Ancillary Photoshoot: Review

Today we did the photo shoot for our digipak with the intention of taking a wide range of photos so as we could narrow it down to four final images to be used on the CD cover, insides and back cover.

First we had to get the actor/model ready for the shoot, so we applied normal make up (as most of it wouldn't be seen!) and backcombed her hair which gave it more volume and energy. We then lightly splatted paint at her face. We were aiming to spread it diagonally from one side to the other - like a gradient - and use it sparingly, as less was definitely more in this case.

We shot this in the dark room which had black walls. We set up a tripod, mounted the camera and then attached the LED spotlight we would be using as our light source.

We turned off the lights and got started, asking the actor to do a variety of different poses so that we would have a large choice to choose from. The shot angles ranged from a head and shoulders close up to extreme close ups of her eye.

Overall, the photo shoot was very successful and we took more photos than we needed which enabled us to have a wide range of choice when choosing the four images. We now have one week to edit all of our photos as our deadline is in a week's time.

Powerful Video

I came across this short film whilst doing my usual social media rounds, and couldn't forget it for days.

I think the message it is conveying is so so powerful - it has a lot to do with the contrasts between the first and third world. It has obviously been designed to make an impact on people so that they realise they should apprieciate what they have rather than complain when things do not live up to their personal standard.

I observed that a large number of the comments were to do with technology, "I hate it when I leave my phone charger downstairs" and , "When I can't walk and text at the same time". This really got me thinking; we have become so absorbed by the innovation of technology that we now expect certain things as standard; everyday these standards are rising and I wonder, when and where will this chain of greed and competition end?

Of course I cannot be certain of what lies ahead, but if our technology develops at the rate it is, it is logical to predict that one day we will be completely controlled by technology. This of course has its pro's and con's and I imagine you could battle it out pretty well either way; only time will tell what will actually happen, but in the meantime we can but debate. I cannot deny that technology is an amazing outlet; I'm using it at this very moment in time! However I feel like we need to learn that it is not something to be abused, and we should embrace and perfect the technologies we have available before developing more.

Anyway, I decided to research into how this concept was thought up, and discovered that it was central to a hastag on social media site, Twitter called #firstworldproblems (click to view feed on twitter). The hashtag is made up of tweets from people living in first world cultures expressing their everyday issues with a touch of sarcasm and a dash of ignorance. Examples include,

" I haven't even had my nails done for 24 hours and have somehow managed to already break one"

 

"My dad got new wifi for our house and didn't tell me the password"

 

"Did an intensive hair mask yesterday and now my Skullcandy headphones keep slipping off head"

 

Additionally, I found the picture on the right accompanied by the caption, "Well, which one is right?!?!"

 

This video made me realise the strength and impact of contrasts. If you put one entity beside it's opposite, the effect will become exaggarated, when really all you have done is extend the process. It has inspired me to ensure we have plenty of contrasts within our music video, and also to make similar content on a personal level - maybe reverse the effect and have first world people saying third world problems, or a look into commercialism etc.

 

"First world problems are not real problems" - Water Aid. 

Smashing Plates Shoot: Review

This was a really fun setup to shoot, despite the difficulties we had during our research in terms of safety.

One of us stood on a chair whilst the other filmed with the camera. Then, when everything was in place, the plate with the powder paint was dropped from a height and fell to the floor where it - on most occasions - smashed. Sometimes it landed too flat which meant the energy was absorbed by the plate so it didn't break.

The shots looked really cool, as there was so much movement in the explosion of china and paint; I think it will work really well with the rest of our footage as it gives that extra 'oomph'.

Studio Shoot: Review

We had booked the studio for 2 hours as we thought this would give us time to take all the shots we needed. We took all the shots we had storyboarded and tried to get the most out of our time slot by experimenting with different shots.

When we imported these clips into Final Cut Pro, we were happy with the general framing and composition, however agreed that they would need colour grading in order to make them fit in with our previous footage so as our conventions are maintained.

So overall it as a successful shoot for which we will not need to re-shoot, meaning we can move forward with the editing process.

Powder Paint Fight: Review

We only had one take for this shoot as the powder paint so it was essential that we stuck to our plans or it would come at a great cost to us.

To make sure we were organised, we briefed the actors with what they would need, what we were bringing, times and locations etc. We arrived half an hour earlier to set up the camera and do some test shots. We also set up the powder paint and put the rest of the equipment we were't using out of the way so it wouldn't get covered in paint.

We set the camera to shoot 50fps rather than 25fps so that when we slow it down in editing it will be a smoother shot. We waited till it got darker which was around 7pm, and because the actors had arrived at 6.30, we were able to get the most of our shooting time.

We only had one chance to film all the actors whilst they were clean as once the first handful of paint was thrown that was that, so we ensured we got all of the footage we needed for that particular setup.

We then got a wide range of different shots of the paint fight that we could edit together. We instructed the actors to throw it in different sequences and at different people, making their throws as exaggerated as possible. We also took some close up static shots to provide a contrast and also to make the footage more intimate.


Overall the shooting went really well and we all thought it was very successful. The paint showed up really well and the lighting was really good too. I also think that the costumes suited the convention of the image we are creating as they enabled us to show the effect the powder paint has when thrown.

If we were to do it again I think we would have got more powder paint and shot even more footage just to be certain that we had enough shots. However we ar confident that we have enough shots to use.

The only real problem we found was that one of our couples said they couldn't do it last minute, and neither of our reserves were available either! We managed to get a third girl but we couldn't find another partner to match it. We were definitely not going to reschedule, so to ended up having three girls versus two guys which in the end didn't look that bad at all and wasn't such a disaster.