Grunge Prep

To make sure we knew exactly what we were trying to achieve with the grunge genre, we did some research into set, hair, make-up and costume. This is explained below.

Set

We had struggled throughout the planning process to brainstorm a set for grunge that would not only signify the genre but would be able to fit with our other genres by being in the studio. As we researched, we quickly established that most grunge videos were set outdoors. Another limitation we found were that the running theme throughout the grunge genre was it's associations with horror and disturbing imagery. Not only would this have been difficult to recreate, but we didn't want our target audience of young girls becoming distressed by unsuitable content (nor alienate their parents). Eventually we found an example we could recreate:

We were inspired by the projection and thought we could go for the moodier 'emo' genre rather than the crazy heavy metal band.

However, disaster struck on the day and we were forced to go with plan B. We had tested the projection in the past, but not with the actual video we were going to use. The difference in colour between the two clips meant that one worked and one didn't. We decided to settle with almost creating a stage environment, the positioning of the instruments being stereotypical of a rock band (i.e. drums at the back, singer at the front). We used black curtains for the background. In hindsight, this was probably the better option anyway as we were able to put the full-on energy into the performance that a rock band would. The genre would not have been successful otherwise.

Hair, Make-Up and Costume

Due to such present stereotypes in teenage culture, we had grown up knowing what an 'emo' or 'grunger' was and were able to use this knowledge when designing our look for this genre. However, we also found some specific examples.

Marilyn Manson

Taylor Momsen

Stereotype Hair and Make-up Tutorial

Using these resources, we feel confident that we can construct the genre stereotypically and comically.

Album Cover Brainstorming

This brainstorm sums up our ideas surrounding the conception of our album cover design. We looked at lots of album covers from other girl bands and noted the common themes, then thought about how we could relate what we had learnt to our own project, whilst also being original.

Inspiration For Our Album Cover

GLITTER:

Since glitter is a key part of our brand an image, we had the idea to really over accentuate this in our album cover. We decided to have close up shots of our heads and shoulders, with our face as bare shoulders messily covered in glitter.

After brainstorming this, a few days later Miley Cyrus tweeted a picture of herself from a photoshoot which had used almost entirely the same concept as our planned shoot. 

Practicalities: This would be a rather messy photoshoot, and we have to think about clearing up the glitter afterwards, both from the set, and from our bodies.

'PARTY':

Inspired by shots from the Missguided website, we came up with a second concept. These shots were very well lit, in relatively casual settings, and shot in a half candid-half posed style, and featured all three girls together and having fun.

Here props such as shiny golden confetti, party hats and sunglasses have been used, and the girls sit on and interact with sofas and chairs, and this creates a casual, but classy house party setting.

Boy Band Shoot Schedule

Here is a copy of our boy band shoot schedule, important in structuring our shoot.

Sleepover Shoot

On November 22nd, we had our sleepover shoot. The location was Olivia's bedroom as we felt out of all of us, it possessed the girly setting we imagined:

• There was a mannequin busily covered in clothes, amongst many other signifiers of teenage girls
• The bed covers were pink, along with the walls
• It had that generally cluttered element that most teenage girls had

The sleepover girls were meant to be a reflection of our target audience, therefore the setting was very important in establishing this connection.

Pros:

• Using the Arri Alexa's we were able to deliver sufficient light to the shots
• Being girly teenage girls ourselves, we were able to act this out in an exaggerated manner quite easily
• The room came across girly in the footage
• As we were actually having a sleepover that night anyway, the snacks and pajamas etc were all authentic, so we think it came across quite naturally in the footage

Cons:

• The Arri Alexas could in no way match the extreme lighting styles we had in our studio shots
• Our acting was exaggerated to the point of cheesiness.
• We didn't dress the set as well as we could have - the space could have been even more cluttered.
• Compared to the excitement and energy present in our studio footage, this footage was boring.  

