Untitled from Leah Dennison on Vimeo.
Friday 4 March 2011
Evaluation Question Four: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I have recorded a video detailing my uses of different technologies in these three stages of the task:
Thursday 3 March 2011
Evaluation Question Three- What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In order to understand ways to improve and identify strengths and weaknesses in our music video I carried out some audience research, this is illustrated in the following Prezi and explained in greater detail below:
In my video responses I made sure I asked people that were members of our target audience, between the ages of 15-25. This was not a very reliable focus group as I did not include people from the whole of this age bracket, and only managed to find female willing participants, so it discludes the male perception and older viewers. In my social network feedback I included members from across the age group and of both genders, so as to get more quantitative research as opposed to the more qualitative feedback from my video session, although as you can see from the prezi print screens this was not very in depth originally- so I had to create a focus group to gain some more intellectual and comprehensive comments. My feedback from our media class focus group is from both genders although they are only aged between 17-18. But using each of these methods combined gives me quite a reliable and broad view of what needs to be improved in my video.
Narrative Response:
I wanted to ensure that the audience were aware of the plot of our music video as we used flashbacks and a non chronological order that could come across as confusing. Although our narrative cohered to Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium, disruption and disequilbrium we portrayed these stages in a cyclical pattern, beggining with the disequilbrium and intertwining the equilbrium and disruption within the middle of the video, then returning to the same disequilbrium as the ending.
Genre Response:
'The mimes were brilliant- very original and entertaining idea!'
'Clearly a lot of work went into planning of costumes and make up- well done!'
'I didn't get the subtitles- seemed out of place and random'
'Can't read French so didn't understand the subs!'
In my video responses I made sure I asked people that were members of our target audience, between the ages of 15-25. This was not a very reliable focus group as I did not include people from the whole of this age bracket, and only managed to find female willing participants, so it discludes the male perception and older viewers. In my social network feedback I included members from across the age group and of both genders, so as to get more quantitative research as opposed to the more qualitative feedback from my video session, although as you can see from the prezi print screens this was not very in depth originally- so I had to create a focus group to gain some more intellectual and comprehensive comments. My feedback from our media class focus group is from both genders although they are only aged between 17-18. But using each of these methods combined gives me quite a reliable and broad view of what needs to be improved in my video.
Narrative Response:
I wanted to ensure that the audience were aware of the plot of our music video as we used flashbacks and a non chronological order that could come across as confusing. Although our narrative cohered to Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium, disruption and disequilbrium we portrayed these stages in a cyclical pattern, beggining with the disequilbrium and intertwining the equilbrium and disruption within the middle of the video, then returning to the same disequilbrium as the ending.
Every subject I asked in the video and class focus groups said they clearly understood the plot of our video and found some of the plot elements amusing giving the viewer pleasure, as well as the approach to the structure interesting- this was a great relief as it was one of the most important aspects of our video! This could be due to their shared high degree of cultural capital of contemporary narrative form, I picked the video subjects as they all have an interest in the alternative music scene and this shared interest would mean they are more acquainted with slightly more quirky and disjunctive music videos than they would if they were part of the mainstream scene. When asking our media class their cultural capital of music video knowledge would be much greater than a non-media student, with much more experiences with different narrative styles and theory and therefore be more open to unusual styles of story telling allowing them to take a preferred reading.
This was the same general response in my focus group on facebook, although I did receive two comments that took a more negotiated reading:
Josh Taylor: 'Up until the adultery scene the narrative is really clear, but after finding out that Milly is unfaithful it just stops. Like it doesn't seem to go anywhere after that point.'
Harry Morley: 'I agree with Josh here, the narrative made sense until Milly's bedroom antics but then there didn't seem to be any conclusion after that.'
These comments may be due to the fact that they were not happy with an open narrative, and wanted a more definite conclusion to the story. We purposefully left the ending unresolved as it created a more ambiguous relationship between the two mimes, and in my opinion involved the audience more into actively thinking how the situation could be resolved and identifying with the characters predicament and emotions more. So, even after receiving these comments, I don't think I would change our chosen ending if I did the task again, as it pulls away from the hypodermic needle theory and gets the audience themselves more involved.
Genre Response:
This was an important question to ask as if we are aiming to target fans of indie music, with an aspiring or radical personality the video had to appeal and fit in with this genre.
Although some subjects admitted that when thinking of the indie genre they did not immediately jump to the conclusion of mimes and clowns in love, all subjects said that they felt the visuals worked well with the music cohering to Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos. This was a relief as we thought the more entropic aspects of our video could be seen with an oppositional reading, but thankfully our feedback suggests that they all took the preferred reading. This would again be down to their cultural capital of Indie music and prior media product knowledge and their willingness to identify with some less obvious links.
Mise-En-Scene Response:
This was an important question relating to our choices of location, props, costume and editing. We felt that if the mise-en-scene did not come across the way we envisaged it, it would lose some effectiveness of the narrative plot and house style. We aimed to create a stereotypical French feel to our video through digital effects, our mime costumes and location choices.
From every avenue of research we found this was a success:
'Clearly a lot of work went into planning of costumes and make up- well done!'
Other Comments:
I asked each of my focus groups if they had any general comments- what they didn't like, what they loved, and what they weren't sure about. This was important as it could effect the audience pleasure of viewing.
