We spent two days shooting Ellie’s video and it was the professional feeling set i’ve worked on. We hired a lot of equipment as the video had a very specific aesthetic that we simply couldn’t half-measure. I loved working with Ellie and Darcey as they had a really clear vision of what we wanted to shoot and the camera knowledge to achieve it. My favourite way to learn anything has always been to collaborate with people that know a lot more than me and this was a great instance of this happening. Using two LED light panels and a monitor was something I had never done before and it was great to experiment with, I learnt more about shadows and lighting on this shoot than any other practical experience I’ve had filming.

I was really impressed with the quality of shots we were able to achieve as we took a lot of care into the colour palette and set deign of the shots, which are elements I’ve factored into some of my previous video projects but they’ve never been the focus like they were here. A really interesting part of collaborating on creative projects is where each individuals personal interests and curiosities are incredibly different to yours and lead you down into paths you’d never consider on your own.

Working on this film shoot after filming parts of my video has made me question the sorts of videos I want to make in the future, as I really enjoyed the artificiality of this shoot and how controlled the set was to be able to influence every element in terms of lighting and colour. I’ve oftentimes filmed either outside or in locations where you’re at the mercy of things you cannot control like the weather or time restrictions for how long you can be in a place. A great decision we made while filming Ellie’s video was to stop shooting and to come back in a couple days to finish as we were all getting more tired and we were aware enough to foresee a real decrease in productivity and creative drive. It also gave us time to look over some of the footage and consider what we might do with the final shots we had left to film, which is something I will definitely try to structure into future projects I have.