First off we auditioned the dancers. We had the cast rehearse a short contemporary interpretative piece which one of the cast members had learned for their dance exam. We gave them 15 minutes to rehearse, then we watched them perform their dance in two groups of two. As i described in the casting video, we where looking for a dancer who while was able to dance looked fragile in their performance.
Here is some footage that Jess from the group filmed of the cast rehearsing the dance.
First off we had Megan and Cara do the dance. Megan is an A2 student (she is the girl on the right), while Cara is an AS student (she is the one on the left).
From the performance you can see that Megan is much more confident in the dance, while Cara is a bit more elegant and gentle, moving in very fluid motions.
Eden (AS) is on the left and Maddy on the right (A2). Maddy is much more confident but very rough in her movement. While Eden only had 15 minutes to rehearsed but her overall movement doesn't flow as well as the other dancers.
Too see Cara dance more confidently we asked her to do a dance she knew, and she was familiar with a ballet piece she had to do for dance. As you can see again she is very elegant in her movement, she is very fragile in her overall flow, which is exactly what we are looking for.
Eden rehearsed Cara's dance as we where certain it would be between her and Cara. Eden is very rough with her dance while ballet should be more gentle, another issue was that I had directed her before hand to dance more fragile but she clearly didn't take this into consideration.
After the rehearsals we decided that while Cara Heal wasn’t the strongest dancer she had what we where looking for, so we all decided she would be the best choice to be the dancer.
Rehearsals are super important if not one of the most important aspects in planning for the shoot. In rehearsals we would call in member of the cast we have picked, and see which members fit best the part but also if they are able to act to our direction. On top of that one of the must important characteristics our cast must have to be able to act in our piece is confidence, if the cast is somewhat awkward and unconfident in front of the camera then we wouldn’t be able to take the risk of them being in our piece.
A lot has gone into the planning of our rehearsals. Georgia was in charge of contacting all the cast members for our rehearsals. She sent out a few emails to all the desired cast, for a time in which we would like to audition them.
Here are the emails sent out to our desired cast -
This email was sent to the dancers that we auditioned. Unfortunately, Charlotte Mcgee and Daisy Jelley couldn't make it to the auditions so we auditioned Cara Heal instead.
This email was sent to the band performers, which unfortunately HUGO our singer couldn't make it to the actual rehearsal due to his suspension.
Due to a lot of the people having theatre commitments we were unable to have Eloise, Sophie and Georgie. However, we did audition Genny and Lottie, which was enough
This is somewhat more of an audition then just a rehearsal as while its important to see whether the cast can act in their role and do what we need but as well if they are good at it.
After having concerns about the lighting and spill. I sent an email to George about my worries and he got back.
Here is his reply -
This is very reassuring.
Obviously we are going to have to wait till the day or till they can get the GOBO in to see the result but this makes me more confident about the few issues with lighting the dance scene.
After our the lighting talk that George gave the whole class had individual meetings with George about the lighting for their ideas and how he could accomplish this.
Before hand I had created a small presentation in which I had accumulated inspiration of lighting that I would like for our piece. A lot of the images were carried across from the treatment I created.
In the meeting we discussed how we would like the lighting appear and react with the environment. One issue that arose was the lighting of the cell room for the dancer. I wanted this to be shot in a container, however due to the confined space George was trying to tell me it wouldn’t be possible and they would have to set it up in the studio. I didn’t like this idea because the example of similar setups looked unrealistic and appeared to be setup. For the music video I want to appear very organic and natural, to me this isn’t just a music video, we aren’t just chucking in imagery to the beat of the drum while some soulless vocals sing on top, I need to give this piece justice for what it is.
George said it would be impossible to light it the way I wanted. So I explained what I wanted again to him and as backup we could shoot in the studios at school. The number one reason for this as we would have to wait till the day to see if the lighting will work as we wont have the lights before hand.
The other lighting for the piece was describes as being easy to do. For the performance element of the band he suggested we use the pixel lights. For the narrative element we would like light shadows but a dark moody feel as if in a grungy room, with haze light streaks. The lighting for the dance element, this is the element George didn’t think he could light, for this I want to have light streaks that project bars on to the floor, which could appear like piano keys but also emphasise her entrapment. This would be accomplished by using a Gobo.
After the meeting the department sent me over some Gobos to choose from.
As a group we chose the Jail Bars Vertical Gobo, the only thing we are worried about is whether there will be light spill and therefore the lighting effect may not work, however will will have to wait till the day to see whether this is an issue or not. We have to wait till the day due to the lights being ordered in for our shoot and aren’t readily available.
Today the guy who is going to be in charge of the lighting for our music video came in. George who was a past student at Hurtwood.
Before we would be able to tell him what lighting we would want for our piece we would need to know what he could do.
So he gave us a talk about whats lights they could get in and what the lights could do.
He began with the...
AUTOMATIC 3000 STROBE
The Atomic 3000 is a type of strobe that allows you to go up to 100 flashes per second down to 3 flashes a second. Whenever working with strobes George worn its important to make sure no one around or on set has epilepsy as this can trigger an attack. UV CANNONS
A UV cannon is perfect when using/working with UV paint/clothing, however George warned that if anyone was planning to use UV that they would have to invest in quality paint otherwise it doesn't show up,
SOURCE FOUR JUNIOR
This light is usually used for spotlights but also can use certain filters that make shape effects. THOMAS FOUR CYC

