Advanced Portfolio: Organisation of Actors, Locations, Costume and Props

Actors

Originally our plan was to cast a white male as the artist, and the girlfriend was preferred to be white too as this is what we identified as typical from our research

Challenges: As students we did not have the money to pay actors and actresses to take part in our music video so this was a slight struggle for us. We chose to pick a friend Ted Walker, who we thought would be reliable with filming, and also as he already had a girlfriend we thought it would be good to use them as the couple as there shouldn't be any struggles of being intimate.

TED WALKER & ROSIE FOX

Problems: After our first video shoot, through the footage we saw that the acting wasn't up to the standards that what we wanted for our video as it seemed very poor. Teddy wasn't as confident as we would have liked.
Also they were not very flexible with regards to schedules and we had to work around their availability which was difficult and inconvenient.
In addition to this, filming with the Ted and Rosie felt uncomfortable for the production team, and also they had seemed pretty reluctant in doing it, which lead us to re-consider our actors as it had affected our music video.

Changes: Having to re-cast at such a short notice was a real issue. We tried contacting others but people were too busy to commit to our filming project therefore we we had to seriously consider our options.
We decided to use myself as the artist. I am a drama student and fairly confident in performing and I also care a lot about this project so I am committed to being at every shoot and ensuring we get the best possible outcome. This wasn't ideal as we wanted a white male, but we felt this was compromise we had to take as student video with limitations.

As for the girlfriend/fiancee, we casted a friend of ours called Pelin Komur. Again she didn't exactly for the look we were thinking of. But she was attractive and confident and someone we could rely on to be there at every shoot. We felt that actually it would be a positive thing that she subverted the stereotype of stick thin females as the object of the mans desire and that it could be a positive message to our audience.

Final Cast

ABDUL MAAJID & PELIN KOMUR

Costume Choices

We had a variety of costume choices as there were several different locations where we went filming, and the costumes implied that it was a different day.

In order to construct our star the way we intended, we had to choose the costume for the artist. We chose to portray our artist to have a smart, suave and casual look.

Outfit 1

Grey trilby hat

Blue casual shirt

Grey jean trousers

Brown formal shoes

Outfit 2

Brown trilby hat

White formal shirt

Green casual Jumper

Blue chino trousers

Brown formal shoes

Outfit 3

Navy (double breasted) jacket

White formal shirt

Navy knit jumper

Blue casual jeans

White casual trainers

Outfit 4

Red denim Jacket
Blue aztec Jumper
Navy casual chinos
Blue ice skates

Outfit 5

White (swordfish print) formal shirt

Brown tweed trousers

Brown formal shoes

Selected Locations

These are our final selected locations.

Bedroom
A bedroom location was chosen because, we thought it would be a good place for the artist to lip sync in naturally while sitting around the room. As a normal boy may do this naturally in real life, we thought we it would be quite a realistic scene.
We got over the challenges by, using a bedroom which belonged to Rahat Hussain, a member of the group, which meant his parent's wouldn't mind, and it was also very convenient to use as it was very close to school therefore we hadn't need to travel far, so taking equipment wasn't difficult to do. In addition to this, we were very lucky as his bedroom suited the image we had in mind for the bedroom scene as it was very neat and tidy, with a decent amount of space.

Greenwich Park
The Greenwich location was chosen, as after our location hunting, we found that this would be a very good place for filming. In terms of travel, it wasn't too far from us, approximately 20minutes by train, which made it ideal. We found many 'cute' spots where the artist could be seen with his girlfriend and lip-syncing to the song.
In order to avoid rush hour, we made sure to go in the morning so we there wasn't many people on the trains and the park itself wasn't too packed with people. We also checked the weather for the days to make sure, we were going on a sunnier day and that it wouldn't rain.

South Bank Market
The market was chosen, as we thought it would be a good romantic place to film in so it would be a good place to capture the couples date in.
There were a few challenges such as having the market area packed with people, but there was no way to avoid this, so we decided to film regardless of a lot of people, but we thought that having others in the footage created a more realistic atmosphere, rather than it being deserted.

Ice Rink (National History Museum)
The Natural History Museum ice rink, was chosen as we thought it looked the most attractive out of all others. An ice rink was a common place for a date to take place in so we thought it would be realistic to include in our music video. We knew that the ice rink was located quite far, so we just took the train to get there and made sure everyone was aware of the travel. As prepared as we was, we got the shots we needed.
The school had paid for the cost of the ice rink tickets, but we needed to make sure that we got the filming done in our first go, as they didn't have the funds to re-book tickets for a second filming. We ensured that we was very careful with the camera along the ice rink, and that all equipment was protected at all times.

Restaurant
During our location hunt, this is particular restaurant stood out to us, this may be because it looked very sophisticated and classy, also romantic due to all the cherry blossom trees and the lighting. The restaurant itself also had a very nice, relaxed and quiet atmosphere which is what we needed. Also having it was located in an area where it wouldn't be too busy.
To begin with we went inside the restaurant and asked if we could film in there, the manager seemed pleased with our permission and asked us to give him a call to inform him of when we would like to film, he also gave us a time of what time it would be ideal for us to film there in terms of it being busy. Also as for the cost, the school had again covered the cost for us, but again we needed this to be done with our first filming.