Shooting Diary (drumming shots)

Drumming Shoot

Today I did my first shoot for my music video. I set up my electric drum kit in my lounge and played ‘Summer Love’ on the nearby speakers so I could play the drums to the right pace. I got a variety of shots from placing the camera at different angles…

I also made sure that, in order to maintain a plausible Verisimilitude, the mise-en scene did not show anything too obviously modern. I made sure that everything in the camera frame was believable to be in the 80s. I also considered what I was going to wear. I knew that padded shoulders (from images of Abba, Guy, Bobby Brown) and backwards berets (from images of TLC  and MC Hammer) were particularly popular in 80s/New Jack Swing fashion, so I raided my wardrobe and found an appropriate black suit jacket with reasonable big shoulders and also a chequered patterned beret. I thought these would be perfect to wear as part of my outfit for the drumming shots.

The reason why I shot the footage in my lounge was to give it an amateur feel, as I was trying to make something which my audience could relate to. This idea was inspired by various music videos from both the 80s and more recent times. There are shots in them with the protagonists either playing instruments, lip syncing or dancing in domestic environments, something which I am sure everybody has done in their life. In particular, I am sure the people who are part of my target audience (who are now aged between 30 – 50) will have had parties, dancing or band bashes in their lounge to 80s music. 



Freddie Mercury lip syncing and dancing in a domestic setting in Queen's I Want to Break Free video (1984)

People air banding to Feeder's Just A Day in Feeder's Just A Day music video (2001)


P Diddy lip syncing and dancing in a garage setting (though not exactly clear from the screenshot) in P Diddy's muisc video Bad Boy For Life (2001)

However, there were moments when I had trouble with the lighting. During the filming of the moving camera shots, there was a flare of light from the lounge’s window which affected the vision of the shot. When it comes to editing this particular footage, I will either try to tone down the lighting or just cut out these bits of footage all together.

Next time I film, I will take extra caution about where I am placing the camera, so there is no flare of light from windows etc.

Overall, I am really pleased with how this shoot went today. I have managed to capture a variety of footage, so I will have lots to edit and experiment with in Premiere Pro. I think the biggest challenge will be is trying to get the drumming in sync with the song, however as you can see from my preliminary exercise I have already had experience with this.