This blogpost, written by me (Maxi), describes the development of the locations (including location scouting and risk assessment) that me and my team have discussed and deliberated on for the filming of our music video, along with any changes and reasons as to why we made those changes along the way.
Locations:
For the locations we want to shoot our music video in, we have previously mentioned in our statement of intent how they should have specific characteristics. These include them having to be: fun, exuberant, and thrilling. Thus we first brainstormed a list of suitable places that match this criteria of having connotations of excitement and fun, where we could feasibly shoot our scenes at. These locations include:
Beach - Gunung Payung Beach
Villa (Bedroom, pool) - Hillstone Villas Resort Bali
Park - Nusa Dua - Peninsula Island
Park - Renon - Lapangan Renon
Car (Bali Mandara Toll Road)
Car (Alam Raya Pecatu Road)
These initial choices were made as follows; first for our villa, since renting out a villa would be extremely cost inefficient, we decided to contact one of our actors who owns a chain of villa’s and resorts, and thus thought to film our villa scenes at Hillstone Villas & Resorts Bali. Next, since we wanted to have scenes in a car where our cast drives around and have a great time, we thought of the Bali Mandara Toll Road, due to its scenic blue skies and wide road. Another possible location would be Griya Alam Pecatu road, which is a residential road, filled with lush greenery on the sides and is also quite long, more importantly we would easily be able to pull over on the side of the road at any time to retake shots whenever we need. For our Parks and Beaches, we had done some research on the most picturesque and easily reachable beaches and parks in Bali, where we found the Peninsula Island Park in Nusa Dua, as well as Lapangan Renon, in Renon, a district of Denpasar, for our possible parks; both of which being scenic parks with large grassy fields, which would fit the fun aesthetic of our music video, since lush green fields are often associated with joyful activities like picnics and friends. For our beach we found the Gunung Payung Beach, in Uluwatu, a sort of hidden beach that is incredibly beautiful with clear light blue waters and golden shores. The proximity of the locations, notably the ones in Uluwatu and Nusa Dua will allow for the logistical planning of the shoot to be easier as well.
Scouting:
To confirm our expectations and ideas of the areas we want to shoot at, we also scouted the locations, and further discussed what we thought about them. Here are some photos we obtained from scouting out the locations, as well as a location and risk assessment about what could go wrong if we decide to shoot there:
Hillstone Villa: Link
Pictures taken by: Me, and the resorts website.
Location & Risk Assessment:
Hillstone Villas is a villa complex in the Uluwatu region of Bali. It has scenic views and large spaces where shooting with equipment would be ideal. Some problems however may be the fact that the villa is on the side of a cliff, and since we want to shoot a lot of scenes by the pool (which is generally on the edges of the land), it may be a safety hazard for our actors to be standing and moving there for extended periods of time. Other than that, the villa's breathtaking location on the edges of Uluwatu's stunning cliffs provides a perfect aesthetic for the music video.
Solutions: We will make sure to brief our actors about the risks of standing by the pool edge, and make sure to assist them in getting there, and that they be careful while they're there.
Gunung Payung Beach: Link
Pictures taken by: Sharon, Internet uploads
Location & Risk Assessment:
Gunung Payung Beach is a picturesque and almost 'hidden' beach by the south side of Bali, near Uluwatu. Its shores are clean and the water is blue, which we believe would look beautiful on camera. A problem would be that getting to the beach would require a decently long walk down a stairway, which may be very hard to bring equipment down. Additionally, actors during beach scenes will most likely be walking barefoot, which may lead to them accidentally stepping on harmful materials that may be present on the beach, like glass or sharp stones. Another problem may also be that since it is a public beach, people may end up being in our shoots or getting in the way, which we will not be able to control. The weather on the day of the shoot may also vary, as Bali may still be in its rainy season at the time, and we will not be able to shoot since it is an outdoor location.
Solutions: To keep out of the way of other people, we hope to pick a part of the beach that is a bit further away and more secluded, as to not run into any complications while shooting. Additionally, we hope to get as much help as possible from our actors when bringing down our equipment to the beach, to make sure nothing breaks. We will also remind our actors and try our best to keep them wearing sandals for the majority of the time we are at the beach other than when we need to shoot scenes, as to make sure they don't get injured or wounded.
