Performance Shoot Footage First Look

I will admit quite openly that I was very nervous about seeing the footage we shot on Saturday on a computer screen for the first time. As Mike had wound up doing most of the actual filming on the day, only he really knew how good the footage could potentially look, and seeing as we didn't get to film anything on the Sunday, I spent most of the day fretting and worrying and pacing up and down anxiously.

I needn't have worried.

When we reconvened at school on Monday, Mike uploaded the footage onto a Mac in the media suite, and we had a look through the footage. It looked fantastic, with the full extent of our co-ordination of equipment and clothing and the look of the location itself showing through. The high-angle shots, achieved with Mike using the tripod and the ladder at the location, particularly look brilliant, with certain shots in particular of the singer and the drummer looking really effective and conveying the energy of the song well.

We grabbed some preview screenshots, complete with a rudimentary colour overlay effect on them not dissimilar to the one we plan on adding to the full video later on, and here they are:

Singer:






































































Guitarist:





























































































Bassist:






























































































Drummer:
























































































































Other Shots:

































































































More to come...

February 27th - Performance Shoot

After many months of planning, setbacks, more than a bit of frustration and 'back to the drawing board' moments, we finally got round to doing some actual, proper filming. The day we thought we'd never see...anyway, the first day of filming would revolve around the performance part of our video, with the narrative being dealt with on another day.

The location? After a lot of desperate scouting around for suitable locations for a performance shoot, we managed to strike lucky, and gained access to the location I described in the location scouting post - the warehouse in Longfield Hill. With the company owner's lorry moved out, we had plenty of space in which to film, and we also found some additional wooden boards stored in a corner, which we wasted no time in spreading across the floor for our performance area. This added something extra to the look of the warehouse - I described it at the time as looking a bit like the Maida Vale studio space. It added an extra veneer of cold dilapidation to the already grey and pretty icey look of the warehouse - perfect for our look.

We set aside Saturday as the main filming day, with the possibility of flowing over into Sunday if needed. We could also use some time during the following week if necessary - the owner would not be back until Friday 5th March. However, in the end we managed to film all of the stuff we really needed initially on the Saturday. This is useful, because we did encounter a few problems - namely, that it was very cold, and a local neighbour threatened to kick us out at one stage due to the noise, claiming he was the owner of the actual unit that the catering company was renting from him. We swiftly found out however, directly from the company owner, that the warehouse owners were actually on holiday themselves...nevertheless, we did have to turn the noise down, which did make things a little more difficult, but we managed to wrap things up and get plenty of good shots. In the end, by hook or by crook, we got the gear together, defied the cold (and Mike's illness), appeased the angry farmer, and got the shots we needed.

Now for the narrative, which would take place in various urbane locations around Swanley and perhaps other town areas. We initially planned to do this on the very next day after the performance part was to be shot, but incredibly inclement weather (pouring with rain nearly ALL day) plus our own exhaustion from organising and working on the shooting the day before meant we decided to postpone for a few days.

Performers

Firstly, we would obviously not be able to do the performance video on our own. We would need other people to star in it, and so, after much discussion, this is how the band will look, and who will be involved:

Myself: Lead singer.
Jacob Peeling: Guitarist
Matt Ballard: Bassist
Sam Vennard: Drummer

After much thought, this lineup was decided, with Mike in particular ensuring that I had the correct body movement and amount of emotion in the singing - I was often perhaps guilty of going a little too overboard in the singing, which is difficult to nail. Davey Havok (AFI's lead singer) has a good mix of aggression and softer emotion in his voice, and it was sometimes difficult to replicate that in my own performance. The others look very good as band members, particularly Jacob, with his long-ish hair giving him a good look not dissimilar to Puget.

More to come...