Music Video: 'Dancing Queen' and 'Zeze'
DEME DANCE: UNDERWOODS' MUSIC VIDEO
I acted as director of the video...though I must admit I wasn't fully aware of my position until too late (initially I thought of myself more as the editor and/or cinematographer since I wasn't choreographing the dance).
There were certainly a multitude of mishaps in the creation of this video. For starters, it wasn't communicated to me that I had to scout and choose a location (and we couldn't take everyone off campus, even though we filmed after school hours). I originally wanted to film outside to establish a more Mamma Mia-like vibe (though London in February in no way resembles Greece in the summer). However, the day that we were told to film was grey, rainy, and miserable. To make matters worse, every location in school big enough to fit our cast was booked for events. We eventually ended up waiting over an hour to film on one of the courts. The setting was disappointing; it is a plain black room with poor, overexposed lighting. The dimensions of the room also made it difficult to capture the entire cast in the shots; we were often pressed against the wall or the corners of the room —standing on stacks of chairs — while filming.
The dancers were familiar with the choreography, but there hadn't been enough time to perfect it — which meant that there was a lot of stopping and starting. This created continuity issues while filming, but I believe I was mostly able to edit them away (some were more difficult to hide than others). The most obvious were when the dancers changed order or were ahead of the music (so I had to slow down the shots) . We also ended up filming on three phones to capture as many angles as possible and reduce the filming time; however, one was a flip phone, and the footage was comparatively so low quality (the other two were iPhones) that I had to omit all of it.
After a stressful day of filming, it seemed that things would become much simpler. I was allowed to edit as I pleased — a task that I always enjoy. Unfortunately, things took a turn: I was told that a second part of the video was to be filmed with the song 'Zeze,' and that I was to mash the two together in editing (see why I didn't consider myself the director?). I was in class when the second part was filmed, which meant that I also had no say in the footage. The dancing was comparatively weaker to the first part of the video (except the longer solo by an actual dancer), and it was visually less appealing (each dancer was shot individually). The most frustrating part were the transitions: the first, to a classroom in which 'Zeze' is being played on an electric keyboard, was visually well done. I liked the use of the phone to play the 'Dancing Queen' video; however, I didn't understand the narrative being told. What was the link between the two songs? There wasn't really one: the boys had wanted to do 'Zeze' and the teachers and girls had wanted to do 'Dancing Queen'. Why was the student watching a 'Dancing Queen' video, when we was more interested in playing music like Zeze? I just didn't feel that it flowed, but perhaps the surprising contrast between the two parts makes the video more interesting.
The second transition was far more disappointing. As it was explained to me, the idea had been that the camera was thrown up on the 'Zeze' video, and when it came back down, it was back in the 'Dancing Queen' video. However, the dancer throws his arm up, and it is clear that he isn't holding anything — I don't fully understand the shot. Even worse, when it comes back down, there is only one dancer doing the 'Dancing Queen' choreography since the transition was only thought of after the footage was filmed. I very clumsily attempted to splice them together.
The final project is evidently not what I would have created if I was the true director, but I am nevertheless relatively proud of the project. I think it demonstrates the challenges of collaboration, and I also appreciate that so many people had different and conflicting ideas — most of which were incorporated. There was a lot of creativity and that is always a good thing.
As the editor I wish I had thought to do something with the lighting post-production (not that I know how to) as it was really terrible in that room. I think it lowers the quality of the video. Something to remember for next time.
Between the video and the live performance our deme got third place (out of six). Seems fair to me. Here is our entry:
-Emma
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