Shoot Day 22/11/14

Our plan for this shoot was to tie off any loose ends and fine tune our performance shots, with our main focus being:

- Fire projection performance shots (Shooting a variety of compositions and trying out some camera movement)
- Rose performance shots (Increasing shot variety, paying extra attention to the lip-sync in these shots)

We planned to start at 0800, but because of severe road closures we didn't start till 0830, with one member of our group not arriving till 0930. The first shot we set up for was Rose performance; in our last shoot we had some time free, so we tested the set up for this shot and played about with what compositions look best. Due to this, we were able to prepare the set and lighting confidently while Yssy did her hair and make-up.

Directing Yssy while she acted

One thing that we realised when talking to staff, is that most of the facial expressions for our performance shots looked fairly similar. This is the total opposite of what we wanted, the whole idea was to use different performance set ups to convey the changes in Roza's mind-set. While the camera was rolling, I was left shouting directions over the track to ensure this didn't happen.

This worked fairly well, giving us a range of expressions in our footage and conveying the progression in Roza's emotions throughout the song very well. Yssy fully understood what I meant by each direction and really brought the meaning of the song out in her performance. All of us were really pleased with the look of the footage, with us ecstatic at how strongly contrasted the red of the rose and the blue of her jacket are with the black backdrop.

Rose performance Close-up

Next up was the reshoot of our fire projection shots; we took extra care to re-adjust the setting on the camera so that the vibrancy and intensity of the colours of the flames come across well. We were all slightly unsure of which settings were best for this, so we asked for the help of our media technician. He showed us how to best capture the bright flames, while still ensuring that you can clearly distinguish Roza amongst the flames.

Old footage (left), New footage (right)

Good pieces of camera movement

 Again, we tried out camera movement on these shots, this time with much more confidence because we all had more experience behind a camera. Matt taking the initiative to place himself behind the camera once we had all of our static shots and trying out camera movement for the shot. Unfortunately, yet again these didn't turn out very well; whilst the majority of the camera movement wasn't what we wanted it to be, there were some hidden gems which, although quite short, were really nice and usable.

Since this was one of our final shoots Yssy's confidence in front of the camera had grown enormously and knew exactly what was required in these shots. When looking back at the footage, you get a real sense of self confidence and belief. As though Roza was putting everything that had happened behind her and was ready to stand strong on her own.

Confidence in performance

The close-ups were really difficult to capture, because we were unable to place the camera in front of projector or else the tripod would cast a large shadow over the fire projection. As well as being unable to zoom in close enough to get the framing right with the camera behind the projector. This lead to a bit of DIY engineering on our part. I managed to find secure positions for both the camera and projector, which gives us both; the correct framing for a close-up; and no shadow covering the fire projection.

Makeshift positioning for camera and projector to ensure correct framing