Overall, I do not believe the shoot was a success. However, we will attempt to make the footage work and come to a final decision at a later date about whether we will include it.

Pre Boy Band Meeting

We had a meeting today to finalize the last decisions before our two shoots tomorrow. The plan is to be shooting boy band in the morning (from 10:50 - 2:25) and All That Glitters in the evening (3:45 - 8:00).
      

Things we have achieved in this meeting:

• We have completely finalized the costume for tomorrow. Most of this was from other people (as we don't own boy clothes) so it was a chance to ensure that our costumes go together.
• Emily taught Alicia the steps for the country dance (for the shoot on Wednesday) that has been previously arranged in Emily and Olivia's frees.
• We practiced the boy band dance.
• We arranged a microphone for the All That Glitters Shoot.
• We practiced the Hoedown Throwdown (the dance that we are referencing in our country shoot). The tutorial we used to practice this is down below:  

Country Shoot

This post is looking back at our past country shoot and the pros and cons of it.
As our country shoot was in the morning we decided to come in with make up done and in complete costume allowing us to have more time to film. The shoot was very successful. As we had the studio the night we were able to set up all the props, apart from the straw that was being bought in the morning, meaning we could start filming straight away.
Whilst Emily and Olivia put out the straw and set the lighting that we had already tested Alicia was able to go and collect the instruments that we had previously reserved from the music department.
As it was the morning there was a lot of energy on the set which meant we were all able to motivate each other meaning that the shoots came out very well. We were able to successfully stick to our tight schedule as well was allowing time for free style shots.
One of the negatives of the this shoot was the dance routines. We hadn't spent as much time practising this in comparison to the boy-band dance. This meant that we were not all in time with each other. To over come the situation whilst one person filmed the other performing one would go and practice the routine.
In conclusion I believe that this was very successful and in the end we all managed to pull of the dance routines in time with each other and the music.

All That Glitters Shoot and Further Preparations

This post explains what problems arose in our All That Glitters shoot, shows some pictures from the shoot and discusses what we will do in the future to avoid these same mistakes.

All That Glitters Shoot 1

On Thursday 14th we shot our All That Glitters set up. We believe that our this shoot turned out to be unsuccessful. This is because:

• We became aware after watching the footage that my costume (Alicia's) relied on the glitter aspect of the outfit being on the shorts. This didn't appear in the footage due to the guitar being in front of it. Therefore this made us look less like a girl band and decreased our synergy.
• The projection wasn't as effective as we thought it would be, with the colours not standing out enough and possibly looking even more muted in contrast to our pink lighting.
• Although we believed at the time that we were performing to the best of our ability, looking back on our footage we found it boring. Next time we need more energy and more smiling.
• We would like to reshoot trying different shot types as although Emily is the main singer in our band, me and Olivia being right at the back gave the portrayal that we were a band backing a solo artist. Therefore we need to be closer together next time.

Here are some pictures of the shoot:

We have booked a reshoot from 11am to 9pm on Tuesday 26th.

Further Preparations

One thing we've been noticing about our shoots is that although we have been prepared we haven't been preparing enough. This was the main fault with our All That Glitters shoot. Therefore we have comprised a to do list that we definitely need for Boy Band (which we are also shooting on Tuesday 26th).

• Arrange microphones. (ASAP)
• Make sure we have the costume off the boys we are borrowing it from. (ASAP)
• Rehearse dance routine (video below) (on going)
• Practise the dance routine in the studio (Friday)
• Specifically test the setting up of the lighting so we are completely prepared on the day. (Friday)

Grunge Shoot

 

FRIDAY 15th NOVEMBER 07:00-11:00

Set:

Black background curtain, and black drum kit on the left.

Lighting:

Tight spotlights on each individual band member, keeping them brightly lit, but the surrounding space dark.

Set up 1: In a triangle formation, with Emily in the forefront on vocals, singing with a microphone, Alicia to her right, on drums, and Olivia her left, playing the electric guitar.

