Construction Post 2: Week 2 Production

This is the week we did shooting in the Seward Studio for our music video. Unfortunately our group had to adapt to some broken lighting in the studio, but this process was not impossible. It was a long difficult week of filming, where we had to overcome some technical challenges as well as giving in as much time, effort and enthusiasm into making the process as efficient and professional as possible.

Main Shoot Timetable

Here is our main shoot schedule. The different colours represent our different set ups and the yellow colours is when we were not filming.

Monday

Behind the Scenes Footage

The Intertextual Mobb Deep reference Projection

We decided to begin the week with our projection set-up. This was one of the more challenging set ups to prepare, but we had learnt from the test shoot of how to effectively position the projector behind the camera, so as to fully cover the space over and behind Layla Obi for the shots. All Studio lights had to be turned off, so as to allow for the most effective exposure from the projector itself on set. We decided to mix up the shots we were using by also utilising the dolly on set for more interesting mid and close up shots of Layla Obi on the projector. As well as this, we experimented with long shots that could emphasise the shadow of Layla Obi on the projection behind her.

Tuesday

We started afresh with the strobe light set up on Tuesday. With the use of the dolly we were able to do very interesting shot varieties with some shots of Layla Obi sitting on the stool as well as ones with her standing up. I felt pleased with how the shots played back from the dolly and I felt the success of these shots compared to the boring shot types we used for our test shoot would be one of the key factors to show how the quality of the music video drastically improved from the test shoot to the main shoot.

Strobe lighting dolly shot

Wednesday

On Wednesday we had both the Fairy lights set up as well as the Microphone red and blue flashing lights set up. Focus pulls for the fairy lights with Layla Obi dancing built a great atmosphere. On the dolly I did some walking shots of Layla Obi underneath the fairy lights in order to add to the variety of shots building atmosphere and this type of shot improvisation as well as following our storyboard allowed us to build a healthy variety with our different shot types. As well as filming under fairy lights, I was very pleased with our red and blue flashing lights set up. We filmed a lot of powerful dolly shots as well as stool mid shots of Layla Obi. It was during this time that there was a sudden spark of improvisation of Layla Obi to push the camera to the side on the dolly, as we thought this could dissolve well into a pan of Andy in the male narrative in order to establish more of a connection between both locations in the music video.

Fairy Lights atmosphere being built

Thursday

On Thursday we did the stool set up, involving our different red and blue lighting utilising the lighting to have a siren-like aesthetic. However, by this time in the week, we did face lighting issues with a lot of lights being stuck between red and blue, and therefore not working. Therefore, we had to adapt our formation of our coloured lights in order to light Layla Obi's face as well as making sure the background was lit for our colour variation. We did manage to get some good shots, however despite the lighting trouble, especially ones we had of the sign language. I also made sure to come in to the studio whenever possible to set up again for the strobe lighting, as we did feel that we could film some more under this set up and by this time setting up for filming became a quick process due to our knowledge of what each set up entailed.

Some of the red and blue flashing light footage

Friday

On the last day of the week, we simply did a plain lighting set up for red and blue lighting. On this day, we did not have many plain lighting shots left to do, but we did perform the set up for the shot with Layla Obi with blood on her hands, which was a shot we wanted to redo, as in the original shooting, there was no fake blood on Layla Obi's hands and we thought that strong imagery would be very effective for blending between the studio and the narrative filming. This involved positioning sheets of paper towel on the floor underneath her hands, so that the floor could not be tarnished for the other groups to use.

The blood on hands plain lighting shot

The week was an enormous learning curve for me, as I learnt about dealing under pressure with direction on set. I had to ignore any negative impediments that may have held the group back and work positively in improving the quality of the shots that we were to gain. By the end of the week, I felt that we were successful in achieving the high quality shots we had planned in pre-production that were voyeuristic, powerful and held variety with different shot types being used.