In our media class feedback, we received a few negative comments on the use of French subtitles over the images. A minority of comments said they 'didn't get' the French subtitles, this could be because they lacked the cultural capital to know that subtitles are a common feature of French film, or found them out of place in our essentially English m usic video- if our attempted mise-en-scene wasn't as clear to them. The intention of these subtitles was to add to our attempted mise-en-scene of french life and vintage film, and add a slightly entropic element to the narrative. The views on the subtitles were mainly positive:
With only a few who weren't too keen:
'I didn't get the subtitles- seemed out of place and random'
'Can't read French so didn't understand the subs!'
Another issue that people mentioned was to do with our editing: Everyone agreed our pace, continuity, and shot types worked well, but the only recurring criticism we received was about the final shot sequences we have in our video, with some video comments illustrated in the above prezi as well as on my facebook focus group:
This was disappointing as we hoped the contrast between the dynamic and fluid flashbacks with the vacant and very still reverse zoom shots would create a dramatic juxtaposition and end the video in a climactic way. But this clearly didn't work very successfully and instead of making our audience think, it made them bored. So to address this if I were to do the task again, I would incorporate more flashbacks into the final 20 seconds of the video, instead of having such a long end shot without any cuts.
A final problem we encountered was that of the stop motion:
'The stop motion was done well, but was slightly out of place'
I slightly agree with these comments, as we knew there wouldn't be a direct link between the narrative and the stop motion sections there was a risk of it shifting from entropic to disjunctive and clearly some people found this too out of place, although others liked this aspect:
We could have made this sequence less out of place by incorporating some more stop motion within the video, as we had stop motion using the tear down Vince's face but then purely cards, although we had ensured the colours of the cards suited the mime outfits we only included one sequence- perhaps we could have included more objects with stop motion throughout the video, and more stop motion including the mimes themselves, and this would have been more of a recurring pattern.
I slightly agree with these comments, as we knew there wouldn't be a direct link between the narrative and the stop motion sections there was a risk of it shifting from entropic to disjunctive and clearly some people found this too out of place, although others liked this aspect:
Evaluation Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The A2 task set this year was to create a Digipak and a magazine advert for a band and release of our choice. These had to create a coherent marketing package when seen in conjunction with our mucic video, in order to attract our target audience with a recognisable house style.
Evaluation Question One: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Music Video Evaluation:
We took particular inspiration from modern french film and also certain aspects of silent movies. Two of the most inspiring french films we took creative ideas from were, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain and Paris Je t'aime:
The following short from Paris, Je t'aime gave us the initial idea to use mimes as our lead characters. We aimed to cohere to Goodwin's theory of an amplifying video where there is a relationship between the visuals and music that amplify each others meanings. As this is typical of indie videos, we were initially just using the conventions of typical indie media products. But we wanted to take the romance themes in Paris, Je t'aime further and develop them. Romantic story lines are typical themes in most music videos so this was quite a redundant idea, but when incorporating this theme with the unusual costumes and characters and taking Todorov's narrative theory and rearranging the typical order of equilibrium, disruption, disequilibrium, recognition, reparation, new equilibrium we turned our narrative into a more cyclical pattern by showing each development unchronologically and beginning with the disequilibrium and revealing what caused the disruption very late on in the video with a lot of contrasting shots of the equilbrium and ending our video with the same shot we used at the start. Using an unusual narrative style and non typical costumes and characterisation I think we managed to turn quite a redundant plot of 'boy meets girl and gets heartbroken' into a rather entropic and creative storyline.
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain was another great product we took a lot of stylistic inspiration from. It is even obvious from the film posters above that we took creative ideas from the general colour scheme of these two films, as well as the mise-en-scene of french life portrayed throughout the film, and the filters and lighting illustrated in the clip below.
We aimed to create the French mise-en-scene primarily through our location choices, filming in places like Cafe Rouge and traditional flower shops, as well as our use of french subtitles.
I think we succesfully created a French style to our video, which is quite an entropic idea for a music video, as although previous media products have adopted certain aspects of french cinema it is not a particularly widely used focus on indie videos and therefore is not a redundant idea- although perhaps to focus on a romantic narrative and also shift it into the stereotypical french 'language of love' was quite a redundant connection.
We also took inspiration from the filters used in Amelie that gave it a cross processed and vintage feel. We changed the RGB Curves and Brightness and Contrast of our footage so as to emulate this effect. This is not really challenging the typical conventions of our genre as a handmade and vintage feel is commonly used throughout alternative music videos, but we felt this was neccessary as Steve Neale says 'Genre is instances of repition and difference' and if we continually challenged these typical conventions and made a completely disjunctive music video it would not be identified as suiting our chosen genre.
We also incorporated stop motion into our video, we got the inspiration for this from the Kate Nash video Foundations, as well as inspiration from the auter Michel Gondry and his video Fell in love with a girl. Stop motion is featured in a minority of music videos, most of which typically from the alternative scene. This means that we are not really challenging the forms of other media products, although we attempted to mix the movement of household objects and live action, creating quite entropic viewing for the audience as they would not be expecting a shift to stop motion. We also tried to illustrate the recognition point of our video using stop motion, as a tear rolls down our lead mimes face in attempt to include this technique in a pivotal moment of the video.