These are used for green screens. You flood everything with light so that there are no shadows which is important fro green screen work as otherwise this can create issues when digitally removing the green.
6 WAY PAR BAR
This is a bar with single lights across is. You put it on a stand and it acts as a blinder.
SHARPY WASH 330
These are moving wash lights. You can make the beams narrow or wide, strobing or search light and change the colour of them, these are easily controlled by a panel and can be programmed to make specific moves.
MOTION MAC 700

This type of light is apparently the most popular for music videos. They can rotate and create images and patterns on the walls if a shape is put in front of it. There is a built in GOBO wheel that can create certain effects.
George also mentioned that there would be HAZE and DRY ICE available.

HAZE and DRY ICE are two very important elements as they can be used as filler making a room feel like there is more depth. This is something I am definitely going to want for my video.
a timeline is used to plan and identify which piece of action will be shown at which time. This allows us to sketch an idea of how are whole music video will play out as well be able to identify moments in which our audience may get bored.
With the group we went through identifying what would happen when, we did this by going through the song multiple times and finding the different builds and release in energy from the track.
We made a rough sketch of what our time line would look like, with the whole group giving input.
We then created our final timeline, which is likely to change as we develop our elements.
I also created a digital version for your own viewing pleasure.
Due to this band being already quite established it is important to get the copyright from the record label to allow us to shoot our music video for our coursework.
Ollie Grove is an executive producer at the Mill, one of the biggest VFX and production house in the UK. The Mill are the guys that got the Oscar for Gladiator, but they don’t like talking about it… except I believe it was his second presentation slide saying so.
“We are artists, technologies and makers for all media, working at the frontiers of visual narrative”
They try to make the impossible possible
Music videos are generally quite challenged by budget. However, since when youtube came there was more initiative to head down the music video root to access more of an audience, so the investment became a vital in propelling a labels artist into their audiences.
landing the job for directing your own music video, you will have to think of producing, cutting and finishing it for no money, so you must be into it, so can be choosey of the track it should resonate with you in some way otherwise its not worth the time and energy as wont be true to your passion.
what’s the big idea - there needs to be a hook, think about visual, production gear, performance piece. What will make the video awesome?
the treatment - starts as a love letter, the most valuable piece of communication between the band, production team and the record label. it highlights what your going to do and how. If you establish a connection you have the upper hand. You’ve got to convince people that what is in your head is achievable. Find still images to display your idea, balance text with an image that supports it. Best to meet in person
Dan Low - 30 music videos working across the board, signed to a production company. For real life shot of a stunt man jumping off a building instead of using a ballon with glued on trouser would cost £140,000. With the ballots it instead costed £140.
The pre-production lasted around two and half weeks, however helped them establish relationships with a lot of scouts about in london. Need to be pragmatic through out as one piece may fall through the other elements must be able to keep it strong.
chemical brothers wide open [making of] - simple idea however once broken down for the time it hadn't been done before and therefore they had to break her down to a wireframe model. Wrote there own program to be able to use the frame before to create a clean plate. The pipeline took 4 months of 4 or 5 guys working on the VFX.
music videos bring a lot of new talent into the game. Recommends us to go look at the music video awards. If you write a music video as a fan that it will come out and a fan will also appreciate that.
Simplicity is key. You need to hook your audience from the outset. Being deliverable is key.
Idea may be pulled apart, and be humble, the director is the leader and you have to pull the team through it. Never through an idea away. If your blocked on idea share it, this will help for a flow to return. There is never enough money and never enough time.
