on the girls and sheets. We then filmed the girls from different angles in the 'den' laughing and lip syncing. However, we only filmed in close-up and mid close-up to show the intimacy that we wanted to create in the video. One of the 'girly' items was pink netting; we discovered that this was created an interesting under water style effect when placed over the projector. It appeared as though the camera was underwater and created an delusional 'hippy' type feel that we wanted to create for the video, we then captured this on camera.
We then changed the set, making a tunnel of white material using a bed sheet and a fan. We then filmed the girls lip-syncing lying down in the tunnel, once with Lizzy in the foreground and then with Catherine in the background. We then set up four poles and hung sheets on them to look like a tent style white background and hung fairy lights around it. We filmed with this set up on a mid closeup and a closeup. We then filmed just the girls bodies with no background
and projected the patterns onto the girl's white dresses and filmed them one at a time dancing and turning. After lunch, the girls then changed clothing from white dresses to cosmic style tops and Catherine wore a velvet skirt and Lizzy wore velvet leggings. We hung the sheets from the ceiling using rope and a ladder to attach them to the lighting rig. We filmed one girl at a time holding a sheet in each hand and waving them about at a slow pace whilst lip syncing. I thought these shots were particularly effective because the projection and the girl's make-up stood out particularly here. We then used this sheet set up by filming Catherine walking into the sheets and Lizzy walking out.Gina thought of this shot on the shoot day and I felt it was particularly effective as it would make the audience consider are they twins or are they not. We then filmed them in slow motion from a birds eye view throwing them in the air on a bed sheet. We were assisted in holding a corner of the bed sheet, with each girl on it, feathers and flowers. We also filmed them each lying on the sheet and filmed them from a birds eye view lip syncing and then in slow
motion with them both together as feathers were thrown onto their faces. We then packed up and returned the props we used, swept the floor and made sure the studio was left in the same way it was before we built the set.As it was only me and Gina in a group, therefore was a lot of different jobs to do on the shoot day. I was in charge of making sure that what was being filmed looked good on the monitor, keeping the projector playing the images, making sure that the red light to stop people entering the television studio was switched on when filming and was also in charge of playback, which is when the song is played every time something is filmed so the girl's could lip-sync to it. Gina took photographs during the shoot day, she was also in charge of making sure the girls new what they were doing during the shoot and although I set up the different sets too, she had a more vital role in this process. We both handled the camera work also.
Camera work was especially important in our pop video as we did everything free hand.
We did not use a tripod during our video as we feet that would limit us and we wanted to have the sense of free spirit and energy in our video. We used the Sony NX5 to film our video, which I felt was an appropriate camera to use as wasn't to heavy to camera and delivered a quality image. We used this camera to take many different shots in all angles using different settings and lighting effects. We did this to make the video fast moving, dream-like and colourful.
We used different lighting effects and haze during the shoot day, to make the video seem more surreal and psychedelic. We used bright blonde lighting to light the girls from the front for a dreamy atmospheric quality. We also used coloured green and blue lighting at times again, to give a dream like, supernatural effect on the girls and the backdrop. We also used patterned 'gobos' that were patterned with horizontal lines and span around, to give a sense of a dream taking over reality. We also used projection of firework type lights that were projected onto the girls, their clothes and the set. Lights w
ere very important because the backdrop, their costume and the idea was not complicated that lights were needed to bring out the dream like, surreal qualities of the video.There were no problems on the actual shoot day, it went to plan, giving us an hour to eat lunch and the girls performed to a high standard. However, the leading up to the shoot day, especially the day before the shoot was very problematic. Due to Gina and I unable to find a suitable amount of cast that were able to attend the shoot date, we decided on a new idea the day before the shoot.Much of our energy and time was spent into trying to get cast to be available for the shoot day, however it was very difficult finding older people that were free due to work commitments, lived close enough, were not offended by the subject matter and were comfortable enough to perform. Many people initially said they would be available but as the shoot day became closer they realised they had other commitments. We asked teachers to be cast members instead, however, we did not feel it would be as effective as t
hey did not look old enough. Therefore, the day before the shoot we decided to re-think the idea. We did not change the idea completely, but decided not to focus on the narrative elements of the video, but the performance elements.We decided that we would only use the two girls in the bad and we thought the concept of the video could be them coming back from an exiting day, perhaps meeting a boy. The video would show the feelings of excitement and girliness with lights and pink items. We thought this would be an appropriate idea as the song appears to be surreal and has a 'girly' atmosphere about it. We also thought this would be appropriate as it is not a challenging but simple idea to carry out and as we only had one day to plan for it, this was important.
Therefore, we were limited to what we could achieve on the shoot day, as we only had one day to find things for our video and could not buy items previous to the shoot. However, we overcame this problem because our idea was simple. I borrowed fairy lights and cushions from friends and we had previously purchased feathers for our initial idea. Gina also purchased bunches of flowers and we brought in all the 'girly' items we had for the shoot. Also, Gina and I had spent allot of money and time finding and buying appropriate props for the initial idea. Therefore, we had to refund pink paint, wallpaper and bedroom stickers. We had also previously rented out and set up the cinema chairs for the cinema scene, which were no longer needed.
One shot I feel worked particularly well was a shot we created when the girls sat on sofas that were placed on their sides. We placed a keyboard in their and p
ut fairy lights on it. Catherine played keyboard whilst Lizzy lip-synced. I thought this was especially effective as it gave a performance element to the shoot but it was not as the audience would expect. We used jouissance as they audience would expect Catherine to be playing keyboard on a stand standing up. However she played the instrument sitting down whilst she looked up at the camera. Although, Catherine was not playing the right notes, the shot brought out the dream like atmosphere we wanted to create. As it created a sense that they were in a 'magical' den and they were relaxed and happy in their 'dream world'.Another shot I thought worked particularly well was when we made a small tent style set out of white bed sheets and the girls sat inside in lip-syncing. We placed the projector and the camera in a gap in the sheets and hung the fairy lights inside the tent. I felt this was effective as the projection was incredibly clear on the sheet in the background. I feel this shot helped highlight the element of fantasy we wanted to create in the overall video.
One shot I feel did not work very well was where the girls layed on the bed and the camera was shot from a birds eye view but on close-up of them. It was effective when they layed still and lip-synced; however we tried to roll them from either side of the sheet using two helpers and us to hold each corner of the sheet and move it back and fourth. However, this did not look good because the movement of each girl looked slightly awkward whilst rolling and them moving in and out of shot was not incredibly effective.
Overall, I honestly feel the shoot day could not have gone better. Considering we had one day to sort out our props, set, lighting and idea we pulled the shoot off very well. I feel the fact we only had one day, gave us a creative advantage as it meant the shots were not as formulaic and structured but had the free and dreamlike quality we wanted the video to posses. Every element of the shoot day went particularly smooth, from the setting up of the projector to the cast being especially good at taking direction. Therefore, we had time to film a large amount footage, with different costume, set, camera free hand movement and angles. Meaning that, we will have many different shots to chose from in the editing process, making it much easier and therefore creating a better finished product.
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