In agreement with Nicholas Abercrombie it does make economic sense to target an audience of your genre with conventions they are used to, they like, and want to spend money on. So we ensured we kept some redundant factors such as lip syncing to the lyrics to keep it recognizable as a music video. Cutting on the beat so as to create a link between the visuals and the music as Goodwin states. Creating fast paced cuts including match on action shots, as we both agreed we needed to keep the narrative moving forward and not lose the interest of our audience. We felt that a common feature in the majority of music videos were that the cuts between shots were on beat. This was important to include in a music video as it although we wanted it to have an 'unpolished' look, we still wanted to achieve a professional outcome and this was an important aspect of that. Creating an unpolished and homemade feel to the production as indie music often mimics this style so as to contradict overly produced mainstream products. These unpolished aspectswere achieved through the use of increasing the speed/duration of some shots, which gave the clips an uneven 'jumpy' look, much like and old Cinemax film:
Another convention of the indie genre is entropy, this is a difficult one to evaluate as if the genre we are focusing on always features entropic ideas it would create a redundant image for the genre- yet if you incorporate entropy into a piece it cannot really be reduntant! We felt our mime characters were very entropic and actually quite a creative approach to our genre so feel that our video would appeal to indie fans who often aspire to contradict the mainstream, and would look for an original and different music video.
Print Production Evaluation:
When finding inspiration for my album artwork I took a lot of inspiration from the French films stated above, as well as looking into albums that featured photography as opposed to artwork. Taking a keen interest in the use of images that were highly over exposed usually with a sepia/black and white or film grain effect.
I was particularly interested in creating a vintage, old fashioned feel, reminiscent of negatives from film reels. This does not challenge the conventions of similar media projects as these images all try and portray an image relevant to the Auteur Theory (Not being influenced by the 'mainstream hype' with individual ideas determined by their creativity alone) but as this style of photograph and the 'Indie/Hipster' scene has grown in popularity, in actual fact with this growing niche becoming more and more mainstreamed into the popular culture cohering to Adorno's theory of popular media and music products being characterised by standardisation (they are basically formulaic and similar) and pseudo-indivitulisation (incidental difference make them seem distinctive, but they're not.)
I found that my print tasks were less creative, and mimicked other media products a lot more than my music video did, resulting in a more redundant product. I think this is because it is more necessary to conform to digipak and advert conventions to keep it recognisable as a product for sale, whereas a video is more of an expression of art. This perhaps is a limit to creativity as the product has to be easily identifiable as a product on a number of platforms and to a wide audience, and conventions such as:
- Having a four panel layout
- Featuring title text
- Copyright details
- Track listings
- Bar codes
- Record label details
all have to be included on every product to gain sales as thease are all redundant elements that a consumer would expect to see- no matter what genre they are a part of. Therefore I think evey single digipak will have to share these conventions.
However there are some challenges to typical conventions:
For example the mime character featured throughout is fairly unusual, as normally images of the band, typically with instruments, are featured heavily throughout a digipak. Additionally, I think the use of a vacant expression is fairly entropic, as typically on album covers, especially if featuring a female like my print task does, expressions would be either jovial or attempt to catch the male gaze whereas my model does neither. I feel I have complied to Neales hypothesis , as I have kept to standard conventions yet on the levels that were viable to take a slight challenge to I have developed something fairly unique.
We took particular inspiration from modern french film and also certain aspects of silent movies. Two of the most inspiring french films we took creative ideas from were, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain and Paris Je t'aime:
The following short from Paris, Je t'aime gave us the initial idea to use mimes as our lead characters. We aimed to cohere to Goodwin's theory of an amplifying video where there is a relationship between the visuals and music that amplify each others meanings. As this is typical of indie videos, we were initially just using the conventions of typical indie media products. But we wanted to take the romance themes in Paris, Je t'aime further and develop them. Romantic story lines are typical themes in most music videos so this was quite a redundant idea, but when incorporating this theme with the unusual costumes and characters and taking Todorov's narrative theory and rearranging the typical order of equilibrium, disruption, disequilibrium, recognition, reparation, new equilibrium we turned our narrative into a more cyclical pattern by showing each development unchronologically and beginning with the disequilibrium and revealing what caused the disruption very late on in the video with a lot of contrasting shots of the equilbrium and ending our video with the same shot we used at the start. Using an unusual narrative style and non typical costumes and characterisation I think we managed to turn quite a redundant plot of 'boy meets girl and gets heartbroken' into a rather entropic and creative storyline.
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain was another great product we took a lot of stylistic inspiration from. It is even obvious from the film posters above that we took creative ideas from the general colour scheme of these two films, as well as the mise-en-scene of french life portrayed throughout the film, and the filters and lighting illustrated in the clip below.
We aimed to create the French mise-en-scene primarily through our location choices, filming in places like Cafe Rouge and traditional flower shops, as well as our use of french subtitles.
I think we succesfully created a French style to our video, which is quite an entropic idea for a music video, as although previous media products have adopted certain aspects of french cinema it is not a particularly widely used focus on indie videos and therefore is not a redundant idea- although perhaps to focus on a romantic narrative and also shift it into the stereotypical french 'language of love' was quite a redundant connection.
We also took inspiration from the filters used in Amelie that gave it a cross processed and vintage feel. We changed the RGB Curves and Brightness and Contrast of our footage so as to emulate this effect. This is not really challenging the typical conventions of our genre as a handmade and vintage feel is commonly used throughout alternative music videos, but we felt this was neccessary as Steve Neale says 'Genre is instances of repition and difference' and if we continually challenged these typical conventions and made a completely disjunctive music video it would not be identified as suiting our chosen genre.
