Account of shoot day

Our day started by us all meeting in the studio with Georgie the singer. We set up the lights, and set - which we decided to get rid of the plastic sheets that we hung behind the table that the girls would stand on as we wanted the background to just be black and any elements we thought it was missing could be added, whereas it would have been very difficult to get rid of the plastic sheets if we decided we didn't like them. We met with Georgie and talked her through what we wanted her to do - this was the shots into the fish tank, her looking down into the camera, whilst the fans are on her. We then gave her her costume of the dress, tights, underwear. I then did her make-up. I used powder to make her skin look flawless and pale which was something we wanted. And we then decided that we wanted her lips to be glittery. So I used concealer on her lips and put some silver glitter which we had on top of this as this made it possible for the glitter to stick to the lips. Here is a picture that I took of her lips, and also a picture of me putting on her lip glitter.

We then took shots of her lip syncing through the fish tank. All of my group and I changed round positions, sometimes we were on the camera, another holding the fans in the right place and another on playback. We did these shots in blue light, but also we decided to take them in yellow light as we knew that in the location there were road lamps which were tinted yellow. So we took wide shots and close ups in both lights. We all prefered the blue light so much more than the yellow as it was more beautiful and really added that underwater magical affect. Here is a picture of Georgie doing this lip-sync. One problem we overcame was the fact that in the studio there were lights above her head and these were visible in the shots, so we covered the lights with black material to black those lights out. We also had one of our group pouring water into the tank whilst she was lip-syncing, this created movement in the water which emphasised the fact that she was singing into the pond. It looked really good having the ripples, especially in the blue light.

We then took some shots with a goldfish (Trevor) inside of the fish tank. This was to create the effect of her looking into a pond with life inside of it. This was just an idea to see whether it would work. Trevor swam around the fish tank which looked good as he swam infront of Georgies face so was he visible in the shots. But unfortunately that did not last and he kept swimming close to the sides of the fish tank which made it difficult for us to see him. Sadly poor Trevor won't feature in the video! He however did enjoy himself and it was interesting to work with him :) Left is a shot of Georgie doing a lip-sync which you can see Trevor is in.

The two girls who are our underwater dancers - Sasha and Annabel - arrived. Here is a picture of them on set, they are in their dresses with their coats over the top to keep themselves warm as the fans can be slightly cold. They were enthusiastic all day which was so good as this meant that they were up for doing the movements we wanted and we had to make sure that they kept positive otherwise we might not have got the best shots as possible.














They got changed into their dresses and both looked really good in them, and then I did their make-up. This time I made their lips gold and glittery  - which matched their buttons on their dresses - the lips looked amazing. They too had pale powder put onto their faces by me to create glowing, clear, perfect skin. We got them up onto the table individually as we wanted to get some good single shots. We decided to start by tracking these shots. I really enjoyed directing the girls, and telling them what movements to do. After every shot we were able to see what they looked like on the monitor which was very helpful as we could see if we could move on to the next shot or try and do the same one and perfect it!

Here is a picture of Sasha, you can see the fans are on her. The tracking shots that we took of her are going from left to right, and right to left. This worked well because the lights were made sure that they were out of sight so that it was all a black background. Inbetween shots we turned off the fans so that the actresses didn't get cold, and I really liked telling Sasha what movements to do. She was great as she used to dance a lot so her movements were very balletic. Some of the most beautiful shots were of Sasha alone doing the movements.
After taking shots of the girls alone, we decided to take some shots of all three of the girls because Georgie had an exam after lunch so we needed to get shots of all three girls before she had to go. Below is a picture of the three girls on the table - you can also see me in the shot directing them.

We took some great shots of the three girls. We started off by doing zooming in tracking shots which not only were used as establishing shots but also showed the big entrance of Georgie being in the water with them. The movement that we decided to get them to do was the two girls either side would turn before Georgie - slowly going out of the shot - to reveal Georgie in the middle. We took this shot a few times as it was quite hard to get it perfect, and we had done the first shot almost like a tug-of-war however I really felt that the more graceful movements went better with the music video and was what we wanted. We used different levels and distance to create the idea of them filling the water. It was best when the girls had neutral faces looking straight into the camera - as this went with the song 'Numb'. We did tracking shots of Sasha being nearer the camera swishing her hair into the direction of Georgie, which really led us up to the singer who is the main focus.

