Planning Stages - Performance

Unfortunately for most of the week which we spent planning for the storyboard, Mike fell ill and was not able to attend school for most of the week. Myself and Josh pressed on regardless, and I kept Mike in constant relay about the planning stages. Also, Mike lives very close to me, so whenever I came home from school, I went straight to his house and we would hammer out some more planning.
We focused largely on the storyboarding, and focusing on setting up an overall look to the video, both the narrative and the performance sections. The idea quickly came to us that the performance section would take place in a very plain style setting, and it certainly wouldn't be any kind of performance in terms of a live performance on stage to a crowd. It would take place in a rehearsal space, and a dimly-lit one - I had it in my mind that it would be lit by single bar lights, and would have heavy shadows and dark areas to give a colder, dark look. Below are some examples of the types of performance shoot settings we are looking for in existing videos:
These screenshots are taken from the band Rise Against's 'Re-Education (Through Labor)' video, and show the band performing in a grimy, run-down underground rehearsal space, almost made up to look like an underground bunker of some kind.


It definitely has a heavily dilapidated, gritty feel to it, and the added impact of the small size of it also gives a claustrophobic, cramped feel to the video, which is emphasised by the camera angles and cuts.




It creates an edginess to it, especially when married to the frequent, politically-charged slogans which appear on-screen during the rest of the video.







The next two screen-grabs are taken from the music video for The Offspring's 'Can't Repeat' video. The space they are using is much larger than the previous video, and therefore gives the camera greater freedom of movement - which it does use, using a lot of moving, panning shots.



It is also less run-down, and the dimmer lights on the side walls make it look more professional, but it still has an industrial, slightly gritty feel to it. There is a greater vibrancy to the colours, with the warmer colours being brought out more in the lighting.





We are, ideally, looking more for a location that resembles the second video in terms of space and size, but still has the rough look and mild claustrophobia of the first video. We understand it may well be tough to try and find a location that fits this exactly, but we will certainly try.