R+P Post 26: Set design, locations and props

As our video has both a performance element and a concept element, we used two different sets as we wanted to have a clear difference between the two settings. Therefore we decided to shoot at two different locations:

Performance Shoot Location & Set Design:

We found that urban environments
were very common choices
for music video locations

When considering our options for the performance section, the main issue we came across was permission: we were aiming to shoot in an urban or industrialised setting, as our research into the genre suggested that this was common, but acquiring the necessary permissions was difficult. Thankfully, we have been lucky enough to get permission to use the rooftop of a graphic design company in Soho: Tapestry. We have decided that this will be our shoot location, as the opportunity to shoot on a London rooftop was not something any of us were eager to pass up. Additioanlly, we know that rooftops are quite conventional settings for rock and indie rock music videos such as Rooftops by Lost Prophets

We had seen the setting of a rooftop used
quite often in rock music videos

Our three lights are
marked as 1, 2 and 3.
L is our lead singer, G1
and G2 are our guitarists
and D is our drummer.
The M represents the
camera position for
master shots.

After having visited the rooftop at Tapestry and practiced with our set design, we decided to make a sketch of our final decisions. This meant that we could confirm whether our lighting setup was adequate and refer back to it on subsequent visits.

The main issue we found was with lighting: it was difficult to get enough light on our drummer. Not only did we have to make sure he was receiving a good amount of light, but the position of the source was important as the guitarists often obstructed it during the performance.

Concept Shoot Location & Set Design:
Deciding on the location of the shoot for our conceptual element was much more straight-forward: our school is equipped with a studio which was perfect for our needs. The high level of control the studio offers us made it the best choice for our shoot, as control is something which is absolutely essential for the ideas we have. 


The set design for the shoot in the studio was a little bit easier than the performance set: most of our lighting was provided by the built-in studio lighting, though we used some floor lights to fully cover our backdrop as well. As we were able to use a white cyclorama in the studio, this meant that we had a lot of room to move the camera in without losing too much quality. The crosses on our set design map indicate the piles of paper we will be using for one of our concepts. (needs studio pic and set design pic)

Props:
In order to organise exactly what we would need for each shoot, we divided our prop list into two: one for our performance shoot on the rooftop of Tapestry and another for our concept shoot in our school's studio. 

Performance Shoot Props:

• Two guitars
• Drum-kit + drumsticks
• Microphone + microphone stand
• Fairy Lights
• Sheets of paper

Concept Shoot Props:

• Desk and chair
• Laptop
• Several tall piles of paper
• Fairy Lights