We also incorporated stop motion into our video, we got the inspiration for this from the Kate Nash video Foundations, as well as inspiration from the auter Michel Gondry and his video Fell in love with a girl. Stop motion is featured in a minority of music videos, most of which typically from the alternative scene. This means that we are not really challenging the forms of other media products, although we attempted to mix the movement of household objects and live action, creating quite entropic viewing for the audience as they would not be expecting a shift to stop motion. We also tried to illustrate the recognition point of our video using stop motion, as a tear rolls down our lead mimes face in attempt to include this technique in a pivotal moment of the video.
In agreement with Nicholas Abercrombie it does make economic sense to target an audience of your genre with conventions they are used to, they like, and want to spend money on. So we ensured we kept some redundant factors such as lip syncing to the lyrics to keep it recognizable as a music video. Cutting on the beat so as to create a link between the visuals and the music as Goodwin states. Creating fast paced cuts including match on action shots, as we both agreed we needed to keep the narrative moving forward and not lose the interest of our audience. We felt that a common feature in the majority of music videos were that the cuts between shots were on beat. This was important to include in a music video as it although we wanted it to have an 'unpolished' look, we still wanted to achieve a professional outcome and this was an important aspect of that. Creating an unpolished and homemade feel to the production as indie music often mimics this style so as to contradict overly produced mainstream products. These unpolished aspectswere achieved through the use of increasing the speed/duration of some shots, which gave the clips an uneven 'jumpy' look, much like and old Cinemax film:
Another convention of the indie genre is entropy, this is a difficult one to evaluate as if the genre we are focusing on always features entropic ideas it would create a redundant image for the genre- yet if you incorporate entropy into a piece it cannot really be reduntant! We felt our mime characters were very entropic and actually quite a creative approach to our genre so feel that our video would appeal to indie fans who often aspire to contradict the mainstream, and would look for an original and different music video.
Print Production Evaluation:
When finding inspiration for my album artwork I took a lot of inspiration from the French films stated above, as well as looking into albums that featured photography as opposed to artwork. Taking a keen interest in the use of images that were highly over exposed usually with a sepia/black and white or film grain effect.
I was particularly interested in creating a vintage, old fashioned feel, reminiscent of negatives from film reels. This does not challenge the conventions of similar media projects as these images all try and portray an image relevant to the Auteur Theory (Not being influenced by the 'mainstream hype' with individual ideas determined by their creativity alone) but as this style of photograph and the 'Indie/Hipster' scene has grown in popularity, in actual fact with this growing niche becoming more and more mainstreamed into the popular culture cohering to Adorno's theory of popular media and music products being characterised by standardisation (they are basically formulaic and similar) and pseudo-indivitulisation (incidental difference make them seem distinctive, but they're not.)
I found that my print tasks were less creative, and mimicked other media products a lot more than my music video did, resulting in a more redundant product. I think this is because it is more necessary to conform to digipak and advert conventions to keep it recognisable as a product for sale, whereas a video is more of an expression of art. This perhaps is a limit to creativity as the product has to be easily identifiable as a product on a number of platforms and to a wide audience, and conventions such as:
- Having a four panel layout
- Featuring title text
- Copyright details
- Track listings
- Bar codes
- Record label details
all have to be included on every product to gain sales as thease are all redundant elements that a consumer would expect to see- no matter what genre they are a part of. Therefore I think evey single digipak will have to share these conventions.
However there are some challenges to typical conventions:
For example the mime character featured throughout is fairly unusual, as normally images of the band, typically with instruments, are featured heavily throughout a digipak. Additionally, I think the use of a vacant expression is fairly entropic, as typically on album covers, especially if featuring a female like my print task does, expressions would be either jovial or attempt to catch the male gaze whereas my model does neither. I feel I have complied to Neales hypothesis , as I have kept to standard conventions yet on the levels that were viable to take a slight challenge to I have developed something fairly unique.
Friday 11 February 2011
Monday 10 January 2011
Filming: Day One
Our aim for today was to carry out the 'bedroom scene' shots:
"Bedroom Shots (Total of 11 shots = 44 takes)
Location: Milly's House
Estimated time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes (20 minutes set up, due to changes in location around the house and changes in camera angles, 1 hour filming, doing 4 takes of each shot, lighting check, 5 minutes test shots) Cast required: Vince, Sam and Milly"
Today might have proved to be a bit of a challenge, as it was our first day filming with our cast and we had to get to grips with the HD camera we had not used before, as well as using a set we were not familiar with. But as it was, the day proved a success and we even had extra time to record some shots for the chorus of Vince and Milly miming to the music against the effective back drop.
We had anticipated some problems as we already knew all of the lighting kits had been booked out by other students, so we planned in advance to bring along some extra lighting including strong watt lamps and also some fairy lights and candles to create the 'romantic mise-en-scene' we hoped to achieve. Milly and Vince proved to be very good at co operating and acting, and although the miming shots took a couple of takes all in all the day went very smoothly. Here are some shots of the day, and some film clips of what we managed to achieve:
Above is a one of the frames from our stop motion clips of Vince, we used paper to cut out a tear and stuck it to his face using vaseline so it could be easily moved without disturbing the make up behind.
The finished video has the tear falling down his face.
Top: The set up intererior, we liked the contrasting colours of the striped shirts and red braces, so we tried to emulate this colour theme with the background wallpaper and lights. We also lit the candles around the flower arrangements to create a romantic mise-en-scene.
Bottom: Emily putting on Milly's make up.
