Offlicence Music -Photoshoot. Day 18

This was an interesting opportunity, I was approached via Facebook by a client who had found me through a photography group on Facebook called Coventry Photography People. I was included in this by some fellow photography students who I had worked with on previous projects.

I was quite surprised to have been approached as I had not done anything outside of university. So this was my first client job if you like.

I didn’t know a lot about them before, as I was contacted about two days before the event. It was more of a yes or no thing. I decided to get in touch with a few friends and see if anyone would like to come with me as photographers or guests to the event. It was the first event I had done as a professional. It was an exciting opportunity and it was nice to do something outside of a university module.

Looking back on the event I would have liked to of looked into the company/client before hand, so I had background information however I have learnt this for next time.

Here is the website for the company “Offlicence Music”.

The day of the shoot

Myself and My other Photographer Arun met the crew at the Ricoh Arena where the music video was being filmed. It was a good feeling although I was anxious at the time to meet a client, although it was more of a voluntary job but it was still good experience.

Once we had arrived, I introduced myself to Sunny who was in charge of the shoot and also lead singer in the video. Once we had a brief on what he wanted from us it was much easier to get on with the task. We were asked to photograph the crew in production so behind the scenes shots and to document a little bit of what was going on.

After this we were photographing the music video in its sections. It was spilt off into scenes of the narrative so for example when I came to edit the photos it helped to organise the photos.

For example, I organised the photos in folders starting with Pitch,Model Photos,Dancers, Walk of fame, Press Conference. This was a much easier way to sort the photos and help towards to editing.

Throughout the day there was lots to do and lots going on. It was literally a full day’s shoot. We started from 9am with the event starting at 10am untill around 6pm. Here are a few photographs I took from the goings on in the day.

 It was a really experience to work alongside people who you havent worked with before and don’t really even know haha. It was such a professional shoot, similar equipment that I have used before at university ;). It was good to take part but also have the chance to observe how other media producers work. Our director Danny you can see in that last picture, has directed music videos before, I had not seen his work untill now but it was really good to work outside of university walls.

It was not a photo shoot that I would normally have had the opportunity to of worked on, but all experience is good experience. I do enjoy the odd bit of photography work and would like to develop it further as probably more of a hobby than a career. However the option is there if I ever needed it.

What was also very good about this opportunity was the chance to make contacts with people who work in music industry. I met models and make up artists, extras and actresses , it was a good chance to get myself out there and start building my profile up. I am still waiting to hear back from Sunny to see if their could be any more work for me to do in the future, but it was a good experience non the less.

Watch out for the … Boogeyman ? Day 16-17

Now where do I start…

So much has happened yet we still arent quite there yet. Lets start at the beginning…

For this Project, I decided to take the role of Assistant Director. Orginally I was gonna take the Director role for the Making of documentary of this feature film but then I considered going for something that would really test me and challenge me to push myself further. So I went for First AD on this feature film.

I have never anything on such a scale as this project so it will definetly be a challenge but a challenge I am willing to accept! I think considering Im in my second year at university and I am now working on a feature film, it will test me in all ways possible but be such a huge learning curve which will help me with my professional career.

So Monday 23rd April was our first day of production. We used this day to check Locations and meet actors and test shoot.

It was a very successful day! I am very pleased of how it went. Although it was a test shoot and we did not have full equipment (e.g the equipment we will be using for production as there was a shortage in the loan shop) It didnt affect us that much.

What I wanted to achieve from this test shoot was

– All crew members to have seen locations, checked layouts and spacing for cameras,lighting,sound etc. (Then Storyboards can be worked on from this)

– To have met the actors, read through a few scenes to see how the actors get on together and if the characters have chemistry off set like they do on set. Its incredbly important for the actors to be right because they make the film! If they dont work well then we would need to re-cast etc?

– Be all up to date and all on the same page, ready to discuss what needs happening next.

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Here are photos taken by Becca Jackson (Artistic Director) of Billings Household (House 1)

Monday’s Breakdown

I made a schedule for Monday as I wanted everything to run smoothly.. and it is kinda my job!

Equipment was booked for 9.00. I went to university for 9.00 to pick up everything. I told everyone to be at Ellen Terry between 9:00-9:15.  I wanted us to leave no later then 9:30.

I spilt us all into two teams and assigned everyone a car.

Helena (Driver), Chris, Emma, Sunil

Becca (Driver), Madelin and Myself.

In the end Sunil drove with us as we needed to make sure everyone could get back, So there was Helena, Emma – Becca,Myself,Madelin- Sunil and Chris. With cards packed we were off and on time!

9:40-9:45- head off to location 1. Arrive no late then 10:30. ( As it was the first day travelling down to location, I wasnt sure on an estimated arrival time so it was good for timing)

10:30-11:15 – Check House 1, take photos, discuss scene layout, check props etc.

11:25-Spilt off into teams, head to park/hilltop. (No longer then 20 mins at each location)

11:45- Head to diner/restaurant –

12:05- House 2

12:25- 12:30 Head back to House 1.

