The Shoot Day

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As Holly was mainly shot on a rope swing we had to think of some way to 'cheat' is otherwise she would be very uncomfortable. For the close ups of her face or mid close of her face and body, she was actually standing on a ladder, (Photo 4),  about five or six feet off the ground, this way it was more comfortable for her and easier for us to film as she didnt move around so much. At the start of the shoot day, it was hard for Holly to relax because we could not use a harness whilst she was on the swing as it would be seen and she had to be at least five or six feet in the air for the shot to look right, this nervousness was quite obviouse when we watched what was being filmed on the TV that the camera was linked up to, even with someone holding the bottom of the rope so she would not swing about as much (Photo 2). I did most of the directing and filming in the group and the others would watch the TV moniter and tell me is my directions were working, this gave us better shots as what looks good from my point of view may not look so good on screen. 

Although Holly was higher than the other band members (Photo 3) we didnt want her to seem like she had much higher status in the band, we just wanted to  give her the slightly dominant position of the lead singer there fore she was the main focus in most of the shots, yet we tried to avoid shooting her from a high angle. To do this we could have raised the Tripod, but that would have been awkward to film on, or we could have lowered her but this would not have been as effective as we really wanted to convey the feeling that she was swinging on a rope high off the ground. With these two options out, we decided to use the 'genie' a small lift that fit just two people and a camera at best, but with two people it becomes cramped and movement is restricted so only one person would be in there at one time. Holly was also much more relaxed in these shots because if she did fall, she could just grab onto the cage of the genie. before we introduced the Genie, (Photo 1) we kept getting the ladder that Holly was standing on in the shots, we almost reverted back to her sitting on the swing without support. However, with the genie we were filming at a much less awkward angle so movement wise, we were not resticted by lack of reach and could adjust the shots to cut out the ladder.

I think that we worked really well as a team; I had most knowledge of the camera and as I direct mainly in theatre, I also took a main role in directing, But Daisy and Joe were better than me at seeing if the shots worked spacially on screen. Mikey had lots of good ideas about which members of the band to focus on the most, and he was also good at going off to find extra emergency cast member's whilst I continued shooting with the band and Daisy and Joe set up a make-shift dressing room and filled in the new cast as to what they were meant to do.