This post could be broken up into several separate posts, however I decided to merge all the individual shoot summaries into one long post, as it's probably most appropriate.
The final idea required a HUGE number of shoots (possibly a Latymer Record)...while the park idea required just one shoot, the final journey idea totalled to over 11 unique shoots.
I've decided to conduct a shoot summary, something unique and appropriate:
Alex's House + Cycling Shoot #1
Sam and I realised that we had the morning off from School so we decided to shoot the opening sequence at my house between 09:00 - 13:00.
This went well and we were very time efficient, managing to shoot everything we needed (at the time) at my house which included the Panda jumping out of bed, doing various exercises which forced Sam and I to carry a large mirror to my room (which we didn't use in the end) for weight lifting mirror shots. We shot the Panda getting ready for school in the bathroom, dancing down the stairs and leaving the house.
We generated enough time to shoot a variety of cycling shots throughout High Barnet. We shot the Panda snatching the bike, racing through the park, down muddy hills and staircases and cycling all around High Barnet and down the High Street. Opportunistic Shots occured, which included shooting the Panda cycling through an enclosed hedge space, entering the 'Panda Cafe', busking at the front of my local shopping centre, and entering Gregs and purchasing a Sausage Roll.
This shoot was invaluable and marked the start of a vigorous three weeks of production.
Underground Shoot #2
Two days later Sam and I conducted another shoot alone. This time through the London Underground which lasted an unexpected four hours.
While recieving a huge number of important tube shots, we also managed to film the Panda purchasing a newspaper and also taking photos with local tourists. We filmed various entrance/establishing shots, train shots, platform shots, train entrance/exit shots, in carriage shots and what took the longest was filming the elevator shots. We filmed the Panda coming down the elevator on numerous occasions and also filmed him from a side angle (I was travelling up one elevator while the Panda was travelling down another), this proved difficult and was a waste of time in the end as we didn't even use it :P
This shoot was possibly the most enjoyable, but definitely the most tiring shoot, walking around a packed London Underground was difficult for Sam, but good fun overall.
After the shoot we noticed that twitter was full of people tweeting about us and how they saw a Panda on the Tube! This illustrates the huge developments in Social Media, as our shoot became global within hours. The following images illustrate this, and you can see myself with the camera in the second pic:
Bush Hill/Greggs Shoot #3
This shoot involved myself, Sam and Jess. We filmed shots of the Panda dancing in Bush Hill and in front of the shops, we also filmed various shots in Greggs Bakery, which included the Panda entering Greggs, purchasing food, exchanging money with the cashier, looking longingly at Cakes and the Panda with his face covered in crumbs.
This shoot got us involved with the public and recieved a huge reception...cars were constantly aknowledging us as they drove past and beeping at the Panda. It was a necessary shoot and a large number of the shots were used in the final footage in possibly the most engaging part of the final music video.
Bush Hill Busking + Rose Shoot #4
Later that day, myself, Sam and Narishma continued the shoot and got plenty of footage of the Panda busking for money with his ukelele in front of Greggs, in Bush Hill.
This was very enjoyable and we managed to also gather footage of the Panda entering a rose shop and purchasing a rose for a female panda. Unfortuantely, the rose footage was not included as we had decided to not involve a female Panda until the end. All was not lost, as we managed to get footage of the Panda high-fiving a bussinessman in front of the Rose shop which we did use in the final music video :)
Panda Skateboarding Shoot #5
This shoot involved myself, Sam and Jess. I played the role of panda in this shoot, as we used my skateboarding talent (slightly above zero talent) to cast me as the skateboarding panda.
We travelled in Jess's car to quiet roads in which I grabbed the boot of the car as the Panda while on a skateboard and Jess drove forwards, pulling me along the road as a mode of transport for the Panda and to spice some energy into the music video.
This was a difficult role as the road surface provided huge friction, often preventing me from getting the skateboard to move while being pulled by the car. We used a lot of the footage from this shoot, including a dance sequence which I ran through as the Panda.
This shoot required the most planning. We had to arrange a large number of students to get involved in the routine with the Panda in just one day. We generated a huge number of actors in the end, which was a great outcome.
I had to also crop the original song to just the routine part, which was used for the playback in the routine and I got food for the actors.
We had to organise ourselves and we were each given roles, I was the main camera-man and I filmed the master shots plus the action shots. Jess was on a separate camera and she filmed the Panda's movements. Sam was acting as the Panda and helped teach the routine to everyone. The routine was a simple four movements, and we created a tutorial for it:
The shoot went really well in the end, we gathered lots of footage and some vital footage for the video. I even managed to get a cheeky nibble beforehand :)
Introducing Students Shoot #7
After the successful routine shoot, myself, Sam and Jess needed to gather some shots to link up to the routine. We organised four actors (along with Jess) to jam with the Panda through the school up until the entrance of the dance routine.
I was allocated the role of camera-man, whilst Jess and Sam were actors. We managed to overcome adversary, as the location we filmed the actual routine in was locked, therefore we used a different location to film the entrance, which worked well in the end.
One morning we arranged to shoot at 07:45am in the surrounding school area, living in High Barnet this meant I had to wake up earlier than usual and leave the house ten minutes earlier, but it worked out well in the end.
We gathered twenty minutes of vital interaction shots, as the Panda rampaged through school kids high-fiving some and hugging others. We also got shots of him dancing down the road in front of the school.
Narishma and Myself were on the camera, whilst Sam was the Panda.
My House Shoot 2 #9
We decided that it would be useful to get more content shot at my house, so on one Saturday, myself and Jess (along with her brother) got some more shots of the Panda waking up and dancing in all areas of the house. We also gathered plenty of alarm clock shots to use as the important establishing shot.
I was the camera-man for the majority of this shoot.
Outro Shoot #10
This was filmed at the school and involved myself, Sam, Jess and Narishma. Sam was the Panda and the rest of us cycled between the camera and acting.
We needed an effective and unique ending, so we got shots of the Panda exiting the school gym and also walking out of the school gates to be greeted by a female Panda (Jess) whom is wearing a huge pink bow.
We filmed a variety of shots and managed to gather more than enough content to create a strong ending.
Newspaper Shoot #11
The final shoot was a quick one, as we needed content to link the purchase of a newspaper to rushing off to the tube.
I was the Panda in this shoot and I needed to walk with the newspaper, lean against the wall, browse through it, look at my watch and realise that i'm gonna be late for school so I close the newspaper and run off towards the train station.
Additional Notes:
Along with 11 shoots, we also conducted regular test shoots and location research. I also got shots of the female panda in a frame being held by the main Panda, however this footage was not used in the end.
0 comments:
Post a Comment