We had anticipated some problems as we already knew all of the lighting kits had been booked out by other students, so we planned in advance to bring along some extra lighting including strong watt lamps and also some fairy lights and candles to create the 'romantic mise-en-scene' we hoped to achieve. Milly and Vince proved to be very good at co operating and acting, and although the miming shots took a couple of takes all in all the day went very smoothly. Here are some shots of the day, and some film clips of what we managed to achieve:
Above is a one of the frames from our stop motion clips of Vince, we used paper to cut out a tear and stuck it to his face using vaseline so it could be easily moved without disturbing the make up behind.
The finished video has the tear falling down his face.
Top: The set up intererior, we liked the contrasting colours of the striped shirts and red braces, so we tried to emulate this colour theme with the background wallpaper and lights. We also lit the candles around the flower arrangements to create a romantic mise-en-scene.
Bottom: Emily putting on Milly's make up.
Above is some finished stop motions photographed from a Canon EOS DLSR used with a tripod to keep the images smooth and realistic. We then used Windows Movie Maker to get an idea of how it would look when it is edited onto our video. The final outcome of this stop motion clip will be slightly different in the music video as it will be edited in Adobe Premier Pro, where the transition from one image to the next will be slightly faster.
Costumes
For our mime costumes we luckily already have all of the kit we need to create a realistic costume. Both Vince and Milly have supplied their own tops and trousers, and between Emma and I we have supplied the top hat, beret, braces, neck tie and make up. These have all proved effective costumes, as we found out from our print tasks.
Although: It will be too difficult to edit make up flaws througout the finished clip, and although the advantages of a HD camera mean we will have a proffesional end result, the high definition will mean any errors in make up will also be very visible. Therefore we have decided to ask our friend Emily Sparkes to be our 'makeup artist', due to her outstanding artistic ability shown in her work below, as well as the fact she has a tattoo apprenticeship so is used to working on human skin:
Here are some examples of her work-
Although: It will be too difficult to edit make up flaws througout the finished clip, and although the advantages of a HD camera mean we will have a proffesional end result, the high definition will mean any errors in make up will also be very visible. Therefore we have decided to ask our friend Emily Sparkes to be our 'makeup artist', due to her outstanding artistic ability shown in her work below, as well as the fact she has a tattoo apprenticeship so is used to working on human skin:
Here are some examples of her work-
Time Planning
Me and Emma have sat down together and roughly planned out our filming schedule to give ourselves and our actors enough notice to be available and to fully understand what we need to get done. Although these are liable to change due to availability of equipment and also possible absences of cast members:
Filming: Indoor Shots 1 - Saturday 7th January 2011
Filming: Indoor Shots 1 - Saturday 7th January 2011
5.30 pm onwards
Potential problems: Camera Availability (busy time)
1. Bedroom Shots (Total of 11 shots = 44 takes)
Location: Milly's House
Estimated time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes (20 minutes set up, due to changes in location around the house and changes in camera angles, 1 hour filming, doing 4 takes of each shot, lighting check, 5 minutes test shots) Cast required: Vince, Sam and Milly
Filming: Indoor Shots 2 - Tuesday 9th January 2011
10.10am - 11.10am
Potential problems: Studio Availability
1. 'Photobooth' Shots (Total of 4 shots = 16 takes)
Location: Worcester Sixth Form College, photography studio
Estimated time: 30 minutes (5 minutes set up, 5 minutes lighting check, 20 minutes filming) Cast required: Vince and Milly
2. Head and shoulders 'miming' shots (Total of 5 shots = 20 takes)
Location: Worcester Sixth Form College, photography studio
Estimated time: 15 minutes (set up already done, 15 minutes filming)
Filming: Indoor Shots 3 - Tuesday 9th January 2011
6.30pm onwards
Potential problems: Public place, ease to film
1. Jump Cuts - Two Shots (Total of 13 shots = 39 takes)
Location: The Firefly, Worcester
Estimated time: 1 hour (5 minutes set up, 5 minutes lighting check, half an hour filming, allow 20 minutes for interruptions from people in a public place)
Filming: Outdoor Shots 1 - Wednesday 10th January
12.30pm
Potential problems: Unsuitable weather conditions
1. Hill shots, mime's running towards camera (Total of 3 shots = 12 takes)
Location: Rebecca Gardens, Worcester
Estimated time: 30 minutes (10 minutes set up and lighting check, 5 minutes test shots, 15 minutes filming, doing 4 takes of each shot) Cast required: Vince and Milly
2. Café Rouge shots, mime's at table (Total of 9 shots = 36 takes)
Location: Café Rouge, Worcester
Estimated time: 1 Hour (15 minutes set up due to changes in camera angles, lighting check, 5 minutes test shots, 40 minutes filming, doing 4 takes of each shot) Cast required: Vince and Milly
3. Bike shots (Total of 8 shots = 32 takes)
Location: River Severn, Worcester
Estimated time: 1 Hour (15 minutes set up due to changes in camera angles, lighting check, 5 minutes test shots, 40 minutes filming, doing 4 takes of each shot) Cast required: Vince and Milly
1. Point of view shots (Total of 5 shots = 20 takes)
Location: Worcester Sixth Form College
Estimated time: 20 minutes (5 minutes set up and lighting check, 10 minutes filming and retakes)
Filming: Indoor Shots 4 - Sunday 14th January 2011
1.00 pm onwards
Potential problems: Cast transport to location
1. Sofa Shots (Total of 18 shots = 72 takes)
Location: Leah's House, Worcester
Estimated time: 1 hour (15 minutes set up due to changes in camera angle, 5 minutes lighting check, 40 minutes filming)
