acount of shoot day

The shoot’s set preparations started the day before with the painting of one of the walls green and the painting of a platform that was too pushed up against the wall in the same shade of green. This was done in order to create a “green screen”. A green screen allows for ‘Chroma Key Compositing’ which is a technique that enables two images or frames to be put together, to do this the green is removed (or made transparent) in after effects and another image is put behind it. In order to make this look as effective as possible we had to first make sure that none of the band members where wearing green as this would have then also become invisible. We also had to light the green screen in such a way that there was minimal to no shadows being left on the back wall. This is because the shadows would affect the green screen. To do this we used four overhead flood lights and four side lights. As the band where bringing in all there own instruments we had made sure that the platform was big enough to house all of them at the same time.




The morning of the shoot day the whole team met early at breakfast to have a final quick talk over everything in order to make sure everyone knew exactly what they would be doing that day so that there would little to no time “wasted” during the day. We then went to the media suit to collect the camera that we would be using and make sure it had a full battery pack. Francesca then went out to guide the band into where the studio was, the rest of the group went into the studio to set up the camera and monitor. The camera had to be “bubbled” which means getting it at exactly the right angle so that we get the best possible shots. The monitor is linked to the camera so that we can instantly see how well the shot transfers into screen. Also so that no everyone has to be crammed behind the camera to see what is going on in the shot. When the band got to the studio myself and Francesca met them and briefed them on the plans for that day (what they would need to wear, when they would be needed and where they would need to set up there instruments). We then helped them set up the instruments and told them where they would be standing on the stage. After the band had changed and were more settled we began to rehearse to enable them to feel more calm and natural performing with a camera in their face and a crew surrounding them (this can be quite scary the first time). The rehearsal was also good for the crew as this gave us a chance to try out different angles with the camera without actually recording or wasting a take if the shot didn’t work, also to adjust the lighting in order to make band look as good as possible. After we finished the rehearsal we started straight away with the takes. The first take we took was a wide shot of the whole band; this was so that there confidence was built up even further before asking them to perform alone, this will also be used as an establishing shot of the band. So that the band play exactly in time with the music track we will be using when editing the video, we the song playing on speakers in the studio; this is called playback. We took four takes of the whole song of the band in wide, then we moved on to the mid-shots and close ups. It was half way through a close up take of Chris the lighting in the studio tripped. In order for them to turn back on we had to let them cool first, as soon as it was ok to turn them back on again we quickly reset the shot and begin filming again right away, trying to keep the amount of time lost to a absolute minimum. We continued to film for the rest of the morning getting a big mixture of shots of the band (e.g. over the shoulder shots of the drum kit, extreme close-ups on the guitar strings and fingers playing the keyboard) until 1:10. At this point we packed up the camera and locked it back into the media suit and help the band pack up there kit. We then went to lunch with the band, over this I briefed them on what would be going on that afternoon. After lunch Francesca, Oscar, Jo and I went back to media suit to get the camera, extra battery pack, new memory card and a large piece of green card which was to be used as a portable green screen. We then travelled into central Guilford. When we got into Guilford we set up for shots in some of the more recognisable town areas. At first we where trying to get shots with no other people in the shots, after a while we realised that for one it was taking ages waiting for there to be no passers by and also that by having them in the shot this would add to the realism of the shot. Other shots which we filmed were of the band members walking though puddles. Our original idea was to use the piece of green bored to reflect into the water in order to be able to use the technique of chroma-keying to superimpose the band playing into the puddles. This ended up not working as we found that the bored was not big enough and also the puddles where to dirty to properly reflect the green.



The next part of shooting was when we were trying to get the entire band meeting together outside the “boiler room”. To do this we had them all entering from different sides of the shot. This took a few rehearsals to get right as it was difficult to judge when we needed to queue each one of the band to come into the shot. We were also lucky with the fact that as we where filming the owner of the boiler room turned up and allowed us to get the band walking into the location and also turned the lights on in the venue. This further added to the realism of the shot. After we finished filming at the boiler room we called it a wrap, packed up the equipment, said goodbye to the band and then went back to Hurtwood to upload our raw footage onto the computer.