Bali Mandara Toll Road: Link
Pictures taken by: Me
Location & Risk Assessment: The Bali Mandara Toll Road is the only toll road/highway in all of Bali. It connects locations such as Sanur, Nusa Dua, and Kuta and spans, from end to end, over 15 kilometers. The highway is located over the ocean and provides incredibly picturesque blue sky and ocean views when driving over it. However, various issues arise when it comes to ease of shooting and safety, as since it is a highway, we will be forced to drive at high speeds, which makes shooting far more difficult. This also means that we will not be able to pull over on the side of the road as stopping on a highway is illegal. This forces us to exit and reenter the toll road and pay a fee for every new take we want to shoot. This would make shooting here quite risky, as well as expensive.
Solutions: To be able to shoot on the toll road, we would have to have a meticulous plan on what shots we will shoot before we get on the road. This hopefully will allow us to get all the needed scenes in one take, meaning we'll only need 1 drive across the highway. This should hopefully downplay the risk massively.
Griya Alam Pecatu Road: Link
Pictures taken by: Me
Griya Alam Pecatu's wide roads, lush green scenery, and pretty blue skies make it an ideal location for us to shoot our car scenes in.
Solutions: Hopefully by making sure we maintain a slow speed while shooting, and constantly reminding our actors of safety precautions and our driver's to focus on the road, we will be able to mitigate any chances at crashing or damaging our vehicles.
Peninsula Island Park: Link
Pictures taken by: Me
Pictures taken by: Me
Final Decision: In conclusion, after weighing and analyzing all our locations, we decided that The Bali Mandara Toll Road would bring far too many uncontrollable variables, and thus prove to be a far too dangerous location to shoot our car scenes for the music video, as due to the reasons mentioned previously such as it being a fast moving highway where stopping is forbidden. The toll fees required if we want to enter the road will also hinder our shooting capabilities and make it far harder to retake shots over and over, which is a crucial aspect required when shooting music videos. Thus, the clear best option would be Griya Alam Pecatu Road, due to it being easily accessible, easy to shoot in, and a far safer option than the Bali Mandara Toll Road, while still maintaining important characteristics such as scenic as blue skies which can still be clearly seen, as well as having far more lush greenery in the area. For our park, we chose Peninsula Island Park, as since it is in the close proximity of our other locations, we could film multiple in one day and shorten our shooting time. It is also usually less busy, as well as looking more scenic as compared to Lapangan Renon. However, we could still consider these locations as back up's in the scenario that one of them do not become available. And so, our final shooting location list is as follows:
Beach - Gunung Payung Beach
Villa (Bedroom, pool) - Hillstone Villas Resort Bali
Park - Nusa Dua - Peninsula Island
Car (Alam Raya Pecatu Road)
Reflection:
Discussing and brainstorming ideas about the locations we wanted to film in definitely assisted us in deciding how the shots we want to take will end up looking, and gave us a clearer idea of what our video's overall aesthetic will be like. Furthermore, I'd like to note how during our previous Component 1 project, we did not try to scout out locations for the filming of our film opening. This time though, to get a better idea of the locations themselves, we decided to scout the different beaches, parks, and villas that we wanted to shoot at, such that when we eventually shoot there we wont need to think of where each shot will be taken, as we'd have already decided those details through the scouting process. This process also allowed us to determine the safety issues and precautions we would needed to have taken, which enables us have as smooth and as safe of working environment for our team and actors as possible.
Additionally, since we ended up not being able to shoot at one of our originally chosen locations, Peninsula Island, scouting and planning other locations like Lapangan Renon ended up proving to be incredibly useful, as it provided us with a pre-existing back up plan, which meant we did not need to rush and hurry to quickly find another location, which saved us lots of time and smoothened our production process. However, one thing that proved to harm us once we started the filming process, was that we did not know some locations were off-limit for filming, since we didn't inquire about whether we'd be allowed to film or not, something that I will remember when scouting locations later on in projects outside of A-Level Media Studies. Overall though, I'm quite satisfied with the scouting process, and how it was able to help us throughout the production of our music video, and music promotion package overall.
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