Evaluation of Shoot Day.

So we have finished our shoot day and it went a lot better than I expected. The morning of the day was quite stressful as we found out that our two narrative characters were having to do an Art Coursework day, and although our girl thought she could get out of it the boy was not so sure. Thus, we thought we may have lost our whole narrative and were having to think about last minute decisions as we had not found out until the day. On top of this, our guitarist had forgotten to tell his teachers that he was not going to be in lesson due to a Music Video shoot, despite the fact he had told us he was allowed. We therefore spoke to his teachers and most of them were okay but it seemed like he was not going to be let out of one of his lessons which started at 11:50. We tried our hardest to get him out of it but it was not going to happen so we decided we just had work very hard on the performance shots and get them all done before this time. In addition, we still had the stress to finish building our set as the group that were in the studio on Friday did not finish until very late and so we by the time we got in there we had 20 minutes to get going. We made a mutual decision to not put up our wallpaper and just make changes to the wallpaper that the previous group had had. We then just about got time to throw tea bags at the wallpaper and open up some tea bags and rub them on the wall. We also made a few rips in the wallpaper and had some mould spray which we sprayed. This made the set look more like a skanky hotel room which is what we wanted. However, this is just about all we got done on Friday afternoon and so we had to finish it all Monday morning.

In the end, we managed to get all of the performance shots done before 11:50 which is when we were losing our guitarist. However we still needed to get a tracking shot of the whole band so we asked everybody to meet back in the studio for 1 to get this done, after a lunch break from 12:30. Our two performance characters were both in there by 1:30 and had the rest of the day to film as they had been let out by their art teachers after finishing their coursework. We did the tracking shots of them first as we had the dolly already set up from the narrative. Will Edgley and Abby Douetil and me all had a go on the dolly getting the shots we needed, whilst Lizzy Ward Thomas was on playback making sure we had the right part of the song for that tracking shot.

Here is a picture of Will Edgley pushing Luke whilst we were setting up the dolly.

Apart from the tracking shots in which we all had a go, I was on the camera most of the day. I would get the camera set up, find a shot which I thought looked nice and then ask the rest of my group what they thought. The camera I was using was linked to the monitor, which is where Abbi Douetil was standing most of the time and she would therefore give me feedback and what would look better inside the shot until we got it right and ready to shoot. Will Edgley started off on playback but then changed to pushing the dolly and so Lizzy Ward Thomas took over on playback for the rest of the day. At the same time as being on camera, I also helped with the production and therefore was always making sure we had the right people in the studio for the right time. If I thought we were missing somebody or there was somebody there who we didn't need I would shout to one of my group who weren't busy to find that person or whatever it may be. Abbi Douetil did all of the make up for the band and narrative and helped Molly (our main girl) with her costume and putting on the harness which was needed for the hanging scene.

Unfortunatley, the photography student which we had asked to come and take pictures did not turn up on the day. We tried our best to find a substitute photographer but most people were busy or did not have their cameras in school. So, as a last minute alternative, we asked for a second camera on which we could film little bits of what we were doing to make a 'Making Of' video which we have already started on and will blog once its finished.