Moderator post

Dear Moderator,

My name is Brandon Poonwasie (0660). I am in Group 3, along with Juliette Wileman (0875) Chrystal LI (0470) and Audrey King Lassman (0397).

If you'd like to view any of my A2 work, just click the labels on the right that include A2 in them, i.e. A2 Research and Planning and A2 Prelim.

Thank you,
Brandon

Group 3

Group 3

Our Facebook Group

Here is the link to our facebook group:
Group 3 Facebook Group

Our Music Video

Our Website

Our Website
To get to our website, click the banner above. It will automatically open in a new tab/window.

Our Digipak

Our Digipak

Thursday 20 November 2014

Shoot day: 4th November + reflections

For this shoot, we filmed individual band shots of Audrey and Chrystal to see how their performance would look, and also shot the 90s sequence.

In order to make our band seem authentic, we took Chris' advice to put our logo onto the front of the drum kit, as it is conventional of indie bands such as the 1975.

We also tested the make-up, with Juliette being our make-up artist.

Audrey getting her make-up done for the band shots

My make-up was still done despite not having an individual shot, as I was in the background of both Audrey's and Chrystal's band shots, and in order to check that the make-up looked good on camera.

In the 90s scene, we had Jacob in the era-typical checked-shirt, jumper tied around his waist and jeans in order to characterise him as a 90s character. To connote the era, we also used Juliette's central perk mug and placed the boom-box beside the sofa.

90s Set

During the shoot we used the large monitor so that we could all easily see the what was going on within the frame, and also so that we could ask Chris about whether lighting needed to be changed, and, if so, how we would go about changing it, as it was our first shoot.


Footage reflections:



(Above) The footage from our first shoot, showing the 90s sequence both graded and not.

After the shoot, Chrystal and Juliette tried to test the grading of the shots, changing skin tones to be more pink rather than yellow, and the background slightly greener. In order to make the colours in the sequence more vivid, they also increased the contrast and vibrancy of the shots.

Having watched the footage back, and gotten advice from Miss Blackborow, a list was compiled of all the things that needed to be done:

- The shots we took were too high-angle, we needed to re-shoot and ensure that they were at Jacob's eye level instead.

- The band performance needed more rehearsal, in order to create a more natural, less nervous performance.

- Lip-sync needed to be clearer

- The cup needs to be lifted higher and faster in order to show the logo and connote the era.

- The same actions need to be repeated in every shot, i.e. the head flick by Juliette, needed to be at the same point in the track each time.

- Chrystal needed to have red lipstick and straightened hair to improve the look on camera.

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Call Sheets and Shoot Boards

Before shooting, we needed to organise what we were going to do, on which day, and what time all of us would be needed. To do this, we drew up call sheets and shoot-boards for each individual shoot day.


The call sheets were designed to help us ensure that the day was properly organised, and contributed to the creation of the shoot-board. They allowed us to know what set-ups are being done at what time, when people were needed and where (i.e. Band needed to be in make-up at 12:50). The call sheets were made by figuring out what time we wanted to start filming and end filming, while time in between was allocated depending on how much time was needed for each set-up.


The shoot-board replaces the shot-log, shoot-schedule and shot-list, so makes the day more efficient as we only have to refer to one document to understand what is happening, and also to help keep us on track. On our shoot-board, we used the images from our storyboard to visually represent what the shots are meant to look like, which has proven useful in other projects as it is clear and easily understandable, so no time is wasted.

Figuring out how much time was needed for each set-up helped in the creation of the shoot-board, as allocating time for each shot became easier, and it ensured that the schedule didn't run over the amount of time we had available.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Shoot schedule (for all groups)

Below are the shoot schedules given to use for the studio for all 4 weeks:


 

The schedule is colour coded for each group, and has been annotated so that Mrs B and Chris know who's coming in at what times for early slots, and finishing times for late slots.

Our group (group 3) are the purple slots of the shoot schedule, showing us on what days we're meant to be shooting, and at what times. In total, we have six shoot days:
- Tuesday 4th November
- Friday 7th November
-Wednesday 12th November
- Saturday 15th November
- Tuesday 18th November
- Friday 21st November
- Saturday 29th November

However, we have decided to try and plan all of our shots for the first 5 shoot days, so that we can use the 29th to re-shoot any shots needing to be retaken.

