First step in executing this concept was to shoot a bunch of effect material such as dye, paint & bright colour fabric in water regular time and slow motion to use as projection footage in the test shoot with the projector. We needed to see if our projections were effective enough to be the main feature of the music video (apart from Ali) as defined in our treatment pitch. We researched different dye effects and found a lot of beautiful and dynamic shutter stock footage however we intent on using all original footage and exploring different effects with that. With little (or no budget) we are lucky to have 4 people to share these costs as it does add up at the end. We so far have managed to share the costs of extra equipment (HDMI to a USB at 9pm from office works during our test shoot), food and effects material. We’ve kept a folder for the receipts that we will divide up at the end of the shoot after food costs have been included.

 

For the effects shoot, we took our dyes, vases, water and other craft materials to the Building 5 level 3 TV studio and spent a couple of hours experimenting with different effects against green, black and white screens using dedos and the LED tv studio lights. We shot on a 550DSLR as well as our smart phones and a go-pro.

 

With our colour palette in mind, LA neon and fluorescent pinks and blues, we bought food dye, acrylic and oil paint, laced and sheer fabric and glitter to the studio for this first experiment. We also bought a syringe to control the speed in which the dye or paint was ejected into the water filled vase. Initially we thought that we should shoot against a green screen, some advice that we heard that didn’t work out for us in the shoot. We ended up using footage that we shoot against a white background although we shot against all three backgrounds. We also found that a round vase wasn’t the best option to use because of the reflections the circle of the glass made. We would have been better to use a large fish tank but because of costs and getting a tank to a studio on public transport we used a close up frame and worked with the reflections to make them part of the effect.

The brightness and effectiveness of the effects was good enough for use to use this test footage in the test shoot using the projector.