Roles on set

Since we are nearing the shoot day, we have assigned certain roles to each person in our group so that we are all in charge of one thing and that will improve the efficiency, the organisation and the overall outcome of the shoot as well as making it a better experience all together. We have also assigned roles for post production so that we can hit the ground running for the work after the shoot day. 

The roles that were available for each of us for the shoot day were as follows:

- Camera operator

- Producer

- Director

- Director of arts

Camera operator:

The camera operator role was assigned to Georgie. I think that this role certainly interested everyone in the group, but since we all had our eyes on a different role, and since Georgie seemed best suited for the role and wanted it the most, it made sense to assign her the role of the camera operator. This role is quite explanatory in what it entails. The camera operator sits on the camera and films the video or the subject or whatever needs to be filmed. There will be times where the camera is fitted to a tripod (for closer shots), or to a movable dolly with a seat and mount to fit the camera and the camera operator safely whilst the camera is moving, and finally there may be some hand held shots for the destruction and jumping around parts of the music video to try and make it seem like the girls in our video are causing some genuine to damage to the room to create a better effect. Here is a couple of examples of some of the camera holding techniques we may or may not have to use when shooting our video. 

Georgie will have to communicate well with the producer at the start of each take, to make sure that she rolls the camera at the right time, but other than that, most of her communication in terms of roles will mostly be with the Director. 

Director:

The director is again a very well established role on the set of any kind of shoot, and was a role that was assigned to Tegan. Again, this choice didn't need much discussion on who would be assigned the role, and it was a role that I think everyone would enjoy, but Tegan wanted it more than anyone else, and suited the role better than anyone else which is why she was assigned the role of Director. 

The director in a professional music video tends to be the most experienced person on the set, and overseas all the happenings on the set, as well as playing a large role in the shooting process, editing process, and also makes critical decisions as well as trying to provide some creative and fresh ideas to the video. Obviously, since none of us have much more experience than the other person, except for Tegan (who has worked on more stuff than the rest of us), her role will be slightly different in our circumstance, but she will still play a fundamental role on set. She will be in charge of making sure that we are shooting everything in the right order at the right time (according to the shooting schedule) and making sure that we don't miss out any shots that we need to film (according the shooting schedule, shot list and step by step). She will also have to look at the development post that we made so that she can see all the different formations that the band can line up in, and use some of them if we run out of ideas or if we forget some of the formations that we had thought of. 

Tegan's role also includes a lot of communication with every member on set, including the cast, other members from the group and Matt, Luke, the set designer and the lighting designer. 

Director of Arts:

Adrianna was assigned the role of director of arts on the shoot day of our music video. Again, we didn't have any trouble assigning any of the roles, and although Adrianna was not yet in school when we had to decide who was doing what on the day, she seemed to be excited to take on this role, and any one of us would of been happy to take it as well. The art directors role is very important on set. They essentially are in charge of deciding on how we will light each shot, and how the sets final crucial details will look. Obviously, there are certain things that we cannot change about the set, but the general layout and specific placement of each object can be crucial, especially on our destruction set, as she will be leading how to make the set look as destroyed as possible, without destroying everything.

The lighting will also be very important, as it will be one of the things that we cannot edit out or change drastically in post production, and so she is in charge of making sure the lighting is perfect for each shot and for each band member. 

Producer:

Finally, the role of the Producer has been assigned to me. This role is very important on set and it has also been adapted so that I can maximise my use on set. I have to make sure that I can help coordinate the whole process of shooting the music video. I will be communicating with the director and the camera operator regularly before we shoot every new take so that we get the playback and snap right, and then I will also be communicating with them in making sure the cut is all set, and so that we know what we are shooting at what time. We have also added some other responsibilities to my role on set. For example, I am going to be taking lots of pictures, and a few videos on set to show the progress of the shoot throughout the duration of the day. Getting these behind the scenes shots will benefit us greatly in post production so that we can look back over what we did on the day and remember what we did more clearly. Also, if we are forgetting if we shot something on the day, looking back at some of the behind the scenes footage may be helpful in getting us to remember if we had shot it or not. I took a look at a video on YouTube to help me prepare for the role better, and so that I can develop a better understanding of what the role of a producer on a music video set has.  

Although this video is talking in respect to a producer for a film, I hope some of the stuff he talks about can be transferable to a producer for a music video. I also sent a link to a different video by the same guy to Tegan, as he also goes into what a director does in a different video:

Overall, I am looking forward to my role on set, and I am also looking forward to seeing us all taking on different roles, but still working together, since we have all been doing fairly similar stuff separately so far with the pre production work, and now that we have different jobs, it will be interesting to see how that may aid our team work, or perhaps hinder it, however I think that it will help us if we are all doing different jobs, as it gives us all a chance to actually do separate, different and individual work that go towards the same end product.