For our A2 prelim task, we are remaking the music video 'Girls' by The 1975.
What do you personally want to get out of the whole A2 prelim experience?
From this prelim I would personally like to gain more confidence in performing, especially in front of a camera. I would also love to gain the experience of working with a large cast and crew. This music video remake is the largest project I have worked on to date, and it will be exciting to work alongside people who are currently working in different sections of the industry.
Is it a challenge for you or within your comfort zone?
Performing in a task like this is out of my normal comfort zone and so it will prove a challenge; however, after the performance session we all had, I was more comfortable with it and got used to it a bit more. Have you achieved/learnt anything so far?
So far I have learnt the basic differences between shooting a music video and shooting a film opening, and the way in which the shoot is organised and prepared for. I have also learnt the basics to lip synching by doing our audition videos and our 4 hour performance session with out performance coach.
My main role in the video is as one of the three photography girls, whilst she is not playing in the band. I am happy with this role as it is quite a fun part ,without having the pressure of being one of the band girls and doing the lipsynching.
I also have some small miscellaneous parts, like holding the cigarettes in my mouth and the pink milk pouring from my mouth.
What does the performance actually consist of?
I have to pose and dance around a little bit with a guitar, and generally look like I'm having fun on the set, without having to do any lip synching or serious playing.
Is this a challenge for you, or something within your comfort zone?
It's not a particularly challenging role, however it might be a bit daunting performing in front of the cast and crew as I'm doing my part on my own, and not with a whole band of girls. But I think the performance session improved my confidence levels and hopefully will help on the day of the shoot.
Describe or list the specific costume/look you are aiming for:
My costume brief for this shoot is basically to dress all in black, with either a black dress, or a black top and skirt perhaps. I will also need a black leather jacket to wear on top, and black high heels as well.
Do you have the items you need or are you planning to beg/borrow? is there anything that may need to be bought?
I have lots of black clothes but I'm not sure if I have any that will suit the style of the shoot, and I don't currently have a black leather jacket but I should hopefully be able to borrow one for the shoot. I have a pair of heels that should be okay as well so I won't need to buy those.
In one of the miscellaneous shots, one of the models holds different coloured sobrani cigarettes in her mouth, which was added to the prop list and will be bought in time for the shoot.
I really enjoyed the workshop day, even though it was such a long and tiring day, the attitudes of all the cast and crew helped to create a vibrant and positive atmosphere to work in. It was a really interesting experience to work alongside ex-students from Latymer who are now professionals in the industry, such as Dom our director, in a professional environment that we created in our studio. It was exciting to see how different departments and roles come together on set; like the make-up department, the runners, the camera work and the lighting.
Dom - our director, in discussion with our camera op on set.
One of my favorite parts of being on set was getting to watch the cast perform on the big screen which was set up to allow everyone to see what was being seen through the camera lens. Watching everyone perform on the screen was also useful because it meant that the smaller details in the scene could be seen more clearly, allowing changes to be made to make everything as precise as possible. It was good for the rest of the cast to be able to watch each other perform and cheer eachother on while they were performing.
It was cool to see how the make-up and hair department works, and it was really fun to have my make-up done by a professional. I didn't realise how much attention to detail is paid by the make-up artists to replicate the make-up of the girls in the real video, onto the cast in our remake.
Alice getting her hair and make-up done before her role on set as a photography scene girl.
The first part of our task was to record our own audition video, edit it and upload it onto youtube. At first I was really aprehensive but this was a really helpful process as it helped me to relax in front of the camera and gain a little bit of confidence which came useful on the real shoot day.
This task also taught me how to lipsync which was a good skill to learn, which may be useful for our music videos next year. However, my part in this music video didn't require a lipsyncing part. It also taught us how to edit a video so it was in sync with the music.
The gif above shows a clip of the male lead character, who had lots of scenes that involved lip-syncing in the music-video and how we synced it up during editing to match the original video.
Task 2 - Learn and practice your performance
All of the cast and some of the crew members took part in a performance session, led by a performance coach, which helped us to relax with each other, and get into our roles well. It gave me a boost of confidence which I definitely needed for the shoot.
Task 3 - Help to plan and organise your costume
A lot of the costumes that the girls wear in the video were viewed as inappropriate for us to wear, so we made adjustments but kept the colour scheme and the themes the same, especially for the girls in the band and in the photography scene, like my own character.
Everyone chipped in, and we begged, borrowed and stole from each other to put together outfits that were close matches to those in the real video.
Task 4 - The shoot
The shoot day was an entirely new experience for me, and was unlike any filming I had done beforehand.There was a much larger cast and crew than I had filmed with on projects before this so it was interesting to see how everyone came together to create the final product.
The shoot day was a really useful way for practising our time keeping skills. I learnt which ways worked best for organising a shoot and keeping to a relatively strict schedule. This is something I find difficult generally, so this task was especially useful as it gave me some experience for when it comes to organising our own music video next year.
I think that the footage looks really great, and I am really proud of what we managed to achieve when we all worked together on the shoot day. The shots that we got are reflective of the amount of work we all put into the shoot. Everyone looked really great with hair, make-up and costume and completey comfortable infront of the camera. Although I don't like how I look in the footage I am glad I had the chance to perform in front of a camera, which is something I would never usually do.
Yssy in full hair, make-up and costume ready to film.
The pool girls, ready in their costumes before their scene.
The video is better than I expected it to look, the sets looked a lot closer to the original than I thought they would as some of the shots were quite complex. It was vital that everyone worked together and gave their full effort, so the video looked as best as it could.
The poolside scene all set up and ready to be filmed on.
I'm really happy with the response some of the edits have received already, even just a week after they were posted onto YouTube, one of them has reached almost 2,000 views. We have also found that someone we don't know has posted the video on Tumblr, and it has been liked/reblogged over 500 times so far! This shows the possibilities that the internet holds for a video like ours to go viral. People from as far away as Australia and Alaska have been watching our video and have left great feedback, encouraging their friends to watch it too!
The 3 pictures above show some of the feedback and comments we have received so far.
The skills I learnt through lipsynching will help me a lot in our music video next year if I have a part which requires singing. This will save time in the rehearsal process leading up to the shoot as I will already have experience in learning how to lipsynch and will help to make the video look authentic.
The role of boot girl required some lipsynching, as well as the role of Matty.
One of the most useful things I have observed and learnt throughout this process is the importance of organisation and time keeping, not only during a shoot, but in the weeks leading up to it. This will have a huge impact on the way I work and go about tasks in my coursework next year as this is an issue I usually struggle with.
The sheets on the wall in the background, had lists of cast/crew/call times/ and shot by shot shoot boards to help organise the day.
The audition and casting process was completely new to me, and is not something I had encountered before so I especially had a lot to learn from this aspect of the experience. This will be useful when it comes to creating my own music video next year when I will have my own say in who is cast for each role, instead of our director and producer. Creating our audition videos was quite a daunting task for me at the beginning of the process, but once it was over I felt more confident with myself. This will have a positive impact on the music video shoot I do next year, and I will be more willing to be in the video than I would have prior to this task.
This was the first time I had ever worked with such a large cast and crew on set, and was a very different working environment to what I am normally used to, where previously I have worked in groups of 4 max.
Hair department in action.
This will be extremely useful to me when I have to work in another large group in our music video next year, where different departments come together; such as the lighting department, the cast, the makeup and hair department, the camera ops etc etc.- where it's important to create a fun and hard working atmosphere for everyone involved, as the shoot days are usually long and tiring.
Members of the crew working up on the lighting desk.
Set design was a crucial aspect into the making of the video.
This process has also taught me how important communication is between the different departments, especially the director.