After doing this we had lunch - yum. Then we got back to filming the two girl dancers together. We did some shots which were not tracking shots, as these would be easy to edit in and we really needed some shots like this. We also did some tracking shots with both of the girls - going from right to left. One of the best shots I thought was when Sasha led the camera by leading her arms around her body and through to the direction of Annabel. These shots looked really impressive especially because of her eyes as you could clearly see them looking straight into the camera which created a beautiful shot.

Throughout the shots of Georgie we took some shots of her in the blue lighting as this was a really appealing light which looked great with her make-up etc.. Here are a few pictures that I took (the first I think is really pretty) these can be put onto the website of our artist to show some shots taken on the day of her music video. I think the top one is the most affective and powerful photo because of her eyes looking straight into the camera. The lighting creates really good shadows on the face and the hair. I think that the texture and wind on the hair makes it even more beautiful.

I have slightly edited the two black and white photos. The reason I edited both of these two into black and white was to see if the eyes look as impressive (top right) which I think they do, however the skin doesn't look as good in this one. But the one beneath, looks quite good in black and white because of the shadows. Also you can see the sparkles on her lips which is quite a subtle but nice touch. By her looking down and her hair being blown up by the fans it really creates a thoughtful and pretty image - similar to what Adele has for her album covers and it is all about the songwriting and music to her. You cans see the image of Adeles album cover (right). Obviously there are harsher shadows which we could do as it was just an experimentation of editing.

THEN IT WAS 3 O'CLOCK AND WE WERE OFF THE LOCATION. 

When we arrived at Evies house we let Annabel and Sasha do some work inside to keep themselves warm as they were not needed in the next shots. Georgie was in her onesie when we were not shooting and working out what shots we wanted next. Inbetween shots we were on hand to give her her clothes as it was such a cold night. We took shots of her looking into the pond - from the side - this matched the shots we took in the studio as only half of her face was lit up, whereas the other half was in shadow. She didn't do a lipsync by the pond in the end as the lip-sync in the studio looked so good and we didn't want her getting really cold as it was soon we were asking her to get into the pool. Phil positioned his car to face Georgie as we did some shots from the other side of the pond zoomed into her. This created more light which is what we needed. We were worried it might have been too bright, however it wasn't and it worked well. We decided to order some pizza for all of us - which all of the girls were very excited about.

(pic of phils car)

We had a quick tea break after doing this. Whilst we were setting up the pool the girls sat inside eating some pizza and getting warm and ready for getting into the pool. Evie went into the pool to lie down the black lining at the bottom of the pool, which were weighed down with some weights that we had. Here is a picture of her in the pool, and in the right hand corner of this picture you can see just black which is where the pool had been lined with this black material. We all stood on the black lining at the top to stop it from falling into the pool. The temperature of the pool was 32 degrees which was good as it was warm for the girls. 

Here is a picture of the girls sitting at the side of the pool. They insisted on staying outside 5 minutes before they went in as they were very excited about going in! Even by them just dipping their legs into the pool we could see that the dresses were going to work underwater and float about which was something we really wanted. Also with the blue lights being on inside of the pool it made their dresses slightly flourescent which looked magical.

We then got the girls in and did some shots of Annabel and Sasha being underwater - doing some dancing movements. It was hard to look back at the shots as the camera was in a plastic casing and we wanted to get the shots as quick as possible so that the girls could get out and weren't waiting around. One of the main shots we tried to get was of Georgie being pulled into the water - we tried this out with Annabel being the girl being pulled in. However when she entered the water it didn't look very graceful so we needed to make sure that Georgie would make less of a splash and really try and do a dive. We didn't want it to be a 'tug' in but more of a willingness of Georgie wanting to go in. We wanted the hands being connected and also the dive of Georgie going in however this was quite challenging for her as she was still holding onto Sasha. We decided to do the shots seperately - first recording the hand, then focusing on the dive. We managed to get this in three shots. We didn't get Georgie out of the pool until everyone was inposition. We had to make sure that Sasha wasn't blocking Georgie either so that we could see her entering the pool. It looked really good as Georgie was able to dive and straighten her legs which is what we were aiming for. Here is a picture of this shot:

We decided to call it a day after we had gotten the girls to do this three times. They were getting cold and although they said they were fine we decided that we had got the shots we wanted. We put them straight into a hot shower to make them warm - which they wanted together! You can see that they still have smiling faces on them which was brilliant!

