Studio shoot days

We knew that we wanted to film in the studio for the main performance element of the video, and so we were prepared well in advance. As we had already filmed a short rehearsal of the lip-syncing with Justin (Jay) and sent him the lyrics to learn, we were confident in his ability on the day. However, although our animatic helped us as it showed us the basic shots we wanted to film, which we were able to expand and develop on when filming, rather than coming up with all the shots then and there, Justin still only knew the lyrics in parts, needing reminders throughout the song of which part was next. This meant that there were many different clips for the same shot and it all became quite messy. We especially saw this in editing where it was jumbled as demonstrated by clips from a certain angle only joining up to form half the song. Therefore we decided to film the studio shots again by preparing in the same way, but making sure that Justin learnt more of the lyrics. When filming, we found that he had learnt more, and although it was a mainly successful shoot, when reviewing the footage we thought that the studio shots would look more professional if he had a microphone and speakers. This meant that we had to film the performance shots in the studio again, organising where to borrow equipment from in addition. These shots that we filmed were a lot more successful as Justin knew the words better and so we were able to film longer shots which were more exciting. We managed Justin well on these days of shooting as we would have the lyrics on our phones if he needed to use them and we would also tell him how to perform to the camera. We managed our time well as we were able to film these three shoot days in three different lunch breaks, and so we tried to work as efficiently as possible without rushing. We worked well as a group, with someone on one camera, someone on another camera to get a different angle of the same performance, and someone overseeing both the cameras and Justin. I was responsible for getting the equipment, both the microphone, the speakers and the guitar, and I set up the studio lighting, to be prepared for the beginning of the shoot. In addition, I was in control of a camera for a lot of the shooting and also guided Justin through his performance to get the best result possible.

Change of narrative

Our narrative started as Jay being a social outcast who's girlfriend, Zoe, is in the 'popular crowd', a group of mean girls who's harsh judgement of people deter her from being herself and showing her affection for Jay in public. He tells her via song that she shouldn't have to wear her 'best fake smile' in order to impress her 'friends' and she should just be herself and forget about them so as to maintain their relationship and end her inner turmoil. However, after reviewing the shots we filmed for this narrative, we didn't think they showed what we wanted them to show well enough due to the poor acting of the popular girls, small range of shots and unintentional cheesy feeling created. We decided not to re-film it and instead we want to change the narrative as we think it would be a greater opportunity to get better shots.

Websites of indie artists similar to ours

Photoshoot for the digipak

Bianca Shirk's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Taking pictures for the digipak

Looking at street photography for the album cover

Setting up the studio for our music video

We set up the studio in this way to prepare for the performance studio shots in the music video where Jay is singing and playing the guitar. This lighting would help to create a more cinematic, visually pleasing and professional music video that could be compared to those of other indie artists.

Vlog of shoot days

This is a vlog of a mixture of our main shoot day which took place in the forest, by the lake and at the viewpoint with the artist and actress, and of the shoot day in the bedroom only with the actress.

Shoot day 3

We planned in our group and with our actress, Zoe, that we would do more filming after school on a certain day in Miriam's house. This advance planning helped with setting up the shoot day as we all left school together and were able to start filming as soon as we got to the location and so didn't waste time. The animatic helped with our shoot day preparations as we knew what we wanted to include in some shots and so we were quite organised. The filming went well as we got all the shots we wanted and more from a variety of angles, giving us a large range of choices for different shots when editing. It was easy to manage our actress as we had worked with her twice before and we were all used to it. We worked well as a group as we all took turns with the camera and we listened and allowed each other to come up with new ideas such as other angles to film from. We also worked well together as we worked efficiently without delay, and we therefore managed our time well. I was on the camera a lot and came up with different ways of filming shots that we hadn't thought of before, and so played a key role in our group.

Account of the main shoot day (shoot day 2)

Shooting schedule

Risk assessment

The shot list for our outside filming day