I arrived at school at around 7.45 so that I could get myself prepared for the long day ahead. I was expecting a normal breakfast where hot food would be served and I could eat to my hearts content...but on all of the days for this to happen, THE POWER WENT AND THE SCHOOL WAS BLACKED OUT!!!
To give you an idea, here is an image of our canteen in complete darkness:
This delayed us for about 30 minutes as we weren't allowed in the studio due to health and safety reasons. The issue was apparently to do with the generators so the school sent out their electricians to sort out the problem. The power came back on at around 9 by which point we were doing some final checks on the set and getting the lights programmed. However a further 4 power cuts meant that we didn't get shooting till around 10 because the light programming hadn't been saved prior to the power cut so we had to start again.
As you can tell, I got a little excited about this power cut:
While all of this was going on, the make-up artist (Maz) was creating magic by making our performers look incredible, except for Heath who already looks amazing. We told Maz that we wanted Genny to have curly hair and dark eye shadow, Megan to have glittery eyes and then apply some powder on David as he can go slighlty red in the face while dancing.
We even bought snacks with us to keep the crew happy including crisps, Jaffa Cakes, Maltesers, Coke Zero, Haribos and Celebrations.
Once we regained power, we finished up with the DJ set which involved a "cheeky clean"
We were all assigned jobs on Thursday which we stuck to throughout most of the day but we all managed to have a go at everything. We finally did our first take at 11 which was not ideal as it put us an hour and a half behind schedule due to all of the power cuts.
However when we did get going, we were thrilled with how the DJ decks set up and Heath looked great on camera. During the power cuts we added a layer of white frosted material to the front of the DJ decks to let the pixel lights bounce off them. Our rules for the takes were that we shoot everything on wide, go through the various camera lenses 50mm 35mm wide zoom etc. and then move in and do close ups. We would then do any special/cool shots needed as well as using the dolly or the crane if necessary.
When we were filming I spent most of the time taking pictures and videos for the blogs, rallying up our artists so that they pumped more energy into their performance and I was also in charge of the clapper-board and playback of the song via the PA system. We had a playback TV in order to look at the shots when they were happening, this was for us to look at and assess whether we could move on or if we had to do more takes.
The DJ equipment was all provided by fellow students at Hurtwood. It provided extra light going into 'Vegas' Mode. When filming our DJ after doing our standard shots we used both the dolly and the crane as well as going handheld which Ben operated.
DJ Set:
After we had exhausted all filming with the DJ we pressed on building the next set because of the time restrictions. We said thank you to Heath and he was done for the day. The next set up was our first set with Genny our lead singer which involved a light corridor. It had 3 flats, 2 with with holes in to fit the Pixelline lights and the other stood as the back of the corridor.
It was half built before lunch and then finished off after lunch where Ben and I gave a fresh lick of black paint to the flats. This took us up to around 2:30. Here are some images showing the set being built. Before each shot, we mopped the floor with a little bit of water so that the floor would shine and match the shade of back that were on the walls.
The dancer set was ready in good time and then George our lighting director needed 20 minutes to program all the lights so that we could start filming again. However, disaster struck when the power cut out AGAIN!!! This was the worst time possible because it meant that when the power kicked in a few minutes later, the lights would take 10 minutes to warm up and then the programming would take another 20 minutes. Luckily, George's software had autosaved what he had programmed so we prepared ourselves to shoot the dance. The power went out 2 more times at which point we had practically reached the end of the day.Everyone had had enough with the power cuts so we decided to strike the shoot.
As a result we will now pick up the shoot on Monday 21st to shoot the dancers sequence and the final set with Genny. Although it was an incredibly annoying day, it was very successful because we were very happy with what we had shot. Hopefully Day 2 will be smoother but just as successful in terms of what we shoot. The group worked really well and productively in the time that we had. We each kept to our assigned roles, Ben being camera man, Eloise being director, myself being clapper-man/photographer and Dasha writing down each shot we took and looked after the artists.
The only thing that I would change would obviously be the power cuts. On the other hand, if we had done a few more test shoots to get used to using the cranes and dolly's, we might have been able to get through the shots even faster.
Below is a time-lapse of our shoot:
Here is a rough version of the dance that will be performed on Monday and a video showing what we were working on before the power cut:
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