Casting and Location Scouting
Casting & Location Scouting
Casting
In terms of casting, I have decided to have the performance with the narrative, so that I won't need to have more actors and it would be much easier for filming.
Characters needed:
- Main characters: 1 male and 1 female (who are also acting as the main singers)
The main characters would be part of the narrative, as it would be much easier to film, but it's also a typical convention of the Electropop genre. It's especially prevalent in Lady Gaga's music videos, as she is almost always within the narrative.
For casting, I had asked one of my close friends if she'll be able to star as the main artist in my music video, but have not yet decided who I will have the second artist.
Unfortunately, I was not able to have my first choice of person to act as the main character, as she is busy with exams, and therefore I would not be able to have her as part of my music video.
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| Response from first choice |
With this, I decided to ask another one my close friends, who is free most of the week, if she would be able to part of my music video, to which she agreed. I have also asked another one of my male friends, and they have said they should be mostly free as well.
Choices
For casting, I wanted to choose actors and actresses which fit in with dynamics of well-known romance movies. One movie I based the clothing/wardrobe for was 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days'. This made it easier to visualise how I wanted my characters to pose in the polaroids, as well as roughly their actions and movements.
The clothing in the movie features colours which complement each other, as well as colours which are neutral in tone.
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The clothing in the movie consists of jeans/dark-coloured pants and tops and shirts. For my music video, I wanted to try and incorporate neutral colours, which complements the characters well.
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I also wanted the characters to pose similar to the poster cover of the movie.
Location Scouting
For location scouting, I decided to find locations such as forests and areas with access to natural lighting. I have also decided to try and film at my house as there’s an observation deck on the very top of the building, which has observatory views of the sky overlooking the sea. This area may be a key area for filming parts of my music video.
Place 1 - Botanic Gardens
One of the places I’ve found is the ‘Forest Discovery Centre @ OCBC Arboretum (Atbara)', as it has an abundance of natural lighting and lots of open areas with plenty of green areas.
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| In particular, the whole 'aesthetic' of this hallway does fit in with some parts of the main performance of my artists. |
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| This open area has decent-sized windows, which allow for a lot of natural lighting to come through, hence it would be a spot that I'd be likely to film in. |
The Atbara House is located within the National Botanical Gardens, 5 Gallop Road, Singapore, 258960. The House has lots of natural sunlight with large windows, and around the late afternoon, 5.30 - 6pm (dusk), the area will be lit up, and fit in with my whole 'dark ambience' idea. However, the area closes at 6pm, and thus, it may be difficult to film in time with the sunset.
However, I will need to ask permission to film in the Atbara House, as per the National Parks Board.
In order for me to film here, I may need to obtain a permit for filming & photography, but I have emailed them regarding this prospect.
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| Approval for filming!! |
Place 2 - Dairy Farm Nature Park
The second 'green' area is another largely open space, 'Dairy Farm Nature Park', 100 Dairy Farm Road, Singapore, 679057.
The area has a lot of green open areas, around 63 hectares (630,000 m2). It has a lot of riverbeds, as well as large-scaling trees with plenty of walkways. The large park will be a great potential fit for when I film some of the silhouette parts, as well as filming around dusk. The park is open 24 hours, and so, it'll allow me to film extensively without worry.
However, as with the Botanics Garden, I will also have to request for filming permissions as I would be filming for long hours, and similarly, may need to obtain a permit, as per their request before filming in the location.
Place 3 - Home
For my 3rd location, I've decided to scout out an observation deck at my house, which is mainly open with lots of free area. One part of my music video features silhouettes against a sunset background, thus I decided to test out how this would work with minimal lighting and experiment with how the subjects should be placed in front of the camera, to ensure how the actors would look like from various angles.
This is the view from the deck:
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| Picture from during silhouettes filming |
Testing/experimentation in the area:
In terms of experimenting, I decided to film at dusk, around 6-7pm, as the sunset is around 6.40pm, and so I wanted to capture the sky, whilst the light was still prevalent. This was successful, as the weather was decent enough to film. However, in terms of filming, the lighting I was hoping to include in my music video was not used, as there was no plug points available to have the light, thus I filmed with minimal to no lighting and used the lights from the area itself. The equipment I used was the black magic camera, and a lighting stand.
Experimentation with silhouettes
The testing was overall successful, as I managed to film my intended silhouettes, without the need of additional lighting. Similarly, the footage was good, as I managed to show the subject's face, and their movements, to the point where I would be able to portray them singing. Additionally, the amount of ISO was also not enough, as the footage did not match the actual.
However, despite the lack of lighting, I would definitely need to have some lighting on the subject's faces, as I was only able to film the subject's movements if they were turned to the side-angle, and so I have to rethink this idea, and whether I'd actually be able to incorporate this effectively.
After testing, the area was a good fit, and I do think that I'll be able to film there again, however, I would need to ensure that I have LED lighting boxes, without the need for a large light and its stand.
Despite the issues, I did manage to eventually film some, very minimal parts of my music video, which included the silhouettes and lighting parts.
Place 4 - Labrador Park
I chose to scout out another park, which is somewhere I've been before and know of, therefore I thought this place would be quite good to film in, as it also faces directly over the sea and during sunset time, it looks beautiful.
Place 5 - Capitol Theatre Singapore
The Capitol Theatre is a very majestic dark ambient location. As one of key ideas was to have a 'dark ambience' to my music video, alongside contrasting colours, upon scouting, I realised this theatre fits this. Not only this, but the outside of the theatre is also a great place to film. This would also be a great place to take more polaroid photos.
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| Email response |
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