Lemonade Shoot

Studio 

The first shoot was in the studio, I had Luke and Kat filming while I directed Ben. It was booked for an evening slot We used a green screen background as I had planned to use different backgrounds including mobile phones/ lemons etc.

I had cut out some 2D lemon heads to hang in the background but ran out of spray paint too close to the shoot to buy anymore so we just took one of the papier-mache heads to use on Ben and me and Luke, whilst Kat filmed using the fish eye lens she got some great shots, which Ben especially liked as they mimicked the Busta Rhymes video which he had hoped it would look like.

The glasses add a touch of Fear and Loathing to his customised lemon outfit... (the hand painted and illustrated shirt and jacket)

Promo shot 

(we really liked the shirt lemon head combo so ended up recording some of this visual).

We ran through the song multiple times, we had variations of Ben singing (we found this more natural than lip syncing just for the purposes of aligning it with the track), some with his bass, lemon heads in the background and interacting with him (even though you're completely blind wearing them!) with jacket/ without... with/without shades... each time running through the track to ensure we had loads of footage, this worked out perfectly as when you're filming you often don't realise slight mistakes like the photographers shadow.

Bedroom Shots

For these shots I wanted a house party setting, people drinking/ smoking/ acting naturally (as much as you can with a lemon on your head) and on their phones, hinting at the reasoning behind the visual symbolism. I wanted the shots to be dark, saturated but with brighter highlights/ spotlights.

Bedroom No 1

I'd instructed them to either be dancing or on their phones (Lemon heads), the shot above had Ben seated on the sofa in-between them but all of these shots had poor lighting/ quality for some reason. The most effective were the fighting heads on the sofa and the beer drinking lemon. 

2nd Bedroom Shots

Before zebra lemon breaks out into dance she does a brilliantly intense head spin which will definitely make the cut, emphasising the creepiness of the lemon heads, their emotionless gaze depersonalising those of us who are absorbed by social media.

Another great shot of the lemons all bopping which will fit perfectly with the chorus, the fish eye lens is a lot crisper here with the proper lighting, many shots without the lights concentrated brightly on the subject(s) looked grainy and I couldn't use them.

Although I love the wide angle fish eye on this shot it just looked strange Ben behind them and he got lost also thanks to the shadows.

Having Ben at the forefront produced some of my favourite shots from both Kat and Luke's shots.

I actually managed to light my cigarette blind which took a few takes... 

Basement 

Some shots the lights were visible so I may not include these although we were thinking of using exposed shots of the studio, so it could be a conscious choice but it may risk looking like a sloppy accident not cropping it out as it's just one light...

Unfortunately Luke could no longer continue filming so I just had Kat using the fisheye lens with the basement shots, however I feel they work perfectly with this, it adds to the eerie bass player looming over you expanding in this slightly disheveled dark room.

As we couldn't tell what was going on inside the heads it proved difficult to match up any kind of dance routine... you'd even unintentionally rotate over time! 

Mural 

Spray painted by Luke (L0k3r)

I planned for the cheesiest intro with the first lyric "lemonade" but Ben couldn't stomach it, it did look horrific and the shot is completely off centre!! 

Luke thought of this shot while we were there, spraying a lemon for me I added a question mark, somebody put a lemon head on me of camera then as the shot pans I look shocked and run away (which was slightly stumbly and terrifying as I cannot see a thing which made it more amusing).

Another spontaneous shot was 'trespassing lemons' (we just went behind the wall then came back for the purpose of the shot...) which was tricky getting us both to move at the same time but we felt it looked more comical appearing one at a time.

Not planning these shots made me consider a looser dedication to my original time frame, after shooting shots we'd realise how much we loved certain shots more than the original idea etc. this helped me loosen up and realise I don't have to necessarily be so consistent with my plan and get anxious about mixing it up, I've never done this before so I can afford to experiment and learn as I go, with the help from my collaborators. 

Street 

This was definitely the most challenging shot to do... I sat in Luke's boot as he slowly drove away while Ben followed us, I tried my hardest to stabilise the camera as did Luke whilst driving, it looked really sweet that the kids are in the shot interested in our filming (we asked parental permission) if we could use these shots. This I envisaged would be the first spoken verse clip.

Originally we were really pleased the sun was shining in Leeds for the whole weekend however with these shots the sun was too low, the shadows of us standing I really liked but felt especially with the car shots they were too contrasted and saturated. It was a shame as this shot below of a lemon head walking past as if it were natural was funny.

The closer shots worked better and Ben really liked how with the slide of the bass, the camera pans out, I like the vibrant red building in the reflection and the clouds.

The final shots we did in Luke's house with the lighting set up as it was getting later in the day, watching them back I feel they'll look really good zoomed in possibly in slow motion so it's more to the beat of the song and just to add a touch more humour, it's a really funny shot but was especially hard to keep the lemons on our heads & the right way round whilst fighting... 

Behind the Scenes