Photography: Stop Motion Animation - Friday 8th January 2011
5.00pm onwards
No potential problems
1. Stop Motion animation of inanimate objects (accordion, back of cards, socks, gloves)
Location: Emma's House, Droitwich
Estimated time: 30 minutes (5 minutes set up and 25 minutes taking various pictures)
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Animatic Storyboard and Shot List
0.00 STOP MOTION FRAME, MOVES RIGHT
0.06 STOP MOTION FRAME, MOVES RIGHT
0.12 ZOOM ON FRAME
0.16 ZOOM ON FRAME CONTINUED
0.19 GRAPHIC MATCH, EXTREME CLOSE UP OF MIME'S EYES, REVERSE ZOOM
0.21 HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT, REVERSE ZOOM AND PAN LEFT
0.23 REVERSE ZOOM AND PAN LEFT, REVEAL TWO SHOT OF MIME CHARACTERS
0.26 TWO SHOT, BOY MIME LOOKS RIGHT
0.27 TWO SHOT, BOTH MIME CHARACTERS LOOKING FORWARD
0.28 TWO SHOT, GIRL MIME LOOKS LEFT
0.29 TWO SHOT, BOTH MIME CHARACTERS LOOKING FORWARD
0.30 EXTREME WIDE SHOT OF BIKE SCENE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.32 MID SHOT OF MIME ON BIKE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.34 WIDE SHOT OF BIKES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.37 TWO SHOT, MIME'S CYCLING TOWARDS THE CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.39 MEDIUM CLOSE UP OF MIME'S FACES AS THEY CYCLE PAST (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.41 WIDE SHOT OF TREES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.43 WIDE SHOT OF MIME'S CYCLING THROUGH (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.46 MEDIUM CLOSE UP OF MIME'S FACES AS THEY CYCLE PAST (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASH BACK)
0.48 WIDE SHOT OF ROOM, BOY MIME MIMING LYRICS ('FEEL SOMETHING RIGHT, FEEL SOMETHING GOOD')
0.54 HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT, BOY MIME LOOKS RIGHT
0.56 HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT, VINCE LOOKS FORWARD
0.57 TWO SHOT, REVERSE ZOOM OF MIME'S ON SOFA
0.59 WIDE SHOT OF MIME'S ON SOFA
1.01 WIDE SHOT OF CAFÉ ROUGE, MIMES OUTSIDE EATING
1.03 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME LAUGHING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.04 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME LAUGHING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.05 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME EATING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.06 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF STOP MOTION CUTLERY ON TABLE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.09 TWO SHOT, 'ROMANTIC LOOKS', STOP MOTION CUTLERY ON TABLE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.11 POINT OF VIEW SHOW OF GIRL MIME SMILING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.12 MEDIUM CLOSE UP OF MIMES, 'AFTER YOU' (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.14 REVERSE ZOOM OF WIDE SHOT, TWO MIMES WALKING INTO THE CAFÉ (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.16 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF BOY MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
1.17 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF GIRL MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
1.18 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF BOY MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
1.19 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF GIRL MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
1.21 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF BOY MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
1.22 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF GIRL MIME SINGING 'THEN WHO ARE YOU?'
1.23 WIDE SHOT OF MIMES ON BIKES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.24 MEDIUM CLOSE UP OF BOY MIME ON BIKE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.26 MEDIUM CLOSE UP OF GIRL MIME ON BIKE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.27 WIDE SHOT OF MIMES ON BIKES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.29 WIDE SHOT OF MIMES ON SOFA, STOP MOTION PICTURE FRAME BEHIND THEM, BOY MIME MIMING "AND IF THIS IS THE LIFE, THIS IS THE LIFE..."
1.33 STOP MOTION INANIMATE OBJECTS
1.35 WIDE SHOT OF MIMES ON SOFA, STOP MOTION PICTURE FRAME BEHIND THEM, BOY MIME MIMING "AND IF THIS IS THE LIFE, THIS IS THE LIFE..."
1.37 WIDE SHOT, MIMES INTERTWINED, ROLLING DOWN HILL TOWARDS CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.39 JUMP CUT TO WIDE SHOT, MIMES RUNNING DOWN HILL TOWARDS CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.41 CLOSE UP TWO SHOT, MIMES RUNNING TOWARDS CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
1.45 WIDE SHOT, CLOWN CHARACTER/NEW MIME IN BED LOOKING HAPPY
1.45 CLOSE UP OF CLOWN CHARACTER/NEW MIME LOOKING HAPPY
1.48 CLOSE UP STOP MOTION OF BOY MIMES FEET
1.50 CLOSE UP OF CLOWN CHARACTER/NEW MIME LOOKING HAPPY
1.52 HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF BOY MIME LOOKING SUSPICIOUS
1.54 WIDE SHOT OF STAIRS, STOP MOTION FEET MOVING UPWARDS
1.56 WIDE SHOT OF BOY MIME GOING THROUGH DOOR FROM BEHIND
1.58 WIDE SHOT OF BOY MIME COMING THROUGH DOOR FROM INFRONT, SHOCKED
1.59 WIDE SHOT OF GIRL MIME AND CLOWN CHARACTER/NEW MIME IN BED, SHOCKED
2.01 CLOSE UP OF GIRL MIME'S FACE, SHOCKED
2.03 CLOSE UP OF BOY MIME'S FACE, STOP MOTION TEAR GOING TOWN HIS FACE
2.05 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.07 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.08 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.10 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.12 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF BOY MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
2.13 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF GIRL MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
2.14 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF BOY MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
2.15 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF GIRL MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
2.17 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF BOY MIME SINGING 'THIS IS THE LIFE'
