They want a promotional video, but not your standard night out clubbing shots, he wants to convey a story where the character takes the viewer on a experience of their nights out.
I met up with Ross and a guy named Nic, who was going to be the actor in the film. They were going to throw a house party that i would film at and wanted a story to go with it. So we came up with a story that meant the party i was going to film would become an evolution. We want to make the viewer feel as if the party is on going, the character would wake up in bed, have visions of him partying, then make his way to the house party and to kick it off. The idea would question the audience's mind, is it the night before? Is it the night coming up ahead?
We dug further into detail with the story. So when the character wakes up he is waking up with a girl beside him, after getting up he swings for a drink and changes into the same clothes from his flashbacks (a suit). He heads downstairs, grabs his skateboard and skates through Leeds to drop a piece of equipment off at a friend, who will then the party needs to help kick it off... Nik is a drummer and he decided it would be a good idea to use a drum symbol. Once at the party there will be shots of lots of people turning up, different dj's behind the decks, the crowd enjoying themselves and other attributes of the house party.
When i turned up to film the houseparty, I met up with Nik outside to decide how we were going to film the house party scene (that would include the flash back shots that would pop up during the waking up in bed scene). I was going to follow him making his way into the house party, walking through the crowd, make his way through and get behind the decks. Once behind, he would grab his symbol that has been left on the side and hit it. From there, I will get shots of Nik partying, drinking, meeting girls and leaving.
During filming I stumbled upon various issues. I bought with me a 5D Mark III with two lenses, 24mm - 105mm f/4 and a 50mm f/1.8. As well as this I had a shoulder rig for steadiness and support during the night. Straight away it was too dark for the f/4 lens due to the lack of light. I didn't consider bringing a light for a few reasons, 1. I didn't want to have responsibility of equipment that i didn't have any control over and 2. I didn't want to disturb the atmosphere, even with a light on top of the camera. I was struggling to get good footage at first because there was so many people, every room I walked into the lens would steam up. Due to the limited light, I had to study where the light source was coming from and would have to base my shots through that. I had ideas of specific shots I wanted but at times it wasn't possible. It was so packed inside that I couldn't use the shoulder rig at all as there was no room for me to walk through the house. There was a fire outside the house that many people gathered around so I was able to take advantage of the unique light and create some nice shots. At points in the main room was so dark, I had to ask Harri, who was on the visual effects, to keep the visuals as bright as possible to capture Nik hitting the symbol. Having people who worked on the event that I knew really helped me. He was also in charge of the smoke machine in the room, so he switched it off to allow me to shoot without the lens steaming up.
A couple of days later I went to Niks house, which is where we filmed the waking up scene. He asked a girl he knew to play the girl waking up besides him. My idea was to have the camera behind Nik as he stumbled around his room and get dress, make his way downstairs and leave the house on a skateboard. His room was small and whilst at his house I had visions from various angles to tell this story. I used a tripod at times and hand held the camera for the most part, the day was bright enough for me to use the 24-105mm f/4 lens, so i could really zoom in or out if i needed to.
Later that day I filmed Nik skating through Hyde Park including many of the surrounding roads. We asked a friend to drive us around and follow Nik on his skateboard. At times he would starts at the top of a hill whilst i was parked up on the side, he would fly pass and we would follow him. We also filmed from in front of him following us, as well as skating along side of us. We ditched the car and I filmed parts of Nik from a fixed position where I would pan when he swung around a corner or zoomed in/out as he got closer/further away.
To link the day to night scene, I wanted a quick clip to show Leeds changing so i had a time-lapse shot in mind. I set up the camera on a tripod facing outside my room with a time lapse remote to take a picture every 8 seconds for 399 frames. I caught the sunset just as the sky went dark.
Ross, the head of the Loco event, wanted to use a track by The Heavy called Short Change Hero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1QUZzeZoPQ&feature=kp
For the house party scene me and Ross went through a couple of tracks that he had in mind until we found one that felt right. It was a techno song by Jobe called Close Your Eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ-xPbAAijE
I enjoyed the shoot, it was challenging in ways that i'd never tried before. It was a second house party i've filmed at, the first one being for my dissertation film that included less than 10 people, but this was a hell of a lot busier and completely out of my control. The light was a major challenge and i really had to think about every shot i did. The crowd was so difficult to get through and the smoke was covering up the lens. I filmed the whole house party and finished at 7.30 am!!
Filming someone on a skateboard allowed me to experiment with more shots such as filming a moving object from a moving car, positioning myself in peculiar positions and really just playing around with my directional eye.
Loco Promo Video:
https://vimeo.com/92398230
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