Kit list

The final agreed kit list for our production is:

- Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera

- 24 to 105mm Canon Lens

- Leapfrog lighting desk

- Arri 1000K lighting in studio lighting rig, with colour filters

- 50 inch monitor for visual playback

- 15 inch Macbook Pro, connected to sound system

- White cyclorama and floor

- Ball head tripod (Manfrotto 546B with 504HD) 

- Dolly Tripod

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Set Design + Props

Our 50s Set and Props:

Our 50s set is made up of a cardboard cut-out jukebox, and also two cars mounted onto cardboard, one red and one blue. The set will be lit red as outlined in my lighting post. We decided it's best to have the jukebox in the center of the stage with a car either side, as that way the characters can meet by the jukebox.

We chose a cardboard cut-out jukebox and also the cars because they were inexpensive and effective at connoting the era, also giving the set a home-made feel that will be present throughout the era sets, especially the 70s.

(Below: The Jukebox and one of our mounted cars)





(Above: Two 1950s cars, which are similar to the ones we will mount on cardboard)

(Below: An advert/article for a jukebox brand in the 1950s)

The diner in Grease, with the Jukebox on the right of the frame
70s Set and Props:

Our 70s set consists of a handmade disco floor and a disco ball, with purple lighting. The disco ball was bought online, as it would have been too hard to make, and was relatively cheap as well, while being necessary to connote the disco aspect of the 70s.

The group making the disco floor
Saturday Night Fever, our main influence for the 70s era

We based the disco floor on what we researched on google, and also particularly from what we saw in the dance scenes in Saturday Night Fever.

80s Set and Props:

Our 80s set is minimalistic, with only a school-gym bench, 'The Handmaid's Tale' book and orange lighting. This was based on 'The Breakfast Club', an iconic 80s film, so we used the school-gym bench to connote the school setting, as well as to recreate the well-known shuffle that the film is known for.

The shuffle from 'The Breakfast Club'
The bench was sourced from the girls gym next to the studio, while the book was brought in by Juliette, as it was published in the 80s.

90s Set and Props:
For our 90s set, we're going to have a sofa and a coffee table, in order to reference the Central Perk scenes from 'Friends', with green lighting. We'll also have a mug with the Central Perk logo on it (Juliette's), in order to solidify the reference for the audience, and clearly connote the era. 
A shot from 'Friends', our main influence for the set.
We chose to reference Friends as it is a TV show that has a large fan base, and is well known even outside of it's fan base, so would be known to our audience.

The 90s set is slightly more complex to set up, with two armless chairs placed together, a sheet over it, and three cushions on top, in order to make it seem like a sofa. Originally we were going to source a sofa from school, but there were complications about how we'd get it to the studio.

Modern:

For modern, the set is once again very simple, with a zebra crossing and blue lighting. We will have the characters use mobile phones as props, which we will source ourselves, in order to show technology in the modern era, which is a huge part of the world today. These phones will have to be old/broken, as they would be thrown around during the scenes.

The broken/old phones will still be modern phones, in order to ensure they clearly demonstrate the era.


We chose to have the zebra crossing set as there are no specific iconic settings that we would be able to set up and easily reference modern with, so we thought that something simple and normal would more easily connote the modern era as it is directly relatable for the modern-day audience. We will also try to ensure the era is connoted properly through clothing.

We will be using the zebra crossing from the 'Girls' remake video
Band:

The band set is the drums in the background, guitar and bass either side, and microphone in front. Juliette has brought in her own guitars, while amps were sourced both from school and friends, and the microphone and drums were sourced from school. We also had to ensure that the amps were not too small so that they could be seen on camera, so we tried to get ones that were large enough to be seen, but not so large as to be distracting, or make this seem like a high budget production.

Juliette's bass
Juliette's guitar






















We especially liked the bass as it gives the instruments some colour, making the band seem more lively and indie (similar to San Cisco's instruments), while not being garish. The microphone we use also helps our band to stand out, and connotes the indie-pop genre:

The microphone style we are using, rather than a normal microphone, to make the video more memorable and to connote the genre.
The set is based on the set up of San Cisco in 'Awkward' and also the 1975 in 'Girls'.

The 1975 in 'Girls'
San Cisco in 'Awkward'

Monday 10 November 2014

Lighting

During one of our production meetings, we went up to the studio with Chris, where he showed us how to change the lighting, both by using the lighting desk, and also manually on the studio floor. This involved being taught how to flood/spot the lights, position them to light certain areas, and also change the colour and intensity of them.

