Band Performance Film Shoot

This morning (Saturday 7th January) from 10.30am until 12.30pm, me and Scarlett got access to the school and the instruments we would need, and were able to film the performance parts of our music videos. We used the school drama hall as planned, with electric guitars and the school drum kit, and blacked out the room and used the spotlights to make it look more professional and not obvious that it was a school at all. I did encounter problems with the casting arrangements however. I really wanted to film this Saturday as I wanted to make a start on the editing process, and there were no days after school in which all of my cast were available, therefore Saturday was the only realistic weekday in which we could film. Also, the fact that Scarlett had some of the same cast meant it would have been easier and made more sense to film together, which we did.  The problem I faced was that two of my cast members Tommy and Joe had work on this particular Saturday, and the next Saturday, which were the two dates I needed to film the performance sections by. I only realised this in this week just gone, therefore it was quite a last minute arrangement. Therefore I arranged to film with Matthew, Callum, and Connor Hobbs (who would be in Scarletts video, and therefore at the school on Saturday; using Connor to substitute Tommy/Joe). Me and Scarlett then arranged it with the school that we would have access from 10.30am until 12.30pm. However another problem I faced was that on Friday night, Callum told us that he was now unable to come due to the fact he would not be able to get to the school as he lives quite a while away; and something had come up which unfortunately meant that he could not get to the school. I resolved this issue by quickly rearranging my cast and replacing Callum with my brother, Martin; who fortunately fit the genre of the video and also had a suitable costume and knew the song. This therefore meant that instead of my four original cast members, I was now filming with Matthew, Connor Hobbs, and Martin. I was fine with this arrangement as I wanted to have two of them on the electric guitars, and one of them on the drum kit. Although Simple Plan has five band members, it is not noticeable in the instrumentals in the song that there should be five members, therefore three was suitable. Due to these complications, the plans were very last minute and quite rushed the night before. We had set up the instruments in advance so we were able to film as soon as we go to the school, however we did need to ensure that any displays or lightly coloured objects were covered with large sheets of black paper on the walls so that the backdrop was completely dark. Me and Scarlett both managed to achieve a variety of footage for our performance parts of the video. I filmed various angles and movements, and a range of close ups and long shots of the band performing and I am very happy with the way it turned out. I do not feel that the cast change was a disadvantage to me, as after having looked back through the footage I think a lot of it is usable and therefore there has not been any negative impact on my music video by doing this. Below is a photograph of Martin, and a photograph of Connor Hobbs who were my two replacement cast members of the band.