Like clockwork, once all our classes ended we all carpooled with Mahum, drinks in hand, to her place to pick up the props we needed before we headed over to my place where the majority of the day's shoot would take place.
The team quite used to the rhythm of the shoot now, functioned as a well-oiled machine, helping each other where need be whilst acting independently in their outlined roles. All three of us set to work removing the yellow backdrop and replacing it with the black one. We shot the scenes for pre-self acceptance and moving on with relative ease, using a variety of shots to capture her doing the childish painting. We lacked a proper palette but made do with the resources we had on hand, improvising where the need arose. The painting itself didn't quite turn out right. The skirt was quite off but we decided we would cover it up in editing.
Mahnoor had done a beautiful painting the night before with abstract elements, including a rat to match our name, 'The RedTide Rats', to be used as the post-moving on art work.
However, we didn't have any extra paint and so deviated from our original plan of showing her splash the colourful paint onto the canvas to shots of the easel facing her on which she made bold strokes, choosing to increase the pace of editing to create the rising energy at the end of the song.
While the black backdrop was still up, we decided to take some pictures of her with yellow tinted shades on for our digipak. After this Mahum and Fatima helped hold the blue backdrop up so we could take the shots of the heels we had missed the day before since they were an important symbolic elements of the music video.
We then took a short break to eat, excitedly going over the footage and exchanging memes.
Mahum's sister then picked us up to take us to her house, the last location for our shoot. More than a little tired, we pushed forward, me and Mahum setting up the table on which the phones were to be scattered and a chair in front of a wooden backdrop while Mahnoor set up the equipment. Meanwhile Fatima had changed into her outfit for the scene, a pink shirt to match the pink flowers on the top of the wooden backdrop. We started off by shooting her lip-syncing performance and then solo shots of the telephones for the beginning of the music video. We had to pick the lesser evil when it came to lightening. The room was comparatively small which meant that we either used the LED light we have and have an overly bright shot or a slightly subdued one by just using the overhead lights. We chose the overhead lights. In the midst of shooting the solos the camera ran out of charge so we plugged it in and took a short break. Once the camera had enough charge we shot the final dance sequence against the backdrop and then we were finally done!
They were a few taxing days but I think me and my team managed it well with minimum disagreements, some companionable sympathy and even improved upon it by voicing our opinions. All three of us can agree though, that after hearing the song on loop for perhaps the 87th time, you can't help but harbour a little bitterness for it.
Lighting and Equipment
The shooting site for the yellow and black backdrops was well lit up due to there being two windows in the room. We made use of the sunlight and a dull overhead warm light which acted as a rim light. For the telephone room scenes we used cool lighting already available in the room we used to shoot the scenes. We used a Sony HX300 camera and a tripod, for stable and standardised footage.
Camera Angles and Shots
High angle, low angle and eye-level angles were used, the latter one being used predominantly. Shots ranged from extreme close ups, close ups, mid-close ups, mid shots, mid-long shots and full shots.
Experience
We immediately got to work, first collectively setting up the yellow backdrop while Fatima got dressed followed by me and Mahnoor setting up the equipment while Mahum arranged for the rest of the props required in the scenes with the yellow backdrop.
We started off by shooting the performance and some key shots, the full shots of dream catchers. We continued shooting the scenes methodically, using various props such as a flip phone, a cassette player and some red tinted shades. These all had important symbolic roles to play within our music video which is also why they were shot first, so we wouldn't accidentally forgo any key shots such as the heels we forgot to shoot against the blue backdrop. Symbolic scenes in particular are of great importance since our music video is a conceptual and performance based one.
Fatima proved to play the sunny part to match the yellow backdrop just as well as she played the negative affects of her character. This helped us capture footage with diverse expressions and moods, something which will help us build the cohesive meaning of the music video and make the process of editing easier.
We started off by shooting the performance and some key shots, the full shots of dream catchers. We continued shooting the scenes methodically, using various props such as a flip phone, a cassette player and some red tinted shades. These all had important symbolic roles to play within our music video which is also why they were shot first, so we wouldn't accidentally forgo any key shots such as the heels we forgot to shoot against the blue backdrop. Symbolic scenes in particular are of great importance since our music video is a conceptual and performance based one.
Fatima proved to play the sunny part to match the yellow backdrop just as well as she played the negative affects of her character. This helped us capture footage with diverse expressions and moods, something which will help us build the cohesive meaning of the music video and make the process of editing easier.
The team quite used to the rhythm of the shoot now, functioned as a well-oiled machine, helping each other where need be whilst acting independently in their outlined roles. All three of us set to work removing the yellow backdrop and replacing it with the black one. We shot the scenes for pre-self acceptance and moving on with relative ease, using a variety of shots to capture her doing the childish painting. We lacked a proper palette but made do with the resources we had on hand, improvising where the need arose. The painting itself didn't quite turn out right. The skirt was quite off but we decided we would cover it up in editing.
Mahnoor had done a beautiful painting the night before with abstract elements, including a rat to match our name, 'The RedTide Rats', to be used as the post-moving on art work.
However, we didn't have any extra paint and so deviated from our original plan of showing her splash the colourful paint onto the canvas to shots of the easel facing her on which she made bold strokes, choosing to increase the pace of editing to create the rising energy at the end of the song.
While the black backdrop was still up, we decided to take some pictures of her with yellow tinted shades on for our digipak. After this Mahum and Fatima helped hold the blue backdrop up so we could take the shots of the heels we had missed the day before since they were an important symbolic elements of the music video.
We then took a short break to eat, excitedly going over the footage and exchanging memes.
Mahum's sister then picked us up to take us to her house, the last location for our shoot. More than a little tired, we pushed forward, me and Mahum setting up the table on which the phones were to be scattered and a chair in front of a wooden backdrop while Mahnoor set up the equipment. Meanwhile Fatima had changed into her outfit for the scene, a pink shirt to match the pink flowers on the top of the wooden backdrop. We started off by shooting her lip-syncing performance and then solo shots of the telephones for the beginning of the music video. We had to pick the lesser evil when it came to lightening. The room was comparatively small which meant that we either used the LED light we have and have an overly bright shot or a slightly subdued one by just using the overhead lights. We chose the overhead lights. In the midst of shooting the solos the camera ran out of charge so we plugged it in and took a short break. Once the camera had enough charge we shot the final dance sequence against the backdrop and then we were finally done!
They were a few taxing days but I think me and my team managed it well with minimum disagreements, some companionable sympathy and even improved upon it by voicing our opinions. All three of us can agree though, that after hearing the song on loop for perhaps the 87th time, you can't help but harbour a little bitterness for it.
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