2.19 JUMP CUT, HEAD AND SHOULDERS SHOT OF GIRL MIME SINGING 'THEN WHO ARE YOU?'
2.20 SERIES OF JUMP CUTS, TWO SHOTS OF MIMES IN 'PHOTOBOOTH' (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK) UNTIL 2.26
2.26 TWO SHOT OF MIMES, SERIES OF JUMP CUT'S UNTIL 2.29
2.29 TWO SHOT OF MIMES TURNING AROUND, STOP MOTION
2.30 TWO SHOT OF MIMES, SERIES OF JUMP CUT'S UNTIL 2.32
2.32 TWO SHOT OF MIMES TURNING AROUND, STOP MOTION
2.33 WIDE SHOT, MIMES INTERTWINED, ROLLING DOWN HILL TOWARDS CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.34 JUMP CUT TO WIDE SHOT, MIMES RUNNING DOWN HILL TOWARDS CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.35 CLOSE UP TWO SHOT, MIMES RUNNING TOWARDS CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.37 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.38 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.38 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.39 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.40 MID SHOT OF BOY MIME ON BIKE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.41 TWO SHOT OF MIMES ON BIKES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.42 TWO SHOT OF MIMES ON BIKES, CYCLING TOWARDS THE CAMERA (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.44 EXTREME WIDE SHOT OF TREES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.45 EXTREME WIDE SHOT OF MIMES CYCLING THROUGH TREES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.46 TWO SHOT OF MIMES ON BIKES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.47 SERIES OF JUMP CUTS, TWO SHOTS OF MIMES IN 'PHOTOBOOTH' (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK) UNTIL 2.51
2.51 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME LAUGHING AT TABLE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.52 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME LAUGHING AT TABLE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.53 POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME SMILING AT TABLE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.54 REVERSE ZOOM, WIDE SHOT OF MIME'S WALKING INTO CAFÉ (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.55 TWO SHOT OF MIMES LOOKING SAD ON SOFA
2.57 TWO JUMP CUTS, TWO SHOTS OF MIMES IN 'PHOTOBOOTH' (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
2.58 TWO SHOT OF MIMES LOOKING SAD ON SOFA
2.59 JUMP CUT, POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME LAUGHING AT TABLE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
3.00 JUMP CUT, POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME LAUGHING AT TABLE (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
3.02 REVERSE ZOOM, TWO SHOT OF MIMES ON SOFA LOOKING SAD
3.03 JUMP CUT, POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF GIRL MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
3.04 JUMP CUT, POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF BOY MIME SPINNING (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
3.05 REVERSE ZOOM, TWO SHOT OF MIMES ON SOFA LOOKING SAD
3.07 JUMP CUT, TWO SHOT OF MIME'S ON BIKES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
3.07 JUMP CUT, TWO SHOT OF MIME'S FACES (FILM GRAIN TO INDICATE FLASHBACK)
3.08 REVERSE ZOOM OF PICTURE, GRAPHIC MATCH OF THE 'TWO SHOT OF MIMES ON SOFA LOOKING SAD'
3.12 REVERSE ZOOM AND PAN LEFT, MID SHOT OF PICTURE
3.17 STOP MOTION OF PICTURE MOVING LEFT
3.22 STOP MOTION OF PICTURE MOVING LEFT CONTINUED
3.27 END
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Shot Inspiration
Today I have been looking at other Music Video's and clips to try and find and illustrate ideas for our own video. I downloaded some free software, a program that allows you to download Youtube videos, and another that allows you to edit them. These have helped me single out some shots that I have found specifically interesting and taken some creative ideas from.
Stop Motion:
The Kate Nash video for her song 'Foundations' is a good example of the stop motion techniques me and Emma hope to utilise in our own video, using house hold objects that are gradually altered in position and photographed each time and then edited together to create the effect of motion. I have also picked an extract that uses lighting in an interesting way, as illustrated with the shot of the two holding hands with an over exposed background. I think the lighting creates a nice effect. I also liked the shot of the feet, as the movements weren't fluid it created a disjointed style, similar to that of the Stop Motion and created a smooth feel running throughout the cuts.
The video alongside is by a band called the Maccabees entitled 'Latchmere' they have used stop motion to not only create a moving background but also incorporate the band within the routine. I especially like the shots of the band members in mid jump, that have been captured and edited together on beat to the music.
Effects:
This clip is taken from the film 'Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulin'. The use of the shaky handheld camera gives it a home made, unpolished effect. There are occasional flashes of light which give a sense of an old vintage 8 bit camera and the effect of an old projector. I like the use of the bike and camera travelling with it, it gives the sequence more depth, and we are going to experiment with attatching a camera to a bike basket and create a similar style of dynamic shot. I like the filter used for this scene, their is a slight sepia vignette on the lens, and we aim to add a similar effect to our video in the post production edit. Also, the general mise en scene of French life is prominent, and although we are filming in british streets we aim to create a similar style through our props, costumes and locations.
'Music When The Lights Go Out' by the Libertines is mostly filmed with the speed reduced, or very minor slow motion. I love the effect it creates, when the action isn't at full speed it turns each movement into a more fluid motion. I hope to re create this within our music video.
Stop Motion:
The Kate Nash video for her song 'Foundations' is a good example of the stop motion techniques me and Emma hope to utilise in our own video, using house hold objects that are gradually altered in position and photographed each time and then edited together to create the effect of motion. I have also picked an extract that uses lighting in an interesting way, as illustrated with the shot of the two holding hands with an over exposed background. I think the lighting creates a nice effect. I also liked the shot of the feet, as the movements weren't fluid it created a disjointed style, similar to that of the Stop Motion and created a smooth feel running throughout the cuts.
