12th November Shoot

We dedicated this shoot day to band performance, because that way we could focus on it and give ourselves all the time we needed to ensure the best performance, and allow time for taking publicity shots, too.

We set up the scene the same as on the 4th of November shoot, with the drums in the back centre, guitarist and bassist on either side and microphone for the singer in the front centre:

Band set

Unlike our last attempt at filming band scenes, we had Jacob with us, so we could film the shots with all the band...

Juliette worked as director and camera operator for this, because she was the only one not performing

...as well as close-ups and mid-shots:

Filming a mid shot of Jacob

Filming a close up of Jacob

As demonstrated by the photograph above, we experimented with different shot types and camera angles. We thought an angled shot of Jacob would make our video more interesting, so it wouldn't all be straight on and risk looking too static.

Filming Jacob's close-up - for this we were all able to act as directors and help position/frame the camera

Jacob performing

Another way we tried to make our footage look more interesting was by experimenting with the dolly tripod:

We thought adding some camera movement might improve our video, so it wouldn't be very static the whole way through. However, when we watched over it later we didn't think that it fitted with the style of our video, which is focused more on costumes, set and choreography, distracting from the lack of camera movement.

Since this was the second time attempting to shoot the band scenes, I found performance much easier, because I knew what to play and how to move and act from rehearsing. 

The other thing that helped was establishing the personalities of our characters. We decided Chrystal would fit into the laid-back, "cool" bassist image, with a powerful feminine quality to her as well, and I would be the fun, upbeat guitarist. This made it easier to perform because I wasn't acting as myself anymore - I could just pretend to be a character. I still felt a bit self-conscious at the beginning of the shoot, but it became easier and I gained confidence with each take.

Band performance

When we looked back over the footage from this day, we liked most of it - the costumes, lighting and set worked well, and the performance was better than last time since Chrystal and I were more confident and energetic, and Jacob's lip sync had improved.

The problem was Jacob's microphone was too high up, so when he performed it sometimes covered his mouth and face too much:

We decided we would reshoot the band scenes again with the microphone lowered slightly.