As this set up was very plain and minimal, with a simple black background, and spotlights, our acting was key. A larger than life and over the top style was needed, as we knew already that any actions needed to be exaggerated, to look good on camera. For Alicia this meant large and over-exaggerated movement with her visible limbs (arms), and heavy head swaying to the rhythm, however we decided that during quieter parts of the song, she should resume a blank facial expression, with less movement, to strike a contrast with the chaotic sequence of the chorus. Olivia on the electric guitar had to jump around and slide on the floor repeatedly, as well as moving her head up and down continuously 'head banging'. Her performance was so energetic, that she ended up with whiplash, and had to lie down for the remainder of the day, from this we learnt about safety hazards in previously un-thoughtabout areas, and would work to prevent this in future. Finally, I  stood at the front, singing into a microphone both on and off a stand, and I was much more free to act and move around, as I had no instrument to hinder me. My facial expressions were very exaggerated, and aggressive, as I screamed the lyrics dramatically into the camera, and threw my head about and stamped during the chorus.

POSITIVES:

• Lighting works very well with the genre styling, although was a compromise from original plans.
• Over the top acting was good, with a great variety of usable shots obtained, with a lot of movement within them.
• Tight spotlights kept the rest of the set dark and mysterious, which looked very effective, and typical of the moody genre we were trying to emulate.
• Lots of shots, with a variety of shot types, and a variety in on camera action.

PROBLEM:
On the morning of our shoot we realised our original lighting plan was not going to work. After much stress caused, we calmed down and worked out an effective solution. During our tech prep, we had experimented with using projections, and realised that the projector in the studio was set up too high to project fully onto the back wall, so decided to use a different projector, which was not attached to the ceiling and would be brought in and operated from the front of the lighting desk. Irresponsibly, we failed to check the alternative projector prior to our shoot, as we had made assumptions, and moved onto planning other aspects of our week, as we had three shoots all very close in time to each other. In hindsight, this was a bad move, and not one we plan to repeat, as we discovered that this new projector was not powerful enough, as would be situated further back, and hence could not cast a strong enough projection, leaving our set up too dark. We worked around this issue by drawing on the grungey, punk rock style music videos we had watched previously during our research, and creating a new set, of a completely plain black background, with spotlights on each individual performer. This set up did look incredibly effective, as it allowed a far greater focus on acting, meaning we had to perform far more energetically than we had previously planned for, but obviously this was not a problem for us.

Incidentally, the change has appeared to have benefited us, although the last minute stress was unnecessary and definitely should have been avoided. In viewing our footage, and editing it together alongside footage from our other shoots, we have seen that a simpler set up is far more effective in distinguishing the different genre set ups, and looks better in contrast with the look of the rest of the footage. We have learnt from our mistakes and aim to avoid repeating them in the future.

NEGATIVES:

• Olivia getting hurt
• Having to adapt our original plans on the day due to a lack of testing with the specific projector
• Occasionally performers move out of the light, but as we have so many shots, this isn't really a major issue.
• Some obstruction of Alicia and Olivia by Emily being in the foreground, and moving around in front of the camera, but again, not a major issue.

Set up 2- Emily sitting/crounching on the floor, singing to the camera, which was also situated low on the floor, creating a low-angle. These shots were very effective, as made our performance seem much bigger, and having the lead singer on the floor created a difference in levels, which was very effective, especially when incorporated into the over the top, very energetic and aggressive performance style.

INDIVIDUAL CLOSE UPS OF ALICIA ON DRUMS:

INDIVIDUAL CLOSE UPS OF OLIVIA ON ELECTRIC GUITAR:

INDIVIDUAL CLOSE UPS OF EMILY ON VOCALS:

GLITTER ON DRUM:

We also filmed the top of the drum, with red glitter poured onto it. When Alicia hit the drum, the glitter bounced in the air.

Free-form filming.