my music video shoot day evaluation

1. Shoot Day Evaluation
Sophie Superfine

2. The Day Before
The day before the shoot, I did a final
costume try on with the rapper to solidify
our decisions. We chose an all black outfit
for her and I decided that Bea would wear
all red in the maze set up.
I also did a final practice with the rapper
and I asked her if I printed out the words
would it make her feel more confident.
Thus, I typed out the lyrics and printed
these on a large piece of paper.
I brought in the costumes I was providing
the morning of the day before and a mirror
to help the singer get ready on the day of the
shoot. That evening, I packed a bag where I
put makeup remover, lipsticks, and cotton
buds.
I sent a reminder to the singer and
rapper to remind them on what
costume, makeup, hair, and
accessories to bring.

3. The morning of…
When I woke up on the morning of the shoot,
I felt very nervous as I was worried about how
organised we were and how the shots were
going to turn out. I felt that I was prepared but
wasn’t sure how the rest of the group felt. I
was also nervous that we may run out of time
as we had to leave a little early for a Theatre
trip. However, when I arrived to the studio
and started setting up the costume and
makeup station, I felt more relaxed and
instead, excited to start shooting.

4. How well prepared were you when you arrived for the
shoot, what did you have to do before you could start
shooting?
We arrived to the studio at 8:30 to meet with Matt to
discuss the schedule of sets and the times at which we
would shoot each set. Matt also talked to us about work
ethic which included things like not being on your phone,
getting involved and not leaving the room, as well making
sure to respect the space and each other to make
everything ran smoothly and effectively. He also
reminded us to look at the monitors when shooting
instead of the set - ‘it’s not the theatre!’ Finally, we ran
through the fire escape exits and to be cautious about the
heavy doors and trying not to let haze out the door when
using them.
Monitor One
Monitor Two

5. Describe what the studio looked like when you
started to shoot?
The first set was the Rothko paintings
that we had done the night before. We
all got involved with the paintings of the
Rothko’s and George, the set designer
put them up in the studio whilst we
sorted out the rapper and singer the
morning of the shoot. I think it looked
better than I had imagined, especially as
it stood out against the black curtains.
The lighting also helped bring our idea
to life, with the flashing multi-colours
making the colours on the paintings
stand out and the use of ‘beauty lighting’
to make it look nice!
Me
painting

6. How did you divide the roles on your shoot day, what
roles did you play? What were the key responsibilities
you had?
We had discussed what specific roles we were
going to do on the shoot day, however, when it
came to it, we all got to do a bit everything. My
key role was director but I also did camera,
playback, costume and makeup.
Firstly, I stood in for Bea whilst she was getting her makeup done so
that the camera operator could set up the right angles. During the first
set, I took on main director as I had directed all the test shoots so I
knew what the vision was. I made sure Bea was confident during the
takes and directed her to try different movements and facial
expressions to portray the atmosphere we had intended. When we got
to the close up, I told the camera operator to do some tracking shots
of her arm movements as I thought it would look good when editing
different clips together with movement. Whilst being director I had to
call, “standby, roll camera, playback, and cut” to make sure my group
knew what they were doing and when.
Me standing
in for singer

7. We had some spare time for this set,
so we decided to do some shots of the
rapper with this set. We got her to sit
on the track and put a fisheye lens on
the camera to create a cool effect as I
directed her dancing to the song. I
think this turned out great and added
something extra to the music video!

8. On the second set up, I did most of the camera
work. I used a camera which was put in 50fps to
make the action playback in slow-motion. As this
set was underwater, I thought this was very
effective as it looked realistic. Once we had done
one take, we decided that the dress wasn’t giving
the full effect that the singer was underwater.
Thus, I went to the costume department to find
a piece of light material to place around her
shoulders to make this underwater effect even
more realistic.
I was sat on a track to film these movements as Kitt pushed
me. I had three seconds to capture her movements which was
challenging at first but after a few takes, Kitt and I worked
well and in sync. First we took about ten takes from right to
left and then we filmed more from left to right. This is so it
makes it look like the camera has done a full circle around the
singer’s body but in reality we just didn’t have a full circle
track.
Me with
the
camera

