Music Video Project: My role and group evaluation

CONCEPT:
For this project we initially decided to have a gypsy theme for the shoot because we decided to make the video for a song JW wrote and arranged called "Take Me Away". We thought that the traveling that gypsies are famous for would reflect the subject matter of the song and its references to leaving and going someplace, anyplace else. We started trying to get fire dancers, and belly-dancers involved in our project and teamed up with the Juggling Gypsy hookah bar. I really wanted to get pythons from the reptile rescue association but it was decided that we did not have enough film to get footage of them in addition to out other visual ideas.

MY ROLE:
As far as lighting design goes I had to light the inside of the hookah bar at night, while there were customers inside so I had to keep the lighting out of everyone's way. I have shot a film in a dark location before and the footage was much darker in post-production than it appeared through the camera's viewfinder. There were some concerns raised about how much I lit the belly-dance sequence but after seeing the footage it became apparent that all the light was necessary for that shoot. The extra light did not look unnatural or make the image look less mysterious, it just made it easier to see the dancers and focus on their movement. The other two shoots did not require artificial light because we filmed fire-dancers in the dark hoping to focus more on the shapes and motion paths that the fire created. For this shoot, I worked to get all the performers to sign our release forms. For the glow-stick sequence we focused more on the absence of light to show the rhythms created by our glow-sticks to their best advantage. We tried to create as many patterns and types of movement for the glow-sticks as we could within the confines of a very small, darkened hallway.

CREW EVALUATION:
Amy as our director was very conscientious, making sure the group stayed in contact and sending out periodic e-mails to keep us all on the same page. JW was instrumental in this project, not only because he created our song from scratch but also because he planned our shoot times and we filmed the glow-stick sequence at his house. Even the glow-stick concept itself was his brain-child. But more than anything, he  was a huge motivational force for the group. He gave me one of the best pep talks of my life when I was recording some of the vocals for the song. AJ was great as our cinematographer, even allowing us to drop glow-sticks on her camera-covered face without flenching or complaining. She also let fire-dancers throw fire-balls in her direction for the sake of our project. But she was not controlling or abusive of her role; JW, Amanda and I were able to film part of the belly-dance sequence. Amanda was super supportive of everyone in our group; she helped me set up my lighting equipment, she helped film when AJ was unable to be present for the entirety of a shoot, she bought the glow-sticks we used in the shoot with me and we also got gratuity tins of cookies for the performers. She also helped me print out all of the talent release sheets.