ACCOUNT OF SHOOT DAY

ACCOUNT OF SHOOT DAY

At 9.00am we set up the green screen on the wall and simultaneously a platform with painted green on it. This set up was the total opposite to our initial storyboard seeing that the whole plan consisted of a full-built set which would have made up the location. We were also going to shoot off location to create a sense of reality in the video. The reason we chose to use the studio for all shots was to detach the idea from reality and to bring in the ‘Sin City’ effect.

The time it took to set up was very short seeing that there was no need for props or constructions to be added.
We shot the green screen scenes at the beginning of the shoot in order to be able to clear the studio of the screens to leave the studio fully black for the band shots which we shot at the very end in order to save time and get as much done for the green screen to avoid having to put up the green screens again.


These are an example of what kind of shots we used:

Shot list

Close up tilt down of drum set.

Extreme close-up of drumstick on drum.

Extreme close up from side of foot on drum pedal.

Close up of bassist playing.

Close up of strings of bass being played.

Extreme close up of bass players head.

Close up at low angle of electric guitarist playing.

Medium close up track across bass and drum player.

Crane shot of electric guitarist.

Extreme close up of bass players hand.


For the green screen shots, we based them on the post production, keeping in mind that when it came to editing, we had to have shots at certain angles to then add special effects and the background. The camera was kept locked and focused front on to ensure that when I came to animating, there were no complications of merging shots with others.


In terms of costuming, we wanted to give the band a ‘Black Sabbath’ style which links to the genre of the song: “Demon Cleaner” which is a form of heavy metal. We chose materials such as: leather, velvet, nets and dark denim. Putting them in black gave the, the mysterious and independent look which we were aiming for.

The image of the ‘killer girl’, is her idealized image of her imagination. We chose this girl in terms of her attractive looks excessible to everyday women seen in media who show fashion as a non realistic image. We also casted her for her acting skills which were importantly needed in the video to portray a hard and fantasy character. While the man who gets killed is showing the image of a sleazy man instead of the image of an attractive man. The reasoning behind this was initially to show her reason of killing him. This consisted of a last shot in the video which would have been the girls imagination of all the brutal killing which we had previously watched. This shot would have explained the reasoning of choosing that particular cast. However, in terms of a shortage of shooting time, we could not shoot this last scene which now makes it a mysterious murder. However, the audience would still imagine, because of the contrast of images of the cast, that the man has obviously offended the attractive girl.

We lit the the green screen shots with white lights to avoid when coming to post production, having to modify the shades and contrast of lighting.
For the band, we used a circling spotlight which fragmented the members of the band and created a mysterious effect to their character.

My role on the shooting day was the director and the camera operator. All the members of the group also had a chance to be part of all roles. As a team, I would say that we worked very effectively in terms of working together and sharing constructive ideas on the shoot day.

The whole group is very content with the overall result seeing that we achieved most of the tasks needed to complete the editing. Although some of the video did not match our initial storyboard, we found that new ideas were brought out on the shoot day as processing the shoot.
If any complaints, the timing to shoot some other shots such as the final office scene and more band shots could have been arranged better.