The Production Process: Shoot Summary
Due to us shooting in and around the school area, we ended up having multiple shorter shoots, many of which were planned at very short notice in lesson time. However, we ensured that these were arranged with the technician and teachers, as well as being thoroughly planned. Most of these shoots were concluded in my video diary entries; however, here is a summary of them now.
Alex's House + Cycling Shoot #1
Alex and I realised that we had free periods and media all morning so we asked permission to film, this was fine and the sequence at his house between 09:00 - 13:00 with over 40minutes of footage. We planned to shoot the underground shots on this shoot however, due to our perfectionist nature we decided mid morning that we would rather make sure the house shots were perfect. These were to make up 20 seconds of our sequence.
This went well and we were very time efficient, shots included the Panda jumping out of bed, dancing around his room and the bathroom shots. We also tested shots which we though of on the spot, including doing various exercises which forced us to carry a large mirror to my room to do over the shoulder shots.
We generated enough time to shoot a variety of cycling shots throughout High Barnet. We shot the Panda taking 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 down an alleyway, entering the 'Panda Cafe', busking at the front ofBarnet Spires shopping centre. We also attempted the greggs scene after finding a branch of the bakery, however decided the subsequent footage was not suitable.
This shoot kickstarted our production; I was very happy to have finally got some footage done, after the setbacks of the previous shoot and was very proud of my performance as the Panda, co-directing with Alex despite being in the suit.
Underground Shoot #2
The next day I realised that I still had a camera with me and realised that the week would effectively be wasted if we didn’t have footage to edit, losing a week of valuable production time. Narishma was away that weekend and Jess and I decided that having three people on a shoot was impractical so she focused her attention to planning the rest of the video. Therefore, me and Alex conducted another shoot alone. This time through the London Underground which lasted an unexpected four hours. We decided to film externally at Belsize park as we decided that my local stations were a bit grotty and Alex’s were outside based. Furthermore, we had seen the location worked well in Coldplay’s paradise video, and using google street view we familiarised ourselves with the area. Even though this was only 1 shot, it was important the location was right.
While receiving 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 escalator shots. The most time consuming shot was a planned escalator shot. This took about 10 takes, the idea was I rode down the escalator while Alex rode up it and waved to the camera side on when we passed each other. In the end we didn’t even use this shot but it was pretty fun anyway! On the whole I found this shoot the most fun, we rode up and down the northern line for 4 hours, dancing, slouching and sulking, receiving the dirtiest looks from fellow train users! Once again Alex filmed while I was the panda, in all honesty this was one of the most memorable days of my life.
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 Alex with the camera!
Bush Hill/Greggs Shoot/Bus Stop/Rose shoot #3
This shoot took place the two days after the underground one and was divided into a morning shoot, and an afternoon one. Once again I was the panda and Alex and Jess had filming duties. We filmed shots of me dancing in Bush Hill and in front of the shops, we also filmed various shots in Greggs, which included the Panda entering Greggs, purchasing food, exchanging money with the cashier, looking at Cakes as well as close up. Despite being in the suit I was the main director for this shoot, keeping the 3 of us efficient with time and asking Greggs if they minded us filming, to which they happily let us after hearing why we were making a video.
Later that day, myself, Alex and Jess continued the shoot and got plenty of footage of the Panda busking for money with his ukelele in front of Greggs, in Bush Hill. The busking part of this shoot also featured a few interactivity shots which were not planned, for example a school bus drove past and as did an old man. Furthermore, we managed to also gather footage of the Panda entering a rose shop and purchasing a rose for a female panda.
Unfortunately, the rose footage was not included as we had decided to not incorporate a female Panda narrative throughout the video and only at the the end. However we did manage to capture a shot of the Panda high-fiving a man in front of the Rose shop which we did use in the final music video, another great interactive shot. I enjoyed this shoot as it gave me a chance to film, these were in the form of the money shots and I experiment with manual focus. Getting a great shot of the 10p coin.
Panda Skateboarding Shoot #4
This was the first shoot where all four group members were involved, having previously decided that it was best to have one person editing to be time efficient. This time me and Narishma got a chance to film, having filmed the least, Alex was in the costume and Jess was driving. This was the only shoot where we needed all four of us.
 |
| Alex in Suit |
On quiet roads around the school, we filmed a variety of shots, totally around 20minutes of footage. The skateboarding footage was pretty easy to obtain and problem free, most of it wasn’t planned, however we had a tick list of essential shots including close ups of him grabbing the car and a still of both the car and skate board moving out of shot. This shoot was most memorable for the in boot shots. I had a random brain wave to sit in Jess’s boot and film a tracking shot of Alex while he danced down the street.
Backwards tracking shot
This shoot contributed to about 15 seconds of the sequence.
Routine Shoot #6
This was intended to be the final shoot.
This shoot required the most planning, which I was almost solely responsible for. I arranged that all four members of the group bring four people to ensure we had at least 16 people. Please see this blog post for a full plan on this shoot.
http://latymermusicvideo2011group4.blogspot.com/2011/11/final-shoot.html
Again I was the panda while Alex and Jess filmed and we received help from Charley, another media student.
Extra shoots.
The following shoots were to obtain missing shots that we felt we needed. Because of our narrative based video, it was important that we obeyed most of the rules of continuity.
Interaction Shots Shoot #8
Nearing the final stages of our video we decided we wanted some interaction shots, this was done before school by me Alex and Narishma. Again I was the panda, and beginning to want to burn the costume! We gathered twenty minutes of vital interaction shots, featuring hugs and hi fives.
House Shoot 2 #9
This was the first shoot I was not a part of, the aim was to obtain just a few patching shots. Alex
Jess and 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.
Linking shots 10
This was the same shoot divided over 2 lessons and was intended to give a link between the panda’s journey and the dance routine. We were helped out by a few media friends, this was filmed by Alex. We then needed a linking shot between the end of the dance and the female panda. This involved the panda waving bye to his fellow dancers.
Then we filmed the female panda shots, with Jess in the suit. I went to textiles and attached a bow to some ribbon which I pinned to the head with the help of my friend who works there.
Final shoot Newspaper Shoot #11
We thought we were done but the teachers advised there was a few more shots that were needed.
This was the quickest shoot and only involved a one set up. Alex was the Panda in this shoot. He needed to walk with the newspaper, lean against the wall, read his paper realise he was late and run towards the station. This footage did not fit in our sequence so we kept it the same
