This post will go all into the nooks and crannies of the entire production process for this music video.
Pre-production
As soon as I approached the basic idea for the story with my Producer, Deborah, she was quite immediately for the idea and was excited to get it off the ground, which I guess helped out quite a lot for it to actually exist in this moment.
So, fast forwarding quite a bit, after the script, part of the storyboard and the shot list were already done, I started looking at locations that I imagined suitable for both the indoor and outdoor scenes and we actually visited a few in Camden Town. One was called "The Diner" which was an actually thematic 1950s inspired restaurant. Yet since they never responded back to my Producer, that location was put on the side midway through pre-production.
Then after the costume and prop list and a mild idea for the budget for the shoot was prepared, Deborah posted up an advertisement about our shoot (who we were/type of project/snynopsis/type and the looks of the characters and the script). Within about two days we had 20 potential Marys and 3 potential Josephs. By the end we almost 30 applications for the female characters which we thought was insane! But quite gratifying and humbling at the same time, because even though I loved my story and had faith in it, I didn't think so many people would believe in it in the same way.
One day, we went into the library to look at all the showreels and CV's of the applicants and we took around 2.5 hours to get through it all.
We had quite good performances to not so good to bad to none whatsoever.
Then I came across this actress named Vanessa Carr.
The funny fact was that I cut her right from the beginning but then decided to look at her showreel regardless and thank the heavens, I did!
Then came Max's showreel and his quite raw performance in his final university project, made it quite clear that he would be Joseph.
After this, and going over it with the Producer, I bought the customes and props as soon as the actors gave us the confirmation of their participation.
Another thing that we initially decided on was to have a makeup/hairstyle artist for the shoot since we were going to do a period inspired piece.
I eventually found two of them, for no payment, only food and the final product for their own showreel and we were on our way.
Production
The day right before the shoot, my Producer got an email from the second makeup artist we had and she had just quit our job right before it even started. And I must say that my stomach fell to the ground as soon as she told me. And because Deborah was coming to meet me at my house so that the next day we could just get up, grab what we need and go, during her travel time to here, I just started calling all the makeup artists in London at around 10pm. They either didn't pick up, which is quite frankly understand since it is freaking 10 at night!, or they did and thought I was a desperate weirdo trying to get a substitute for a project they had no previous idea of or they had other commitments already.
So, in last case scenario, I got a good friend of mine, Linn, to do the hair since I knew she was good at it and far better than me! She, was quite literally, a life saver and a sweetheart for agreeing to do it in such short notice. And I ended up having to do the makeup which I actually enjoy to do regardless but would have preferred to have had someone who was properly experienced with it so I wouldn't have to worry if looked as it should.
And with other last minute issues of not having hairbrushes or combs or hair pins or appropriate length size trousers for Max, the actual shoot from start to finish was the best possible experience I could ever have asked for.
Both Vanessa and Max were the loveliest people, funny and quite good at their craft. Then combine them both and their chemistry was off the charts. So this being my first time directing actors, I was very grateful to them for making it such an easy and enjoyable experience for a first timer! After we did the shoot and each of went back to their homes, quite exhausted to be honest, me and Deborah got an email from the actress where she compliment us and said how much she enjoyed her time. And she even said that I made her feel very comfortable and that she would love to work with us again. Now when a person with as many years of experience in film, TV and theatre says that to you, I get a bit emotional and happy to see that she thinks a fresh, young and recently 1st year graduate has potential. Basically I need to look better at my life's choices.
As soon as the footage was all gathered me and my Editor, Alex, spent days in the editing suite until late nights editing our little hearts away! We actually had a few issues at the start because we technically lost the edited project twice before we actually finished it. It was a stupid mistake and we both learned from it.
But as soon as that was sorted me and Alex started delving into different ideas and we actually found out that we worked quite well together. And since he already was my DoP in the shoot as well, by the end of the first day of editing, we were already very comfortable and in synch with each other. We challenged each other's ideas and we tried very hard to cut down the quantity of shots we had for a quantity that would fit into the actual length of the song. We spun around with different ideas for a while but by the end, we decided to change my original idea of editing style which was more focused on continuity editing, to more of a montage sequence. Which is shown in the diner scene more so than in the exterior. And the last change we made was the visual look of it. I quite honestly just, last minute, popped in a Youtube tutorial on how to make a footage look like it was shot in an "old film" style and me and Alex just played around with it. I wanted the sharpness of the colours that the Canon 7D gives, to be lessened to a flatter look and also added a small percentage of noise/grain to the image. My idea was to look as similar as possible to old analog cameras, maybe even home made movies from the 50s.
And the fact that it overexposed the whites in the footage, as we did it, gave it a more realistic feeling and it made for, that the sequence for Mary's entrance and consequent heartbreak in the close-up for the last shot, the actress to be the complete centre focus of those specific actions (as shown below).
More overexposed whites below.
So overall it was a very enjoyable experience for me and I felt like I bonded and worked well alongside my cast and crew. We were all on the same page and it made it easier for the shoot to flow better.
What I learned was:
- Always expect things to not go according to plan. Like the example of the makeup artist bailing the night before and having to find a viable substitute.
- Leave the communication line open on set. So that the actors and DoP can feel comfortable to try out new things apart from what is scripted. I knew that my directing style would be more inclined to let other people try out other things because it both keeps the energy and the suspense going on set as well as bringing the possibility of new material that might look better than my original ideas.
The documents used for the production:
Script
Character descriptions
Shot list
Storyboard
Floorplan
Shooting script
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