A Closer Look

The location we visited on Tuesday injected a healthy dose of morale in to the group, and in this post I will look in to just what was so special about it, apart from the lovely management, flexibility, props, lighting extras and of course as Nick rightly pointed out in one of his posts the microwave.


To start off, here is a picture of most of the main warehouse space. If your looking at this and thinking - it's a mess, there's no space, this is exactly what we thought when we first walked in. Then we learnt that we can move whatever we want, so all the stuff against the far wall with the window is going to be moved out the way to make space. We thought if we shoot during the evening when it starts to get dark we could create some cool lighting effects - especially if we use a fair portion of our budget to get strobes. One idea which I think struck a nice chord with the group was putting up a white sheet to cover the window. A possible problem maybe finding the time to move all of the clutter at the back of the room.


This is a shot in the same place as the first one but is more deeper in to the room. The ladder to the far right of the picture shows a step ladder which we intend to use for high angle shots to add general variety to our camerawork. This is a technique we plan to test during our test shoot.


The next photo while showing more of the space also shows a number of carts which are basically dollies (see red arrow). They fold out and while being able to take amazing amounts of weight, are so so so so so smooth and will therefore give us a chance to do cool arcs and tracks.


The cool little contrapment in Ben's hands is a floor light the owner showed us. They are powered by double AA batteries and they have 8 of them which we can use. The picture was taken in full daytime light so you can see just how powerful they are. They should be a great edition to our lighting rig. Another picture in the dark:


It's pretty hard to top the light in terms of coolness but something which comes close is the lift which we were thinking of putting a band member in, possibly the guitarist.

Location Reccy

On a cold and rainy Tuesday after school, the group decided to take an uncomfortable W8 bus journey to a warehouse which was potentially a promising location for our music video. After a while of wondering the streets of Edmonton trying to find the place we decided to call our contact for help. Once inside the warehouse I was skeptical of the place as it was nothing like I had imagined and it was to put it bluntly a mess. After a while of chatting to the owner, who was really welcoming and kind, we found out that we could move anything we wanted and create whatever we envision within the space. This was great as it gave lots of options and importantly flexibility. As time went on she mentioned that we can use the drum kit they have, the sound system, the amps, and anything inside the warehouse itself! (theres a lot of cool art). In fact, the answer to all of my questions were, 'Yes, of course'. Things were going really well and the group was on a massive high and for once it wasn't the ganja.

The next thing we learnt was that there was another space above the one we were in which was exactly the same, and due to no one using the room it would be completely empty. Although she didn't have the key to it, and instead offered to make arrangements so we could see it another time. The next place she took us was in another section of her warehouse which featured a long corridor with an old fashioned and albeit creepy lift at the end. There were around 6 small rooms which would be perfect to shoot individual band member shots and with a bit of work we could use the idea of making it seem really claustrophobic - this could be a nice effect. At this point in the tour she left us so we could have a look around and discuss what we had seen so far. I took a few photos and Nick switched on his video camera and recorded the reactions of the group so far. Little did we know with our return to her main warehouse the location was about to get even better.

As we skipped through the rain merrily we entered the main warehouse where we met back up with the owner and she offered to let us have a more detailed look around the place. When we asked about the availability of the place the owner said that it would be free most evenings and practically deserted at the weekend; she even offered to leave us a key if we wanted to do overnight filming! In my next post I will put up pictures and show you all the treasures we found in this heavenly location. Lets just hope it lives up to all the expection we have.