AMEN: PRE-PRODUCTION FOR SHOOT

After deciding the way forward for the Amen piece I needed to turn around a shoot really quickly to give me time in post-production to do all of the complex editing, After Effects, and visual effects work. Also I was going to have to shoot using the TV studio where I work so would only have a time slot after lessons were finished so 2-3 hours maximum so being organised and prepared was key.

The first thing I needed for the shoot was a drummer. I did have one on hold from my previous idea but he unfortunately was white a heavily tattooed and not the right build. To work with the new idea I needed someone who actually looked like G.C. Coleman who was black, average build with a pencil moustache. I asked everyone who I knew, hit the phones and got lucky. A friend of a friend (Jason) was available and an excellent drummer and also lived in Ipswich which was where the studio I was going to use was.

Mise-en-scene wise there was nothing to worry about location wise for the shoot as it was all going to be green screened and then chroma-keyed afterwards. I did do some research into what the best drum kit would be. There were three options at college and I thought a dark drum kit would be best to contrast against the key. Other options were a light wood effect one which could also work well and was plan B or a shiny silver mini kit which was far too small. I did some measurements and camera tests for what would fit in the green screen available which whilst a fair size was not huge. The silver kit would fit with space to spare but looked too small and weird and the green screen just about took a full sized drum kit.

I also liaised with the drummer about costume as I was after a period late 60's feel to re-create the era for the re-enactment. Going from a photo of the Winston's (above) and G.C. Coleman (middle back) and from research into the era a suit, waistcoat and tie were my desired look. This also had a Motown era type feel which I felt would work well and add a touch of old fashioned credibility to contrast with the music videos. A period tie was also necessary to cap this off this look. I asked Jason (the drummer) to bring a white shirt and a mid-tone one to see which worked best as I know white can flare in the cameras sometimes.

For other preparation for the shoot on Tuesday I undertook some research into interesting photos of drummers. This was to help me consider camera placement, composition, angle, height and shot sizes.

Due to the nature of how I was planning to edit the footage with moving images underneath I decided against camera movement as I felt this would be too much. With moving music video images underneath and the drummer moving whilst playing I felt that this would be too much for the audience to take on so I opted for static shots.

From this research and taking on board my ideas I then started to storyboard the shoot. From my planning to use 16 music video clips alongside 5 for the titles/screen graphics I knew I would need at least 21. However I wanted some spares too just in case but also realised that I would be able to flip some shots so if I shot a composition with the drummer profiled screen right I could flip this to screen left in post as an alternative. The other area for consideration was the compositions where I would also have room on the screen for the text that would provide the narrative so I made sure that there were at least 7 shots that I could use for this.