This was a rough schedule but it helped me to keep everyone to timings and to rehersal keeping everyone in line. I think it went really well :). I made sure we didnt stay longer then we needed at each location and that we got all that was needed before moving on etc.

From checking all locations we could then begin to visualize the scenes and how the film could be put together. It is a huge amount of work as it is a feature film but from today’s test shoot we definetly pulled together as a group, also helped people to practice in their roles for the first time.

In the afternoon..

We met our actors, Dawn Adhem playing Rita Billings and Maddy Ferrari playing Lester Billings and the three children played by Sam Shaw (Denny) Matt Shaw (Andy) and Isobel Shaw (Shirl).

It was extremely important to get them all working together to see if they suited together. If there isnt chemistry off screen it wont be on screen. My job as AD includes supervising the actors and jugding how they get on working together. I am quite a people person anyway but having this included in my job helped me to inject a bit of my personality into my “proffessional self”. I really enjoyed being on set and watching Dawn and Maddy read through lines together and really get into character. Baring in mind this was the first time they have physically met let alone worked together.

First AD and Director Chris Hammond reading through script with Dawn and Alan ( Plays Joseph Lawrence )

I think there is still a  lot we need to work on.

– In terms of Actors. I had questions about Maddy as there is an age difference between Maddy and Dawn and it is quite noticeable. Which makes the “Married Couple” not look suitable. However it was made evident during the de-brief that the rest of the crew had an issue with Dawn not Maddy. Therefore now our producer Seb is going to spend time working on Dawn’s acting abilities and I shall keep an eye on the development.

– We need to still see the rest of the locations and get an idea of what we are working with in terms of spacing to work and to manvoue equipment etc.

However I am very excited about this project  and being First Ad is a very big oppurtunity for me to show the rest of my fellow crew members what I am capable of.  Also its an experience to learn from and adapt into the proffesional world.

Reflection of being First AD

As today was my first day on shoot.. although it was a test shoot, It was the beginning of this production. From this day, I could assess how my fellow crew members worked and work out the problems we could come into and figure out solutions before they happend.

So far I have developed my organistation skills, It is my responsibility to make sure things run smoothly on shooting days. It is scary I’m not gonna lie, there have been times during the last few weeks where I doubted it I could even do this job. Its much bigger then I have ever got involved with.. but I thought why not. If you dont push yourself out your comfort zone every now and then you will never learn. This oppurtunities need to be embraced its the only way I will get better at my skills and learn what it takes to be a media practioner.

I am learning constantly.. every step of the way. We all are learning. This is the first feature film we have all been apart of producing so its a massive step for us all and as cheesy as it sounds we are all in it together.

Austim in Pictures – Day 15

Following on from the developments of the Hereward Project. I was involved with the seeing the gallery be put together and see all the work be pulled together and displayed in the exhibition.

It was a really honour and privilege to follow the project through the stages of seeing the photo’s being taken, meeting the students and seeing it all come together in the final stages.

Orignally I did want to get involved with the project on a purely photography level but unfortantely by the time I joined the project, two second year students already had it covered. It was a dissapointment but I then got the oppurtunity to use my media skills and make a documentary style video following the progress and the developments.

I began filming the moments in the photography studio and even went to the Hereward College to do some filming of the students in their more daily surroundings. It was a really great chance to see the students inside their college working and studying and to learn more about them as people.

It was a very much individual project, I had to organise, produce and direct what I wanted the overall video to look like. It was a really good experience though because it meant I had control over every part of the development. Although it did mean a lot more work for me as I had to do everything myself and didn’t have a crew behind me to help. It taught me a lot from working solo and I gained a lot of knowledge and experience from taking this project on board.

Management Skills

Skills such as Management skills are something I have gained throughout this project , I have had to organise and manage myself to get jobs done. I have grown in confidence and now am a lot more aware of the skills I have achieved and practice.

Technical Skills  

For this project I used equipment I was trained on and had used in previous tasks. Such as Z1, Microphone, Marrantz, Tripod. Many people I have previously worked with under estimate the simple abliltiy to put use a tripod or white balance a camera. These are the simple of jobs but you would be suprised how many people I have worked with dont even know how to do this. So from doing work on this project, I have learnt more about the technical skills I have and tried to develop them for future projects, so that I can always have a basic knowledge of the equipment.

I worked with both Audio and Video, including filming and editing. I have edited audio on previous projects so I felt confident enough and was happy enough to put myself forward to record and edit audio files for the exhibition. As the exhbition was made up of photographs, I think that the audio files went well with the photographs as an extra piece to support them. It helps the viewer to build a much more personal relationship with the subject and the photograph, when they hear their own words with their own photograph.

Here are a some of the photographs I took of the exhibition displayed in the Herbert Art Gallery.

Here are some photos of the exhbition pieces :

 

I think that the photographs express in many different ways what it is like living with Austism. They are fresh and different and most of all they are all personal to each student, each photograph expresses their view on their lives and how they see their austisim.

Here are a few of the audio files :

adam-anxiety

ashley-1

charlotte

james-gang-picture

If you want to find anymore .. find them here:

http://soundcloud.com/allywho