Evaluation of Shoot Day

 Prior to our shoot day, we all organised what props, costumes and extra things we were in charge of bringing in the day before the shoot in order to stay organised. I brought in pink blankets and cushions to add to our bed on the set. 

As a group we all planned to meet the afternoon before to build the first set which we would be filming the following morning. Bashy and I began rolling out the white polished floor and wallpapering the wooden walls for the set to mimic a pink esk barbie bedroom. I helped out by building the flat pack items such as the bed and adding pink materials to our furniture before placing them into our set. Once the bed was built, we all prepared it and moved it into the studio set before creating the rest of the pink bedroom. Finally we added in shelves for the teddy bears and then the first set was complete for the next morning of filming. 

On the morning of the shoot day, I was filled with excitement but also a wave of anxiety for the busy day ahead. Once I arrived at the studio, we took all the props and costumes and any accessories up to the canteen for our actors to change into while we prepared the camera and lighting. Our director, Tegan talked us all through the shot list and storyboard plan for the day, however we were running late on our schedule due to inconveniences with the lighting. Once the actors were changed into the prom dress costumes, Adriana our art director fixed their hair and makeup to match our girly girl esc image we wanted to create. Once all the actors were prepared and the set was completed, we were ready to begin filming. 

We all had previously decided on our roles for the shooting day, I took the role as the camera operator which I was pleased about as I wanted to play a big part in our groups contribution and get an insight into working with a camera on set. 

We began filming our barbie pink aesthetic set which looked identical to our plan and mood board, the lighting was warm toned and nicely complimented with our pink tones. I first started setting up the camera on the tripod to film the wide, mid, and close up shots of each shot of our band and the band members, this was planned according to our shot list. This looked neat and precise which matched the perfect barbie girl style we were creating in the first set. Once I got the hang of using the Canon AX11 on thr tripod, I was keen to experiment and incorporate my own ideas into the music video. During the trashing up of the barbie set, I voiced my ideas of experimenting with the hand held camera to give off a purposeful shakey, messy look to compliment the reckless trashing of the perfect barbie set. My ideas were heard and I began following the actors on set with the camera rolling and creating a certain look to the shot. With the hand of my group we began to incorporate new ideas to make the shots look even better, and added a twist to the video. I experimented with new angles using the hand held which aloud me to be more creative and create unusal looking shots. I received positive and supportive feedback from my group for my camera skills. I switched with different lenses from close to wide while using the hand held, I also alternated with using the tripod to get a stabilised shot and also hand held for a chaotic look to the outcome.

While the actors costumes changed, we all began to change the set, first we messed it up, ripped the teddy's and upturned the bed. We practiced spray painting and I got some non synch shots of the actors walking, spray painting and laughing. The second set was my favourite, we all destroyed the set and got experimental shots which we hadn't planned but looked cool on the hand held shots. I switched between the standstill shots on the tripod and also the handheld to get close up shots of the band playing their instruments as i followed the singer around the set during filming.

The final set we removed all the furniture apart from the instruments and actors changed into their final costume. We did this whole shot on the tripod in the middle center frame to get a wide shot of the whole band before doing individual wide shots on each of the band members. 

I thoroughly enjoyed taking the role of camera operator, I felt that I made a huge contribution to my group and this campaign. I liked being experimental and not following the exact shot lists and taking control of my ideas and projecting them using the camera. I learnt so much about film making and music videos.