Week 7: Final Test Shoot Cut & Feedback

CLASS FEEDBACK


Positives

• It suits the song well.
• Graphic matching between dancing sequences.
• Use of drum pads
• Backflip

Negatives

• One of the dancers, Klaudia - blonde, brown jumper - isn't as technically good as the other dancers - we are going to re-choreograph her dancing into a more impressive gymnastic sequence.
• The dancing can be repetitive & boring.
• Gareth needs to learn his words ASAP.

Improvements

• Search for cool editing techniques to use
• Vary the choreography more
• More variation in shots needed
• Editing needs to be faster paced to suit fast tempo song
• Focus on the best dancers
• Cut song down by around 30 seconds to decrease boredom

Week 6: Test Shooting

Today we did some test shooting in the studio with some of our dancers. 
We showed our dancers some ideas of what we wanted in terms of freestyle commercial/street dance sequences, 



as well as lip sync performance.






We are now cutting together the footage on iMovie into a prototype video...



Lighting Experimentation
We have been experimenting with different lighting options using some fluorescent tubes.

The Media Dept has one shade of red and one shade of blue. 

The blue is a more powerful/brighter colour than the red. 

Therefore, we need to balance more red lights than blue, or shoot blue and red at different times and just adjust exposure levels.

We also tried adding a white fluoro tube on the floor to accentuate the features of the lip syncer's face.

Week 7: Final Cast and Schedule

Today, we have been given a date for our shootday - November 3rd.

We have also been given our confirmed cast:

Lead: Gareth Donkin
Drum Pad: Jonty Harrison
Keyboard: Victoria Bird

Dancers:
Anastasia Tyutina
David Heal
Matt Muncey
Charlotte McGee
Maddie Bowyer
Megan Mackay
Klaudia Wyzykiewicz

Note: Matt Muncey is not available from 2-4pm as he has a compulsory coursework session.

Week 6: Crucial Tasks

• meticulous understanding of the different components of the final product.
• use test shoots to test cast, costume, lighting, cameras.
• rehearsals - get performers to learn parts/words/etc - make them confident in front of the camera.
• source and collect all costumes and and props needed for the shoot and store in school.

I have emailed Luke to confirm which costumes and props we would like to be sourced.

I have also emailed Dave Parsons (Head of Music) if I could borrow two keyboard stands for our shoot.

Week 6: Prop & Costume list

David made a costume and prop list to give to the school art designers, separated into items that the school will provide, and items we can provide ourselves.

Week 5: Set Designs & Test Shoot 2

Today I made rough set designs on my laptop, including any information on the props, costumes and lighting used.

We then met with the art designers to show them our designs and our prop/costume list.
The art designers have said our designs would be very easy to put together, and the costumes and water trays are easy to source.
The main issue with our concept going forward is that we still haven't got set cast for our drum-pad and keyboard player, or our crew of dancers. 


Looking at this test footage that David shot and cut a few days ago, we can see that all the featured "dancers", excluding David...

... and Matty,

... look terrible. We now need to exploit David's contact list of dancers at our school to find a small crew of girls that are technically very good at dancing and choreograph some individual sequences of dance for them to perform in our shoot.

Here is an email I sent to recruit some female dancers.

Here is an email I sent to two people we want to perform in the video as well.

UPDATE: Ashen is very happy to be involved in the shoot as a drum-pad player, along with Vogue and Charlotte as dancers. However, Victoria is not available to be the keyboard player.

Here is a list of piano players that may have what it takes to perform as our keyboard player.

• Alex Podles
• Tom Guerlet
• Phillip Raskin
• Alfie Barton
• Amira ** - (most interested in)
• Louisa Binder

Week 5: Contacting the Record Label

We decided to contact the Record Label that released the track, "Nightcall", requesting permission to use the song in our A-level Media Coursework.
Here is a screenshot of the email we sent to their address: info@black-butter.co.uk

When doing this research, we also noticed how Black Butter Records is a successful UK Electronic Dance Music label, acting as one of many subsidiaries of the conglomerate, SONY. 


1 Week Later
We have not yet received any correspondence from the label in reply to our email.

Week 5: Lighting Design Options

Available Lighting Options
Today, George, the lighting designer, briefed our class on all the available lighting options we could use for our shoot.