9. For the maze set up, Kitt and I helped set up the flats to create the shape
of the maze. Whilst George, helped finish it, I took on the role in
costume to help decide what Bea would wear. I went with the red
dragon trousers, red leather jacket and black top. I suggested that she
should wear a red lipstick to tie the whole outfit together. The first maze
shots, Kitt filmed whilst I directed Bea, focusing on her facial
expressions and movement around the maze to portray that she was
disorientated. I suggested that we start with her walking around without
lip sync to capture the disoriented walk and then the next shots I got her
to lip sync. I directed the camera operator to do shots of Bea walking
away from the camera and towards so that in editing, it looks as though
she has been walking for a long time, back and forth.
I took on the role of camera operator during the
rapper’s part, which was done on the track as we
revealed the singer and rapper meeting in the
middle of the maze. I also set up the track. We
had to do about five takes to get the timing of the
flats opening up in sync. As I filmed, the rapper
and singer’s performance got better as well
because they became more confident doing it
together.
Building
the
track

10. My group and I set up the final set up
which was the doodles on the infinity roll.
This involved us using oil pastels to
scribble over the paper. I directed the first
few shots which was Bea laying down and
the lighting designer used different gels on
the lights to make the set look more
interesting. Whilst filming, I directed Bea
to make sure that her facial expressions
were similar to avoid continuity problems.
First I shot a wide shot, then mid and
close. Next, we shot some close-ups of her
picking up different pencils so that in
editing, I could use these for continuity.
Finally, I directed Bea into different
positions so that we could shoot some
wide shots with strobe lights to make an
impressive image. We shot these in slow-
motion and I think this turned out very
well.
Doing the doodles

11. What do you think that you
personally did particularly well?
I think that I took a lead role on the shoot day, making
sure that we got all the shots we needed by checking off
our shot list, messaging the rapper and singer about
timings throughout the day, directing the singer and
rapper to portray the right emotions we wanted them to
have, and making sure the day ran as smooth as possible.
I think I was organised and made key decisions
throughout the day such as using the spare time at the
end of the day to take photos of our singer for social
media against the backdrop instead of shooting the
animal head shots that we had previously planned for.
I also believe I did well with the camera in the maze set-
up, as I watched the camera technician trial test first
which allowed me to know exactly how to shoot when I
had the opportunity.
Shot list

12. What problems did your group have on the
shoot day, how did you solve them?
One of our group members were a bit late to
the shoot, which meant they missed the brief
of the day. However, when she arrived we
made sure to let her know the timings through
the rest of the day so that we got everything
done.
When we filmed the dry-for-wet set up, we
wanted Bea to be lying down on stools and
angle the camera to make it look like she was
floating, but this was uncomfortable and
ruined the illusion. Thus, we used a table
instead and got her to lie on the edge and
cover the corner of the table with her dress to
overcome this.
Throughout the day, we had to keep reminding
ourselves to make sure that each shot would make
sense in the final edit of the music video. For
example, making sure that the singer wasn’t being
too abstract so that there wouldn’t be disconnect
between set-ups. This was also overcome, as I made a
key decision to get rid of the surrealist, animal head
shots at the end of the shoot. This is because the rest
of the shots we had got earlier that day wouldn't of
made sense with this.

13. Which part of the shoot do you think was most successful and why?
I thought that the dry-for-wet set-up was
particularly successful as the slow-motion
shots created the illusion she was really
underwater especially with the fans blowing
her dress and her movement which made it
look like she was trying to climb to the top
of the water surface.
I thought the lighting for the doodle set-
up was effective and exceeds the look we
were going for in our initial idea. I also
think the lighting for the Rothko set-up
looked great and made it look more
exciting than I thought it would have.
Which part of the shoot do you wish had gone better and why?
I wish that we could have rehearsed the Rothko set-up more and created a dance
routine for the singer because I felt that it would have made continuity better and
feel more put together. However, Bea is a great dancer and the rehearsals I had
done with her prepared her with movements which she could do and she knew
exactly what vibe we were going for which made it turn out fine!

14. How well do you feel that your production group
worked as a team?
Are there any lessons you learned today that could help you make
your next shoot even more successful?
I feel as though I would always like to feel more prepared, even if I was
prepared as I could be! However, going into my next shoot I would make
sure that the whole group was prepared for what time we start and what set
needed to happen when to make the most of the time we are given. I would
also make sure that we had all the costumes sorted at least three days
before the shoot, meaning doing fittings earlier than we did this time so
that the day is less stressful!
On the day of the shoot, I feel like we worked great as a team, giving each other an opportunity
to have a go at each role they wanted to. I feel like we communicated well by discussing what
exactly we wanted each shot to look like and any additional ideas were discussed efficiently on
the day. However, through the planning process, I think our communication could have been
better, by keeping eachother up to date with test shoots or pieces of set that we had trialed. This
is because at times, we got confused on different set ideas and extra ideas that had been planned
if someone wasn’t there for the discussion.
Sending
costume
fittings,
makeup trials
and painting
trials to each
other