Meeting the Band
Myself and my peers met withe band M.G.B, a local band that is well known through performing at local pubs and clubs. Covering both classic songs and writing their own, the band had decided it was time to create their first music video. They said to us how they had not preconceived ideas for the videos, they wanted to see what we could come up with. They played for us three songs and asked us to develop ideas for one. I chose the song "No Barriers" as it had a very 1980's power ballad sound for me, and I instantly started to have images flash into my mind on what I could do for a music video with that song.
The Pitch
After a couple of weeks the band returned to see what ideas we had for the video. Taking turns we each presented our ideas to M.G.B through PowerPoint presentations.
After a break our tutor along with the band members returned to reveal the two music videos that would go into active production. My video was one of the ones chosen, where I was given feedback from the band that given my experience and confidence they were more than satisfied I would produce a video they would be pleased with. My tutor also gave me the feedback on having a page about myself at the end was a smart move as none of the others had done so. This made it clear to M.G.B what I was capable of producing.
Pre-Production
With the ideas chosen the next step was for both groups to random pull names from a hat containing the rest of our classmates names, to choose our production teams. I pulled from the hat Kelly Turner, Zak Wilkins, Jack Joyce nd Stephanie Hardy. I was very happy with my team, I had worked closely with Kelly and Zak multiple times and knew how hard they work. Jack Joyce I had not worked with directly on any production before, so while I was unaware of his skill set I knew he would do as asked and did make a request to be involved during editing which I was happy to have him do. Stephanie will work, but I unfortunately have to say she can be unpredictable when it comes to working with others. She has had a tendency in the past to go very quiet and become uncooperative when things are not being done how she would like. Where this was my production I knew this was a risk. However I did know Stephanie had an inhibition when approaching strangers and an eye for details, so I could use those strengths with her to be a set manager.
With my team the next phase was to find a location. I initial approached a contact I have in the publican industry, but due to the schedule being around the new year they could not help due to an already busy diary. We tried a few other locations and eventually got an agreement for using a pub that is owned by Stephanie's brother. With all our pre-production paperwork in place we were ready to contact M.G.B to arrange a date, when Stephanie informed us we suddenly could not use the pub. She never said what had happened to make her brother unwilling to allow us to use the venue, but we returned to the drawing board. With time running out and few option remaining we decided to alter slightly the initial concept.
We altered the idea to M.G.B performing in the park near the college, Churchill Gardens. The narrative love story would be changed to a young couple being in the park instead of at a pub gig. We messaged M.G.B with the new plan and they were happy with the changes given how we had tried to find a pub or club so much without any success. I proceeded to have a location reccy for park to send to M.G.B and the crew with the new shot plan.
With my team the next phase was to find a location. I initial approached a contact I have in the publican industry, but due to the schedule being around the new year they could not help due to an already busy diary. We tried a few other locations and eventually got an agreement for using a pub that is owned by Stephanie's brother. With all our pre-production paperwork in place we were ready to contact M.G.B to arrange a date, when Stephanie informed us we suddenly could not use the pub. She never said what had happened to make her brother unwilling to allow us to use the venue, but we returned to the drawing board. With time running out and few option remaining we decided to alter slightly the initial concept.
We altered the idea to M.G.B performing in the park near the college, Churchill Gardens. The narrative love story would be changed to a young couple being in the park instead of at a pub gig. We messaged M.G.B with the new plan and they were happy with the changes given how we had tried to find a pub or club so much without any success. I proceeded to have a location reccy for park to send to M.G.B and the crew with the new shot plan.
Once the photos were taken I constructed a brief for the band and crew for the day of filming which has also been decided on.
The only remaining part was to get risk assessments written up for both days of filming. After checking the weather I knew the day we had M.G.B coming to film was set to be raining. So I knew some of the shots might have to be altered or condensed on day of filming to avoid anyone getting to wet or ill. I also sent out a message to everyone to tell them to make sure they dress appropriately. Kelly and her boyfriend had agreed to be the young couple in the video and they had two mini co-stars in Charlie and Lola, Kelly's two small Jack Russel dogs.
location_risk_assessment_sheet.docx | |
File Size: | 339 kb |
File Type: | docx |
location_risk_assessment_sheet_2.docx | |
File Size: | 339 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Day of Production
Both days were filmed without any issues, but as expected the rain did indeed set in during our time with the band. However the band were happy for a few alteration and pressed through for us to give us our final production. M.G.B even had a few ideas now on location which were all wonderful ideas, such as Bob suggesting he lean against a tree for filming him playing the intro music and how Mandy would hold onto Bob under the umbrella as they are married. Jack Joyce did a brilliant job of queuing the band with the music, which I had sliced into sections with a 2-3 second build to section to make filming easier. Zak and Kelly both performed brilliantly as a team on the camera making sure shots lined up nicely and were framed properly. Stephanie did well at keeping an eye out for those in our vicinity and helping move the band and their equipment from location to location.
Post-Production
Jack Joyce, Kelly Turner and myself all sat down to edit the footage together with the three of us working well to create the finished video. If one person did not like a shot being used, we all happily listened and in many cases made the changes that person requested. One example was the shot looking up through the trees originally had 3 segments of that shot appearing. Jack Joyce thought it looked like to many, so we removed one.
M.G.B - No Barriers - Official Music Video
Evaluation
While we had many hiccups during our pre-production phase I feel we dealt with the situations well. We never allowed it to divert us away from our aim of giving a video with varied shots and have multiple aspects to the video. I feel M.G.B are also pleased with the final video given the feedback they have given us. They did note that one or two of the guitar's playing were slightly out of sync, which was expected as none of the crew played guitar so we did struggle to know if we were lining it up properly. If we had a dryer day when filming M.G.B we would have had more locations and footage to choose from, but I feel sacrificing some shots to ensure the health and safety of both the band and crew was the correct decision to make.