Atomic 3000 DMX - White Strobes

UV Canon - black lights, reflect off white and UV paint

Source Four Juniors - Tungsten (warm) Spots

SoftBoxes - beauty and detail lights (w/ colour temperature change)

Pixel lines - multicolour LED bars

Wash Movers - wide beams, designs (faded)

Profile Movers - detailed spot and FX gobos/beams

Week 5: Idea 2 To-Do List and Costume Design

List of things to do:

• Casting (using test shoots) of each feature (lip syncer, dancers, instrumentalists)
• 3x Set Design w/ Lighting
• Costumes for each character
• Choreograph dancers, flips, drum padding and keyboard playing

COSTUME

Lead Lip-Syncer:

White dungarees

Tight black t-shirt

Black Reebok trainers

Golden crown

Drum-pad/keyboard players:

White dungarees

Black t-shirt

Black shoes

Dancers:

Bright Red and Blue Dungarees 

Black t-shirt

White sneakers

 

Week 5: Casting for New Idea 2

Here is the cast list made by David

Lead Lip Syncer Options;

• Charlie Ridgeway
• Harvey Wright 
• Hugo Middleton
• Alfie Barton
• Gareth Donkin

Charlie is our first choice.
We now need to do a test shoot with all 5 and see who performs it the best. If our first choice is unavailable, then we use the next best option.

Dancers (and their ability):

• Matty Muncey (who can backflip)
• Louise Binder (who can do the dance move of a cat walk)
• Maddy Bowyer (who can freestyle)
• Megan Mackey (who can freestyle)
• Vogue Phelps (who can freestyle)
• Charlotte McGee (who can freestyle) 
• Jonty Harrison (who can shuffle)
• David Heal (who can freestlye) 
• Ed Paradise (who can shuffle) 

Styles of dance we want to include:

Casting Auditions / Test Shoots

Week 5: NEW IDEA 2

Couples Competition
People are running away from or towards something:

 - a Test Shoot that David and Ed made over the weekend

This successfully demonstrates how the concept can work as an entertaining and time consuming scene.


Here is a list of Concepts, that we came up with, for why the couples are running:

1. Sports day
2. Fun run
3. Fatties and salad
4. Teachers and students
5. Scouts, cubs, beavers
6. Village fair
7. Black Friday
8. Wedding opening slots
9. Race to happiness 
10. Race to be the best couple
11. Survival 
12. To eat
13. To drink, fresh water
14. Holiday ticket
15. New car
16. Mystery box 
17. Cooperate team building team challenge 
18. Facebook how great is your relationship
19. How far will you go for victory
20. Cheese wheel down the hill
21. Dragon racing
22. Soapbox derby racing
23. Bed racing 
24. Wife carrying race
25. Zorbing 
26. Last baby to adopt 
27. Last table at a restaurant 
28. Baby cheese wheel
29. Last engagement rings up for grabs
30. To be the first person to buy the house on the first sale sign.
31. Couples race to build ikea furniture
32. The colour run
33. Costume racing 
34. Three legged race 
35. To catch a train
36. To catch a bus
37. Postman training, running from dogs
38. Big pile of cash they’re chasing while it is moving away.
39. They’re late for a party 
40. Kayak race 
41. Rowing race 
42. One of the couples from each group is getting kidnapped, while the other ones are trying to get them. 
43. Blind folded maze
44. Scavenger hunt
45. Mens trophy, womens Olympics. Vice versa. Performance element on a podium. 
46. All these girls are chasing this guy. Girls in knight costumes. Guy with long blonde hair, damsel in distress. Switch of genders
47. Girls chasing this boy.
48. Three couples, race for best couple trophy. At a dinner party, hosting awards and these three couples racing to get that award. 
49. Food fight. Powder fight. Paint fight. Anything colourfully messy. 

Performance Elements
Lip-sync in dark studio
Drum pad performer (Gareth Donkin) and keyboard player (?) in background either side
Pixel Lines used to create flashing coloured squares behind performance
Projection of Drum Pad lights onto white background
Include shots of Matt Muncey doing back flips and tricks in slow motion


 - Inspired by this music video: