As the sun came up and many of my friends came back from a drunken night out in town, I came back from a full day of shooting a music video for To Kill a King. This weekend, I was 2nd assistant director and production manager for TKAK's video for their song, Rays.
We had amazing cast and crew on set which made the shoot incredibly fun and entertaining to be on.
So now the video has been released (at the bottom of the post), I can now go into more detail about what happened on the shoot! First off, here are a few photos that were taken on the shoot.
My role was to make sure everyone was happy, nourished and knew what was happening. I organised travelling, rang cast/crew members, taxi ranks and owners of locations to make sure everything was going to run smoothly.
The shoot was possibly the longest set I have been on - one day being 13 hours long (which isn't long to film makers, but I haven't been on a shoot in so long, it was a shock to my system!).
I spent the first day trying to remember everyones names and getting to know people. Everyone else knew each other (except the set designer, Sarah, who was in the same position as me) so I wanted to get to know everyone straight away. It was refreshing to see such a welcoming and lovely crew! They all respected each other as crew members but welcomed you like you were a part of some humongous, odd family. The crew being happy and kind helped me greatly when it came to informing them of what was happening and making sure everything ran according to plan.
It was amazing how different a shoot at uni is compared to a much more professional shoot. Although it wasn't paid, the crew were still ridiculously professional and knew exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it. You could ask them questions about the kit, why they were using certain pieces of equipment and how they would create a certain effect, and they knew exactly how to do it. But I suppose that's the point of studying film at university, you're there to learn how to do those things - no one expects you to already know it!
There were many locations for this shoot - Shipley, Bradford, Doncaster, a club, a bowling alley, a field and more, so a lot of preparation had to be in place to make sure everyone got to the locations on time. Luckily, several members of the crew had a car, so it was a simple case of putting people in cars and sending them to the next location!
As well as a great crew, we had a fantastic cast. All of the actors were so lovely and knew exactly what to do - they moulded to the character and were always happy (and entertaining) whilst waiting for the next shot. They worked extremely well with the huge crew, long hours and busy schedule, and were a pleasure to be around. I've got all of their contact details and I'm ready to recommend them to anyone who needs a role filled and I'm excited to see where they end up in the future.
The main thing I can say is that it's incredibly important to have a great cast and crew with you when you're working on a 13 hour day shoot for 3 days. They were all incredibly welcoming and helped wherever needed, and the cast were great to have around (as well as one of the actors parents, they were absolutely lovely and fantastic to spend time with.)
Ralph, a member of TKAK, spent a lot of time on the shoot to make sure everything was okay. He was so helpful and kind to everyone, pitching in wherever needed even though he didn't have to. I hope he's proud of what the finished product is like - the hard work has definitely paid off!
I hope to see them all again in the near future, and can see a lot of them going far in the their careers. So this is the finished product. I'm ecstatic with it and I'm proud to say I worked on this music video. Enjoy!
