Production diary

1. Production diary
By Ellie Brown

2. Planning in class group chat:
After we met at the client meeting, all the band members and
class members made a group chat together to plan future
meetings, planning and shooting schedules. We used this
group chat to find out what productions we were doing that
day. For example, recording the podcast or shooting the music
video/showreel footage. We also used it to find out which
band members would be in which day as Adam the drummer
went to a different college and Ewan the guitarist didn’t come
to college on a Friday which was out shooting day. Pretty
Velvet sent us their gig days incase some of us wanted to
come along as well as inspiration and also sent us the little
things we would need in post-production such as their logo
font, their logo and the sound track to their unreleased music.

3. 27,10,23- Pretty Velvet gig
To get extra footage I went to one of their live gigs. This allowed me
to get behind the scenes footage and live footage of them. First me
and a friend arrived at the gig early and when we went up the green
room behind stage, we managed to get some footage of the band all
together with the support acts too. From the corner, I managed to
capture some footage on my phone of funny moments that
happened and the lead singer, Lee, explained they were giving out
green glow stick bracelets to advertise their new song, Viper Queen.
When it was their time to go on stage, I managed to get a place in the
crowd near the front so I could get some good footage. I got
different angles of the stage including a lot of low angles to make the
band seem very powerful on stage. I also got a lot of individual shots
of each band member playing on stage to use in my showreel as well.

4. 10,11,23- Practice run of audio-
visual
When we went down on the Friday afternoon, we came down to the
media house 15 minutes before the two members of band came, to set up
the cameras on the tripods and sort out sim cards into the cameras.
College recently got a new XD camera which we spent some time to
figure out how to put on the tripod. After the cameras were set up where
we wanted them and made sure they were focused, we had a look at the
lighting that was available. We could use the overhead lighting rig and
mobile lighting. The band and us decided to have a harsh bright look with
the lights shining directly at them with a plain white background to make
them stand out as much as possible. It took us awhile to find the correct
lighting from the overhead lighting but eventually got the bright white we
wanted and saved it for next time. We could move around the mobile
lighting to create the shadows and specific lighting that we wanted.

5. Once the cameras were all set up and everything looked how we
wanted, we recorded the first take of them singing the song. We used
the smaller DRS camera to record straight in front of them and used
the XD camera to get them at a different angle. As it was a practice
session, we just played the soundtrack from someone's phone, so it
was not too loud, but we have the soundtrack saved for when we
really record. After we recorded the first take, we moved around the
cameras to get a different angle of a take. We took the DRS camera
off the tripod and someone else spent the take recording close up
shots of the bassist, Tommy. In the third and final practice take the
same person did close up shots of the lead singer, Lee. We also set up
a camera on the runner to record the bassists feet to include too.
During the last takes, we spent time to try and work out more settings
on the XD that we could use in the real shoot. After the third take we
thanked the band and derigged the equipment to put back.

6. 14,11,23- Podcast recording + photoshoot
for podcast cover
On the Tuesday, we wanted to record out podcasts and create ideas
for the podcast cover. When the first group recorded their podcast,
me and my group members planned how we were going to ask our
questions. Using the questions we prepared earlier together, we
planned who was going to ask what and in what order we should
ask them. Once it was our turn too record our podcast, we went
into the recording studio and set up our camera recording the
podcast on a tripod that could move back and forth between us as
presenters and the band members who were there, Lee and Tommy.
We then set up the mic stands, one for us presenters and another
mic for the band so we could both be heard clearly in the recording.
After everything was set up and in place, we got one of our group
members to do a sound check of both mics to check that both
mics were clear to avoid our whole podcast being unclear. Our
podcast ended up lasting for around half an hour without editing.

7. After we all went for a break and the other group recorded
their podcast, we decided we wanted to do a photoshoot with
the 2 band members that were in so we could get a podcast
cover with them. We set up the lighting using only the mobile
lighting to create a shadow lighting behind them. We took
pictures using the DRS camera on the tripod at first making us
landscape pictures. We took pictures of both members
individually then of them together with Tommy with his bass
and Lee with their microphone. After we were happy with our
landscape photos, we took the camera off the tripod and did
some portrait photos as we knew these would be easier to add
text onto them to make the cover advertising the podcast. We
went through the same process of taking individual photos in
different poses then of them together and we managed to get
some good shots by the end of it.

8. 21,11,23- Storyboard planning
During this lesson, we did some storyboarding for our
audio-visual planning. I wrote down all my notes for my
showreel including making notes about the music I would
like to use in background, what I would like to include in
the video. I concluded that I wanted to use one of the
bands songs for the music and highlight each member in
the band individually showing them playing their
instrument. At the end I decided I would highlight their
new song playing in the background.

9. 24,11,23- Music video/showreel shooting
Once we had finished our workshop, we headed over to the media house to meet
the band who were already over there setting up. As they needed volunteers to help
bring equipment such as the amps, microphone stands and cables over from the
Arts Academy. I volunteered to help and pushed the trolley their and back with help
from some of my classmates. We could not find which room the microphone stands
were in so had to ask around with different teachers until we found them. Once we
were back at the media house, we all sat down as a class to do a briefing of what
would happen today. We got given forms including different roles we could do, and
all needed to make sure were covered and things we had to think about throughout
such as lighting, equipment and quality checking. I decided to take the role of being
a documentaries as I knew that other knew what shots they wanted for their music
video so I would let them take the main jobs and I'll help when needed. At this
point we also referred to everyone's storyboards to make sure we had every shot
covered that everyone wanted.

10. It took some time to get the equipment, camera, music and lighting set
up ready, but it went quicker since we did the practice shoot and saved
our preferred settings and then we went for lunch. Once we were back
for 1, we all properly decided our roles, checked technical things such as
making sure all cameras had the same shot type and because I am doing
a showreel I decided to be a documentaries and take pictures and videos
of the behind the scenes for our diaries. I also got allocated being the
sound person turning the music on and off at the necessary time. In the
middle of shoots, I took pictures for the behind the scenes of the
camera operators. We then took a break in the middle of shooting to
take images for the digital print part of the project, so we took pictures
of the set on its own which looked quite cool and ones of the band
playing too so it looked natural and realistic which will make good poster
backgrounds to surround with information about the band. After we
finished the last few takes, we wrapped up within the shooting schedule
and derigged.