Post Mortem - Grenade

Now that the videos are finished and out in the public domain, I think it's good to go back and dissect the experiences and provide a little post mortem. See what I did right and what I completely fucked up. If nothing else, at least I'll learn for next time.

Grenade:
What went right

• The mix of live music and story footage was good
• The synching of the music and the visuals was perfect, I found a good system using markers on the footage and simple mathematics to drop footage straight into the video and it would be perfectly synched.
• The shoot was all at one location and required minimal set up. The logistics were simple.
• The live footage gave me plenty of opportunities for cut-aways so I could always fall back on some useable footage if there were any gaps or mistakes in other areas.
• Pablo looked fantastic in a dress
• The mood during the shoot was mostly very relaxed
• Some of the lighting in the office scenes was really effective!
• The live footage close-ups looked mostly pretty good
• The explosions at the end look great and the camera shake and chaos really works.

What went wrong

• The set dressing for the "office" was pretty sparse, it looks more like a minimalist theatrical set-up than a convincing office.
• Some of the office shots weren't planned properly, and in editing I noticed that because I crossed the line of action (the imaginary line between two actors in a scene) Frazer seemed to change the direction he was facing. I had to mirror the footage to make it work.
• I didn't check my white balance often enough and some scenes drastically change colour from one shot to the next, which made continuity a little ugly
• The break-up scene wasn't storyboarded tight enough and some of the shots were a little bland.
• The projected visuals effect didn't look as good as I hoped in the wide shots. The "donuts" became pixelated and the light wasn't as bright as the projection was stretched across everyone. In a lot of the shots, and, most unfortunately, the opening shot, the projection is a little overwhelming instead of interesting. I also planned to use more than one effect but by the time we came to filming nothing else really worked.
• The video has no ending... everyone just gets blown up. The message of the song is that life goes on and that you have to roll with the punches, but in the video it looks like everyone dies! Perhaps that works?
• Lighting is hit and miss, I'm still finding my way with regards to that!
• During a superior outdoor take, some dust on the lens only showed when the camera was pointed towards the sun. Luckily we did takes of Frazer walking both ways up the street, but the better take was unusable. Of course, you couldn't see the dust until the editing stage.

Lessons!

• Keep your fucking lens clean
• Check your fucking white balance for every shot
• Keep it simple and relaxed
• Storyboard everything, even the simplest shot can become bland or a mind bender without proper thought. But be flexible enough to find better shots on the day.
• Find good locations, it's easier to use a real location than to dress one up.
• Pay attention to lighting, it can make or break a shot!
• Be careful with untested ideas. Try some dry runs.
• Put Pablo in a dress.