Comparing AS to A2

Comparing the AS production to the A2 coursework there is a lot of significant changes. Such the amount of work you have to do in the same amount of time is a lot more than you’d expect, you have to do the music video, blog digi pack and do all of them up to a high standard. Where as in AS all you had to worry about was your video and blog. On the other hand A2 work is however easier because it is fairly straight forward what you have to do, as you have already acquired all the skills you need to produce the video from last year and it’s just the matter of taking it to the next level with the editing and the different approach you go about to do it. In AS what you had to do was film the start of film, it was hard to do because we had never done anything like that before and it was a completely new idea so there was a lot of idea you needed to take in such as the 180 degree rule. One of the main challenges from AS would be getting used to the software final cut pro, it was really complicated when you first use as there is a lot of things you can do with that software e.g. slow down the clips, add effects, filters etc. therefore it took a lot of time compared to A2 to get the editing part done. Another main challenge was coming up with the story board, where as A2 you know what your doing by analyzing different music video AS it was solely based on you and your team as you had to come with your own film, which I personally found quiet hard to do, so there was a lot of planning and research done compared to A2. In A2 our task was to create a music video to the song of our choice. Personally I found this much more exciting and fun to do as there was no limit to what you can’t do. When we was filming AS there was a lot of help from the teacher and therefore there was limits to what we could’ve done as we was always getting opinions on what they thought about it and so. Where as in A2 everything was done by you and the team and teachers didn’t have to help as much, as we already knew everything we need to know. However filming the music video is a lot more challenging than you’d expect. There was lot of time spent on the filming itself and it required a lot of planning and research, such as the locations, how to get people there, any additional actors etc. Choosing the song was fairly easy for us as we all shared similar taste music and we all wanted to do unique music video to unique song. Editing in A2 is easier in a compared to AS as you already know how to use final cut pro and it’s just the matter of using the right transmission at the right place and so. However where as the maximum time for the AS project was 2 min 30 seconds, in A2 we had to aim to complete about 4minutes in total which was a challenge as well. Also the blog had to be a lot more detailed as well, where the minimum amount of posts we had to do was 50 which was a major challenge to achieve. Finally the digipack, it was something we need do last year so it was kind of new to all of us; however it was fairly easy to do. We used the Photoshop to edit the images to their standards and we also had to do a poster to advertise the album/the product we had produced. In conclusion we enjoyed creating the music video much more than filming the start of film as it was much more exciting and challenging

face painting for China town scenes

We had a friend do the clown's face painting. She has lots of experience in face painting and gave a us a fantastic photograph from a brilliant circus book. (picture)

What we learnt from our audience feedback

Audience feedback is crucial to achieving an interesting yet fun and mysterious music video.
When shooting at the yard theatre in Hulme there was a lot of interest in the music video.
The theatre was active with many quietly interested artist/producers.. producing great feed back for us to sink our teeth into! For example one artist mentioned the back lighting in the theatre creating a fantastic background for us to work with, producing some amazing shots.
While shooting the dancer I had many scenes in mind and lots of the scenes worked very well but after a quick chat with the group; artist/producers of the theatre and the dancer, we decided to enhance/change some scenes making a real difference. This taught us how important listening to the audience is to developing a music video. Overall our Audiences (during shooting) feedback was very useful and we were most grateful for their time and idea's.

Once the audience had seen the final music video they immediately asked if there was a CD to buy. This taught us how important music video's are to an artist career/income. The comments overall are outstanding with many congrats and not forgetting a bit of constructive criticism. Giving us much to get excited about in the future.
Here are few interviews from the audience after watching the music video.


Name: Jordan D
Age: 22
1) What did you think the music video was about?
"A woman lost and trying to find her way or maybe her mind."
2) Will you be telling your friends and family about the music video ?
"Yes, I will be as i feel they will like it as much I have!"
3) What age do you think this music video is most suited for ?
"Not sure really maybe 14+"
4) Did you like the choreography in the music video ?
"Indeed the dancing really brought the video together."
5) Did you like the scenes chosen for the music video ?
"Yes, the town scenes bring the story to life and I love darkness."
6) Was there anything you feel we missed or could of improved ?
"Maybe more dancers."

Name: Zia J
Age:18
1) What did you think the music video was about?
"A girl that was lost both physically and mentally."
2) Will you be telling your friends and family about the music video ?

i have and i have shown it to everyone coz its awesome
3) What age do you think this music video is most suited for ?

Teenagers+ because it might not make sense to younger ones
4) Did you like the choreography in the music video ?

yeah, especially the dancing scene as it linked everything together
5) Did you like the scenes chosen for the music video ?

yeah, thought it was really originally and gave a good sense of feel
6) Was there anything you feel we missed or could of improved ?
thought the music could be a bit more up to beat, thats all apart from that it was really good

sian casey

1) What did you think the music video was about?

weird girl running around everywhere, looking for some guy.