Chris showing us how to manually change the
lighting.
After being initially shown how to use the equipment, we were allowed to set up the different lighting colours for each era:

Setting up the different presets for each era using the lighting desk



Even once we were shown how to use the lighting desk, I still found selecting the right lights quite difficult as I didn't know which ones were controlled by which buttons, so had to play around a little bit to get used to it.

During this session, it was officially decided that the following would be used to light the eras:
- 50s - Red - Typically red lipstick was worn in the 50s.
50s Lighting
- 70s - Purple - Associated with the disco era and 'Saturday Night Fever'.
70s Lighting
- 80s - Yellow - Contrasts the colour of the 70s as it's bright, which helped to make the set more energetic despite a minimal set.
80s Lighting
- 90s - Green - referencing the Central Perk Cafe from Friends, which is also directly referenced by the use of the mug in the scene.
90s lighting
- Modern  - Blue - A colour associated with technology, which is used in the scene to reference the modern era.
Modern lighting
- Band - White - Typical of band performance sequences in the indie genre, while the use of white contrasts with the other sets, so clearly distinguishes the band performance from the narrative.
Setting up the white (band) lighting



Friday 7 November 2014

Production meeting: Choreographing the second dance

In order to help us start to choreograph the dance, we watched through a playlist we'd created of our influences on YouTube, then brainstormed different ideas with Chris.

The Group thinking of dance moves with Chris

We picked out the moves that we thought were iconic, and achievable for us, and then attempted to fit them into a routine. The shimmy from Grease and the dancing from the Breakfast Club were two of our main influences here (see below)



Myself and Juliette testing out the choreography, changing the sequence of moves to fit the music.

Below: The final choreography, which we would teach to Jacob .

Hair and Make-up

In order to discover how to do the make-up and hair styling for each era, we booked an appointment with Olivia, who then went through and showed/told us how to get the desired effect.

Olivia demonstrating the make-up on Juliette

ERA MAKE-UP

50s:

After research, we found that the 1950s make-up styling was mostly matte-red lipstick, nude eye shadow, and winged black eyeliner.

Some of the inspirations Olivia suggested were famous women from the 50s such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.





Juliette also tested the hairstyles as well as the make-up at home, attempting both the up-do, and leaving the hair down. However, it was thought that the 50s would be more recognisable from the up-do than leaving the hair down, so we decided it would be best for the lead girl to use the up-do hairstyle.

(left) Up -do, (right) Hair left down
Both pictures use the 50s style make-up, and the Up-do seemed to suit the era make-up better


70s:

We drew influence for the 70s make-up from this 'tutorial' image
From looking at the 70s make-up style, we gathered that a lot of pastel colours were being used, often with multiple colours being used with the eye-shadow, with nude lipstick. Juliette tried this, with her hair down, as that was the style for the 70s.

Juliette's attempt to recreate the 70s make-up.

80s:





This was one of the eras Olivia specifically helped us with, and suggested we look at Madonna in the 80s for inspiration, with the bright eyeshadow and glossy lipstick.








Juliette - Soft blusher sty
Juliette in 80s make-up done
by Olivia
We chose to use a softer blusher style, as when we tried a harsher line of blusher it did not look as nice.

We also decided to go for a lighter shade of lipstick, as it better suited the yellow, green and blue eyeshadow, which Olivia showed us how to apply, i.e. which order. She also taught us the eye-liner style that we needed to use, a thin line with a pointed wing. (see left)









When Juliette tested the style out at home, but due to a change of costume to match Alison from the Breakfast Club, we thought it better to go for more subtle, subdued colouring, to suit the costume, and also further reference Alison's character.

The final make-up choice for 80s

For the 80s hairstyling, we decided it'd be better for Juliette to have her hair down, as it fit better with the Breakfast Club styling.



90s:

Our main reference point for the 90s era make-up and hair was the film Clueless. Juliette tested the make-up to look like Elle, the main character. The styling for this is quite natural, with little to no eye-liner, nude eye-shadow, and brown or red lipstick. Similar to the hair styling for the 80s, it is meant to look non-styled, quite natural and straight.

Elle from Clueless

Juliette in 90s make-up, which is quite subtle and naturalistic