So a hard long day of filming came to an end! (Sasha below) (All three girls in the shower above).

I think that one of the main things that we achieved was really looking after our actresses. They each said to me afterwards that they really enjoyed it and were sad it was over. We gave them food, made sure they were warm, made sure that they felt comfortable and this was something that I personally enjoyed about the day. Also making sure that they recieved a lot of praise and positvity was something that I made sure I succeeded at.

The only thing I think we could have improved on was the time that we took on the shots by the pond. Due to weather it was really cold and we should have spent more time on these shots. I feel that we did get good shots we could have got a lip-sync by the pond too. Apart from that I feel that we got everything that we wanted and hoped for.

I did their make up and made sure their clothes were in the right place. We obviously knew how important it was that they were positive and happy so I really made sure that they were throughout the whole of the day. Also directing I felt like I did a good job at making them feel comfortable and telling them simply what we wanted them to do.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the underwater shots, and how the slow motion looks. I'm really hoping that they all look visually beautiful which is definitely something we aimed for. By seeing it on the monitor we saw some of the slow motion shots and that gave us a rough idea of how they will look - and it was very promising! :)

I feel I have learnt the importance of keeping your actors happy. Also skills of directing which I really enjoyed doing. I also loved the photography aspect as I studied it last year and really feel comfortable with a camera in my hand. I feel more confident with taking shots, whether these are tracking or not. Also I have learnt how much I really wanted this video to look good and how much of a perfectionist I am which I didn't realise before - this came out when I looked at the monitor and didn't quite like what I saw so I would direct the girls and ask them to maybe try out a different movement etc.. Overall this experience has been very enjoyable, I'm sad it's over but I can't wait til we had edited the final product!

The most successful part of the day I think was when we did some shots with  Sasha as I think Sashas movements were so graceful and looked amazing in slow motion. As a team I feel we worked really well together as we all helped out in any area - we all gave our input in directing, all had a go at operating the camera, and looking after the girls. There were no arguments or disagreements, we all just got on really well as we all wanted a good end result. At all times we were on the ball and not one of us was unenthusiastic during the day. This was important as energy breads energy. I think personally I looked after the girls most and made sure that they were happy.

HAPPY TIMES.

Experimenting with light graffiti

Earlier this evening one of my group members and I experimented with light graffiti. I already knew how to do this and we had spoken about maybe editing it into the video or just using it for the website or album cover. It is good to do these at the moment because it gets dark quite early :) It is quite magical as it is using light to create rather abstract images. We spelt LOLA and drew some jelly fish and hearts. My group and I had discussed using squiggles in our music video as something that the girl is chasing or in the water shots however I don't actually know if we need them. Here I have edited them into one picture to see just what each of them look like. I feel that some are stronger than others and if we were going to use them in our video we should take more time to make them look a bit better - as this was only a quick experimentation. We were thinking of having another go but this time really trying to perfect L O L A  M A E so that it looks similiar to how we have her logo on the website.. here is a screen shot of how the logo is looking on our website at the moment.

 

 

Getting the set ready

Today we got our set ready for our shoot day which is tomorrow. We got rid of all of the shoot befores set. We placed the black table for which the girls are going to stand on. We put the fans and lights in place. We also looked at the lights to find which ones we wanted. We chose to have a light coming down on the girls from above of a kind of rippled affect which moved slightly – this created shadows and bright areas. We chose the colour of the lights we wanted to go onto the girls front on. These were a mix of dark blue and green lights. We also are going to add a bit of smoke to make it look more water like. Another part of the set that we have added are plastic sheets at the back which we are going to paint dark blue and green to look almost like a waterbed. They will ripple when the fans go onto them.

We bought a few last minute things for the actresses. This was mainly food for the day as we didn't want our actresses going hungry - one of the main things is that they are happy so that they can perform to the best of their ability. We also bought some clear tights, and white underwear which we needed for the girls to wear so that they felt comfortable with their dresses blowing up, also if their underwear was coloured this would be visible which was definitely something we didn't want for the video.

