Construction Post 1: Week 1 production

Week 1 of production was our Main Shoot week, the schedule of which can be seen below (it is colour coded in regards to which set-up we were shooting):

Our Main shoot schedule

This is a quick video tour of the Seward Studio I filmed just before filming began on Monday:

Monday

We had two set-ups to complete on Monday- Puppet and Snow White.

Puppet Set-Up

We scheduled Puppet first as we believed that this would take us less time. We had set up the rope/rigging at the end of our test shoot week so we were ready to start filming straight away.

We improved the make-up from what we had learnt in the test shoot. I improved the characterisation of the puppet through the idea of being 'possessed' and adapted my posture by standing knock-kneed to show this.

The improved make-up

Another thing we included from our observations of the test shoot was to have more experimental shots, so we used the dolly for the first time:

The Dolly

Below is a video of our feedback of our evaluation of the Puppet set-up:

Snow White Set-Up

After having a good morning doing Puppet we were in high spirits for Snow White. This set-up had gone particularly well in our test shoot so we had the added pressure of getting shots as good as the week before.

I was very pleased with the uses of intertextual (Goodwin) signifiers in the costume and props which enabled us not to have to buy a Snow White costume: our signifiers were blue & yellow ribbons, the dwarfs and the apple. We improved the shot of me sitting on the floor with the dwarfs from the test shoot by lowering the tripod to its lowest level to create a better low angle shot.

The low-angle shot and signifiers

I really enjoyed performing in the Snow White set-up, especially doing gestures such as twiddling my hair and interacting with the dwarfs.

What I looked like on the monitor twiddling my hair

Below is our feedback video on how we felt that Snow White went:

Tuesday

1950's Housewife Set-Up

We had a very productive day on Tuesday and managed to end the morning session about four hours ahead of schedule and we were able to start the Land Girls set-up in the afternoon.

1950's was another fun set-up as I was able to play a comedy role and create a parody of the stereotypical 1950's housewife. I also liked the inter-textual reference in the poster we made of "You Mean A Woman Can Open It?"

1950's Housewife

From target audience feedback from our test shoot footage we decided to incorporate more experimental movement such as tracking the dolly forwards and backwards on "Sure I'm a pretty girl..." in the middle eight to hopefully make that part of the music video more visually interesting.

Below is our feedback video:

Land Girls Set-Up

As we were four hours ahead of schedule we decided to begin Land Girls as we believed that we could get the majority of it done that afternoon. By the end of the day we had filmed most of the shots and only had experimentals and long shots to do on Wednesday morning. 

I was really pleased with the lighting set up which we had created in the test shoot and were able to re-create it through the use of 'memories' on the lighting desk (a description of which can be seen in the lighting demo video at the end of this post). We improved the hair and make-up from the test shoot as we thought it looked too natural for a music video.

The new hair and make-up

I enjoyed performing in Land Girls as I got to interact with all the different props and incorporated gestures such as salutes into my choreography.

The salute pose

Below is our feedback video on our thoughts about Land Girls:

Wednesday

On Wednesday we finished off Land Girls and then began Doll's House- our biggest set-up:

Doll's House Set-Up

During the day we were in the studio at different times and because Phoebe and Gabriel acted in this set-up it meant some of their shots could be filmed when I, for example, was in lessons.

Gabriel and Phoebe acting

Also, because I was not the only actor it gave me a chance to do some of the filming which I really enjoyed:

Me filming some of the Doll's House shots

I also used my acting skills to direct Phoebe and Gabriel to make them appear more physically doll-like.

For all the set-ups we used our shoot-board and created a shot list alongside it to make sure that we did not miss out any shots. The Doll's House shot list can be seen below:

Doll House Shot List

Thursday

During Thursday we got the rest of Doll's House filmed and left our slow-mo trashing of the Doll's House until the end, as we had to keep putting the set back to how it was so we could do more takes. We also developed how Phoebe and I got out of the Doll's House to complete the narrative thread of our video.

Trashing the Doll's House

We ended the day by setting up the studio for the performance set-up on Friday.

Our feedback video is below:

Friday

Performance Set-Up

We only scheduled one set-up for Friday as we wanted to get as much of the filming done earlier in the week so it would take the pressure off on Friday. The performance set-up was very important as we needed to clearly illustrate the character of our artist GiGi in order for the artist identity not to become lost in all the different set-ups and characters that she played.

GiGi in performance

In Performance we tried to establish Goodwin's Star Identity and portray GiGi's personality through her mannerisms and how she performed the song.

Our feedback can be seen below:

Saturday

After watching our footage back on Thursday afternoon we decided that we need to re-shoot:

• Our teachers thought that in the Snow White mid shots as I looked too red 
• Snow White zoom out from the dwarfs to make sure we had a take good enough for our music video
• 1950's interaction with our new props of pancakes and ketchup

Having the possibility to do pick-ups was very beneficial as it meant that we finished the week with the knowledge that we had all the footage that we wanted.

Below is a time lapse of part of the Saturday session:



Below is a video of a lighting demonstration that Gabriel and I did on Saturday after we finished filming:

Overall, I am very pleased with what we were able to achieve in our main shoot and am looking forward to editing our hours of footage!