Shoot - 12th November - Publicity Shots

Whilst shooting the band scenes, we also took some publicity shots of the band.
We decided to take individual shots of each band member, so we could use them for the bio pages on the website, along with a band photo where the band is posing.

We did both fun and posed shots of Chrystal and Audrey, so as to get more than one type to use, and to show that they could be energetic but also powerful, which appeals to the female audience who would look up to the female members, and maybe base some personality traits on them.

For the guys, we decided to again do both fun and posed, to again show that they could be 'cool' yet playful, which would appeal to the target audience, who may want to base their lifestyle choices on the members of the band.

Jacob doing a more 'moody', typically indie pose, where he is avoiding direct address with the audience.

We also had the band members pose with their instruments, so we could again use these on the website, and so we could anchor the character and role of each member.

The pose on the left connotes the indie genre, as the band appear to be cool and powerful, yet the poses below also show their 'fun' side, which would appeal to the target audience, as they could copy this attitude.


We had the band do the planned shots that we wanted, including the band holding up Jacob which we plan to use for the inside of the album art.

This image is what we want to have on the inside cover, as we feel the costumes connote the indie genre, and the pose shows the band to be 'cool' but also quirky and fun.

These photos clearly show that Jacob is the lead singer, due to him holding the camera, but the pose also shows that he is equal to his band mates, and also that the band have fun.

These poses are interesting due to the different levels, and we thought it again connoted the more upbeat attitude of the band compared to the more posed shot, where the band's 'cool' attitude is more clearly connoted.

I also edited the chosen photos in Photoshop before we put them on the website, so as to make them look more clean and professional. For example, on the image to the right, I removed the border between the floor and the cyclorama,  as well as increasing vibrance and contrast to make the colours more bright. On other photos I also removed any stray hairs that may have made the photos look messy.

Above are publicity shots of an influential band (San Cisco) - we referenced the way they have both serious and more goofy poses, which conveys their band image as cool but quirky, which is what we want our band image to be. 

Shoot - 12th November

In this shoot, we decided to focus solely on band shots and band publicity shots. We set up the band instruments as shown on the left. As I am not in the band scenes, I was the director and camera operator.

Jacob performing as the lead singer.

Brandon as the drummer in the band.

I took the publicity shots for the band. We took individual shots as well as group shots so as to get a range to choose from. We wanted the shoot to be playful but also 'cool', as this connotes our band's indie genre. The image below to the right is a possible pose for the inner sleeve of our album art.

Me directing and filming the whole band shots.

Chrystal as the bassist of the band.

Audrey as the guitarist of the band.

 We also wanted to get a range of shots, so as well as shooting the band as a whole, we also did individual shots of each band member, more than one angle of Jacob (the lead singer), and even used the dolly so as to get a moving shot, where the camera weaves around the band.

Using the dolly tripod to have the option of camera movement in the video. 

The different close up angle we decided to do of Jacob, so as to have a variety of shots so the video is more visually exciting.

Production Meeting - Prop Making

For our 70s set up, we want a 'disco floor', which we decided to make our of sugar paper, as this was easily available to us, and wouldn't reflect the lights in the studio. We made the floor during a production meeting, as shown below.

We referenced the floor in Saturday Night Fever, which has bright coloured squares with black outlines. We thought this would be clearly referencing the 70s era, as it is know for disco dancing and disco floors.

Shoot - 7th November - Reflections

90s Narrative Scene (Ungraded)

50s Narrative Scene (Ungraded)

After editing together the two narrative scenes we shot on 7th November, the group and Ms Blackborow had some reflections:

• The lighting worked the way we wanted.
• The props, costumes and make-up effectively conveyed the eras, and worked well together.
• The couple appeared to be real and had chemistry, and the scenes were acted well.
• However, the lip-syncing of our lead, Jacob, needs to be improved, so we decided to work with him on this for the next shoot. We also decided to re-shoot the shots where there is lip-syncing.

We also decided to make a blooper reel for the website, along with having behind the scenes photos and videos.

Shoot - 7th November

We decided to reshoot the 90s narrative scenes in the morning, due to our reflections from our first shoot on 4th November. Instead of framing with a high angle shot, we decided to keep the camera at eye-level, and moved from a wide shot to a close-up shot.

We kept the set and the costumes the same, as we felt they worked well in conveying the era.

The set

We shot the 50s narrative scenes in the afternoon shoot; to the left is the set. We decided to mount the props on cardboard to make them more sturdy so they could hang and stand on their own. We also felt that these props clearly referenced the 50s era.

Brandon directing Jacob and I

During shooting, Brandon, Audrey and Chrystal directed Jacob and I so as to get the best shots we could. We both learnt the choreography before the shoot so we could get straight to shooting as soon as possible, which saved us time for picking up shots.

We shot a variety of framing types, such as a mid-close of myself, so we had a choice of shots to use during the edit

Jacob and I on set.

Jacob's Greaser costume

Shoot - 4th November - Grading And Reflections

Footage shot from our first shoot.

Chrystal and I tested out a style of grading for our shoot, as shown above. We made the skin tones less yellow and more pink, and tried to make the background slightly more green. We also increased the contrast and vibrance to make the colours more vivid.

After watching the footage from the shoot, Chrystal and I made a list of when we thought we needed to do to improve our shots:

• make sure to keep the framing straight on rather than at an angle like the second shot in the edit
• to rehearse the band scenes more, so the band members feel more confident and look more natural
• to have our lead lip sync more clearly
• to make sure the logo on the mug (which is a reference to a 90s tv show) is more clear in the shot
• to make sure we do the same actions in every shot so as to have continuity
• to have Chrystal wear red lipstick, and to straighten her hair

Shoot - 4th November

For this shoot, we shot individual band shots of Audrey and Chrystal (the guitarist and bassist), and then we shot the 90s narrative scene.

For the drum kit, we decided to have our band logo on the bass drum (shown to the left), as this is conventional of indie bands, such as The 1975.

Below are pictures from the shoot:

I did the make-up for all members of the band, and for myself.

Even though we didn't shoot Brandon's individual shots today, we decided to do his make up for two reasons. Firstly because we wanted to make sure it looked how we wanted it to look on camera, and secondly because he was in the background of the mid-shots of Audrey and Chrystal.

We made sure that Chrystal, Audrey and Brandon all convincingly played their instruments in time to the music, so as to make the band playing look as realistic as possible.

Jacob's costume is shown on the left, and references the style of men in the 90s. Above is Brandon's costume, which fits the indie image that we want. We also have the boom box and the central perk mug to reference the 90s.

The picture above and the pictures below show me and Jacob on set, performing the 90s scene. My costume and make up also references the 90s.

We used the larger screen so that the image was clearer and the group could easily discuss framing and lighting.

We decided to have me kiss Jacob's cheek to portray the couple being in love, which fits the theme of our narrative and song.

The final set for 90s.

On the drum we decided to have the band logo on the front of the drum, as this is conventional of indie bands, such as The 1975, as shown to the right.