Test Shots

Test shots were taken in order to help understand the lighting and presentation of the subjects within different shots. It was important to create a range of test shots as within the final production lighting will be key when presenting the emotion and helping the development of the narrative. I used the actor that will be used within the final product as this means that the height will remain consistent and therefore the lighting will be presented and similarly to the final product.

When conducting the test shots the main element that we changed was the lighting. This is because the video is going to have a ‘moody’ impact on the audience at some points and a more positive mood towards to end.

The decision to create a moody effect on the shots means that when shooting we have to be careful. The test shots area shown below, where positive and negative elements of the shots are taken into account and expressed.

Originally it was decided that the subject moves around a light in the centre of the shot in order to get an idea of how the light and the camera react with each other and reflects onto the subject. These images are presented below.

We concluded that the most effective based on the emotions we want to implement onto the audience is the first image. This is because the lighting is strong enough to clearly see the subject and their facial expression and body language, however isn't too strong that the lighting reflects a positive atmosphere. We have however, considered using the last image to present the performance elements within the product as these are more neutral mood moments that the artist is sharing with the audience and this means that when the brighter lighted scenes are presented, it creates a sense of utopia. The second image shows a moody lighting, which although is what we want to reflect, the lighting blocks the audience the chance of seeing the subject clearly.

From this we decided to take images by windows, although the day we conducted this it was not a bright day due to the rain, it helped us discover the kind of impact that filming the outside and performance elements will have as we are planning on filming this using natural lighting to create the darker lighting.

We decided to use a close up and a medium shot for these test shots, as these are the shots we are most likely to use when filming. After looking at them once they were displayed on the computer we discovered that the artificial lighting took an impact on the subject and therefore we decided that although not natural lighting that the contrast between the dark background and the artificial lighting reflecting onto the subject that the second image is more effective as the lighting on the subject clearly presents the facial expression to the audience.

 

After this we decided to use a room that had plain wall so that the lighting is reflective across the shot. We took these in order to see the impact on the subject with a strong white light on them. We chose to shoot against a wall with two shades (white & grey) in order to see the impact on the subject in comparison to its surroundings. We then added colour into the shot, in order to see the contrast. We took into account the clothes the subject was wearing, the clothes are neutral and pastel which will be common theme of the outfit throughout the music video.

After this we took to an area with a different colour light. For this we used the canteen at the sixth form. These shots are shown below. We took one image with the subject in the middle in order to get a complete artificial lighting shot, with the colour that was reflected due to the colour of the lighting, we decided against these shots. However, we took into account the angles and the lighting next to the window. The second and third image are mainly reflective of natural lighting, so we took to angle shots.  We concluded we liked the high angel of the subject due to the way the light reflects, we decided using a high angel shot would be beneficial due to the connotations that come along with it, these being that the audience has power and knowledge of that compared to the subject. This is the kind of impact that we want on the audience this being due to the subject and actions that the subject is conducting in within the music video.

After this we decided that we would take pictures under a white light again, these were mainly for the brighter scenes such as scenes towards the end and the performance scenes. We decided to take pictures in a classroom and outside in a coridoor in order to get a feeling of how the light is diributed across a large open area. We concluded that we prefer the whiter light for the scenes were most appropriate as they represent a more happy emotion and therefore allow the audience to distiguse between happy moments within the video, this along with after affects will enable the point is clearly made. We used different shots such as long shots and close ups in order to allow us to see how the light reflects onto the subjects face. This is because in some scenes we plan on having a close up of the artist menaing it is important for the audience to clearly see the subjects facial expression.