The video alongside is by a band called the Maccabees entitled 'Latchmere' they have used stop motion to not only create a moving background but also incorporate the band within the routine. I especially like the shots of the band members in mid jump, that have been captured and edited together on beat to the music.
Effects:
This clip is taken from the film 'Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulin'. The use of the shaky handheld camera gives it a home made, unpolished effect. There are occasional flashes of light which give a sense of an old vintage 8 bit camera and the effect of an old projector. I like the use of the bike and camera travelling with it, it gives the sequence more depth, and we are going to experiment with attatching a camera to a bike basket and create a similar style of dynamic shot. I like the filter used for this scene, their is a slight sepia vignette on the lens, and we aim to add a similar effect to our video in the post production edit. Also, the general mise en scene of French life is prominent, and although we are filming in british streets we aim to create a similar style through our props, costumes and locations.
'Music When The Lights Go Out' by the Libertines is mostly filmed with the speed reduced, or very minor slow motion. I love the effect it creates, when the action isn't at full speed it turns each movement into a more fluid motion. I hope to re create this within our music video.
Monday 3 January 2011
Time Planning
Me and Emma met up with our primary cast members today, we are using the actors we used for each of our Digipaks-
Vince Mccumisky:
We both thought Vince looked excellent in his mime costume and Emma said he was easy to work with and will be sensible and reliable within the project. It is also vital that we maintain the house image of our project by using the same actors for both aspects of the project to maintain a cohesive style.
Milly Morris:
I used Milly for my digipak project, and she is one of my best friends so will be reliable and easy to work with, she visually suits the mime outfit and also has previous experience with performing and acting. She also takes Media studies so will value the importance of this project.
When we met we discussed when each of our cast members is usually free, and established the best days for scenes where they are needed together. As well, as when each are free for seperate shots. As well as, their roles in scenes and what lyrics they need to learn to mime, as well as if they would be able to get to location or not. We showed them the main concept for our video by giving out our blogger adresses so they could see all of the planning and outlines of the narrative as well as insiparation so they knew what sort of effect we wanted from them, and so it gave a clear idea of the style we hope to create. We also swapped contact info, so we can communicate via phone, as well as facebook and in person.
Me and Emma also sorted out the props that would be needed, I will be supplying Milly's outfit, including:
Face paint
Braces
Gloves
Striped Top
Necktie
And Emma will supply Vince's. I already have all of these costume aspects, so it will not cost any money, and Milly is bringing her own trousers.
The majority of our video will purely feature Vince and Milly as it solely focuses around their relationship, but we will require extras in our music video, to feature in the final scenes where the mime interacts with others for the first time. These are not key roles, and these people will simply have to appear in the video in day-to-day attire for several shots, and won't have to learn any lyrics or lines. The easiest way to communicate with all these people was to use the social networking site 'Facebook' and create an 'Event Page' for all of our cast to easily view the music video schedule.
The only thing left to do is to finish our animatic story board, that will illustrate exactly the shot types, location, and duration, of each scene. Although this will be time consuming as there is typically 1 shot every second in a music video, and our track is 3:30 minutes long, so that equals 210 shots that we have to draw out, but it should be worthwhile as this should further help organise and illustrate our ideas to our cast as well as ourselves.
Vince Mccumisky:
We both thought Vince looked excellent in his mime costume and Emma said he was easy to work with and will be sensible and reliable within the project. It is also vital that we maintain the house image of our project by using the same actors for both aspects of the project to maintain a cohesive style.
Milly Morris:
I used Milly for my digipak project, and she is one of my best friends so will be reliable and easy to work with, she visually suits the mime outfit and also has previous experience with performing and acting. She also takes Media studies so will value the importance of this project.
When we met we discussed when each of our cast members is usually free, and established the best days for scenes where they are needed together. As well, as when each are free for seperate shots. As well as, their roles in scenes and what lyrics they need to learn to mime, as well as if they would be able to get to location or not. We showed them the main concept for our video by giving out our blogger adresses so they could see all of the planning and outlines of the narrative as well as insiparation so they knew what sort of effect we wanted from them, and so it gave a clear idea of the style we hope to create. We also swapped contact info, so we can communicate via phone, as well as facebook and in person.
Me and Emma also sorted out the props that would be needed, I will be supplying Milly's outfit, including:
Face paint
Braces
Gloves
Striped Top
Necktie
And Emma will supply Vince's. I already have all of these costume aspects, so it will not cost any money, and Milly is bringing her own trousers.
The majority of our video will purely feature Vince and Milly as it solely focuses around their relationship, but we will require extras in our music video, to feature in the final scenes where the mime interacts with others for the first time. These are not key roles, and these people will simply have to appear in the video in day-to-day attire for several shots, and won't have to learn any lyrics or lines. The easiest way to communicate with all these people was to use the social networking site 'Facebook' and create an 'Event Page' for all of our cast to easily view the music video schedule.
The only thing left to do is to finish our animatic story board, that will illustrate exactly the shot types, location, and duration, of each scene. Although this will be time consuming as there is typically 1 shot every second in a music video, and our track is 3:30 minutes long, so that equals 210 shots that we have to draw out, but it should be worthwhile as this should further help organise and illustrate our ideas to our cast as well as ourselves.
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