We got two tables set up to place the fish tank onto. The fish tank would sit on each of the tables and our singer Georgie would sing into the fish tank - looking down to the camera. We would fill the fish tank with water tomorrow and then this would create a ripperly affect. Which would look like she was looking into the pond.

 

Email to the girls...

Here is a print screen of the email I sent to the girls. It's telling them exactly what the production scheduele is. Its very important that the girls bring warm clothes and that they are excited about it because negativity could ruin the outcome.

Screen test

Here is a clip that me and my group edited of a screen test that we did of the girls. We used the NX3 camera as this put our clips into slow motion. This was to see whether the slow motion would look good but also to get them comfortable with eachother and the movements that they have to do.

All of them did it well, and particularly Georgie our singer. She knew all of the words to the song and we told her to actually sing to the song which she did. Although the background and costume are not at all what we want - and this is nothing like our end product - we did get the feel of the slow motion and what it would look like and we are all happy with how it will look. We have decided to today write down exactly what shot types we want and what exact movements we want to girls to do.
This test shoot gave us an idea of what works and what doesn't. Also it showed us the importance of the movement of hair in our video as this is key to make it turn from something appealing to look at to something beautiful which is what we want.

Here is the screen test which you can see we have edited our song to.



 Here is a picture of me talking to the singer (below), telling her what we would like her to do. She was happy to do whatever we asked of her which was very good as this meant that hopefully we could get all the shots that we wanted. Another thing that was brilliant about Georgie was that she was actually singing outloud (as you can slightly hear in this video) which will make it look realisitc. By filming it on this slow motion mode we realised how we could only do it in 6second bursts of filming - although this seemed quite annoying it allowed us to tell the girls what we wanted them to do in the next shot whilst it was buffering. By seeing all the girls next to eachother it showed us just how good they look together which is good because we really wanted this. We are all very excited about finally shooting it now!

Here

Costume

Here is a picture I took in Primark of one the dresses that I bought for the underwater girls. The reason I decided to buy these dresses is because the material was lightweight, I liked the fact that there was a little light dress underneath it which will cover up the girls so that it isn't see-through. Also there was a bit of layering on the skirt which was good. It went in at the waist so that made it easy for us to sew pieces of material onto that. The length was also good, and this could be made a bit longer by sewing the material onto it anyway. The whole of the dress had chiffon on it so all of it - even the top - would have an effect of the material floating when there would be fans on it. Also the price wasn't bad. The only thing that I wasn't sure on was the collar as the black sequins and beads would not go with our video as it might distract and it adds weight to the colour so I decided that it would be my job to get rid of all of the sequins.

 

Both items bought and proudly hanging on my bedroom door before my mum and I would get to work on them and get sewing!

 

 

After buying the dresses we went to buy some Chiffon fabric. We got 2 metres of material which matched completely in colour with the dresses. I had decided that we needed to get this amount so that we had 10cm strips of material tied on. Not all of them were long as we made cut them evenly about 3/4 of the width. Once the strips were cut and ready to be sewed on my mum very kindly sewed them all into place. Here are two pictures of my mum sewing them on at my house.

 

 

AND HERE ARE THE FINISHED PRODUCTS...

Our Artist

Now that we have started to plan our DigiPack and Website we realised that we needed to decide on an artist name. We talked about what sort of name we want and we said how we wanted it to be girly, but also quirky. We wanted it to be a rare name but something not too obscure. We also decided that we wanted it to be double barrelled - whether thats a surname or a middle name that would make the second name.
A few of the names that we thought of were Isla, Matilda, Maisie, Lola, Layla, Sasha. One that we were all pretty keen on was Lola. We however wanted it to be double barrelled. So we thought of Lola Rae which we all really liked but then realised that it sounded very similar to Lana Del Ray. So decided to think of something else. We came up with Lola Mae. We all loved it and that is now our artists name.
My group and I have started on the website and this is what the title of our artist looks like:

 

I think that the colours for the website should be these - white, black, grey and light blue. The reason for this is because it is sophisicated, uni-sex yet still a bit girly, suits our audience as it isn't childish.