same with our band. 

e.g. MO- "Preach"

        The Saturdays- "Fired up"

Below is the final product of the outfits we decided to use for each set of dress code: Classy/smart, individual and simple/casual.

Individual outfits

Individual makeup and hair

Outfit ideas for our guy actors:

There are two main scenes from our music video the guys will be involved in: 

1) the individual shots with the girl they've been paired with from the band 

2) the dinner scene shot where they will be playing our waiters (the role of being waiters and serving the females will highlight the female dominance theme we want to run throughout the video)

Outfit inspiration for the individual shots

Outfit inspiration for dinner scene

The individual shots outfit derives from London street fashion in order to appeal to our street audience and British audience. We wanted them to wear all black because, their purpose for the shoot is to be used as 'props' for the females, to connote that 'female domination' idea, and therefore they're not meant to stand out/ draw attention away from the girls.

R+P Post 24: Planning my digipak panels

Here is a photo of our rough digipak panels flat plan and the inspiration behind each panel. We wanted a synergistic theme of abstract multi-coloured shapes running across each panel, as you will see below, because it links to the theme of our music video where we play with lights- the colours and shapes of them.