2) Will you be telling your friends and family about the music video ?

yes
3) What age do you think this music video is most suited for ?

teenagers
4) Did you like the choreography in the music video ?

yes
5) Did you like the scenes chosen for the music video ?

yes i did
6) Was there anything you feel we missed or could of improved ?
no, it was spot on :)

Location

To successfully produce our music video, there were a lot key factors and one of the main factors was the locations different shots needed to be filmed in. there for a lot of thought was put into this. We went through our shot list one by one and each member of the group was given their opinion on where to film the shots, there were many good and ideal locations but we also had to take in the time limit as well as the costs to getting or even in some cases paying to use the place e.g. theater's. After we had gone through the shot list we had to decide which of the location was best for the music video. We all decided that the first shots would be best filmed in a theater as it would be the best place for it. It had all the space and equipment we needed for it e.g. spotlights, closed walls etc. it was then a matter of choosing which one, luckily we was lucky enough to find one close to college, Hulme cooperative theater. (Pictures of the theater) The next scene is girl running through backstreets of town during daytime. We found a perfect backstreet in town it was just near Chinatown however, it was hard to pin point a date and time to film because of the rush hour periods and the fact it was getting dark very early. Regardless we decided to film on that location and it was the backstreets of St James Street. It was perfect due the scenery it showed as it had stairs, doors and all kind of props that we could use. (Pictures of the back streets) The last scene is the final shot and was one of the hardest to pick a location. As it had to be perfect as it was the vital and the most important shot of the music video. We had a lot of trouble choosing the place. We had lots of idea were to shoot such as South port beach, Heaton park, Fletcher moss gardens etc. It was a tough decision but we all decided the best location would be Fletcher moss gardens as it had the perfect scenery and it was practically free to use as well. (Pictures of Fletcher moss gardens)

 

 

 

Oh Land Shotlist

 

1. ECU of single eye, darkness surrounding it.
2. ECU of both eyes looking scared. (Shot from the left)
3. ECU of both eyes looking scared, looking in a different direction. (shot from the right.
4. ECU of both looking straight on at the camera, again looking scared.
5. ELS of girl up on balcony, holding onto banister, looking around.
6. LS of girl in corner of theatre again looking around scared.
7. MLS of girl behind curtain in theatre, looking out from behind it.
8. LS of girl weaving in and out of pillars on her tiptoes, ballet style.
9. MLS of girl in the centre of the theatre floor, suddenly attempts to run and trips and falls.
10. CU of girls face looking frightened.
11. HAS of her on the floor looking upwards, directly at the camera
12. ECU of her eye. (large pupils to small pupils.)
13. Birds eye of busy central Manchester. Fast zoom in on a busy street.
14. OTS handheld track of the same girl
15. Wide shot of girl running into shot around a corner, pans across and she runs out of shot- continually looking behind her and stumbling.
16. Flash second of a grinning clowns face, complete with striking traditional clown make up.
17. OTS handheld track of girl entering into china town and running down an alley way.
18. CU of clowns face, grinning and licking its lips in an evil fashion.
19. (17)
20. (18)
21. 21. MS of girl from behind down an alleyway attempting to open a door.
22. CU of girls hand on a different door handle across the street.
23. ELS of girl running to different doors and trying to force them open.
24. 2 shot of girl and clown, clown further behind, looks like he’s floating. Girl is looking behind at him.
25. Girl struggles with a door on the left and it swings open. DARKNESS. OTSS.
26. Cu of her facial expression turn from frightened to confused. Street in the background out of focus.
27. OTSS of girl walking into doorway. Darkness around but a faint ghostlike figure of a mans face smiling innocently. She leans in to kiss him putting her hand around his neck but her hand simply slides through the doorway.
28. (from outside) The door slams on the camera. Camera then zooms into keyhole of darkness.
29. CU on clowns face laughing and rotating, black background.

30.  Girl falls into black frame as she tries to stand uporizontal curvy green ‘bass lines’ knock her over and she begins to bounce around and fall on the lines (which will mirror the sound of the music. (ANIMATION)

CROSS CUTTING WITH

31. A ballet/street dance interpretive, aggressive, silhouetted- behind a sheet- dance routine with a guy and a girl- (clown and her_
32.  Animation
33. Silhouetted routine
34. Animation. Curvy horizontal lines straighten out at a declining angle creating a slide for her to slide out of the frame as opaque girl…
35. HALS of girl sliding into frame into tall grassy fields. (NOW IN WHITE DRESS)
36. MS of her on the ground looking around confused. She quickly turns her head to look behind her- deep focus as we see nothing there but green fields.
37. POV shot as we get a glimpse of the same faint guy from the darkness. She begins to get up and starts to run toward him
38. OTSS of her running through the firld (shallow focus) the image disappears (deep focus). 
39. ELS from in front of girl running.
40. LS from the side of girl running
41. LS of girl running through trees
42. Wide shot of a lake- man on the other side, slightly more opaque but still ghostlike. Girl walks slowly into shot. Still camera.
43. Side angle CU of her face, her breathing is heavy.
44. Same wide shot as before. Girl takes jewellery off and cardigan off and begins to walk into the water and swim. Man is out of focus but still in blurry view.
45. Getting out at the other side of the lake
46. (from other side) CU on her face as she pushes up out of the water.
47. OTSS of guy shallow focus, girl walks into frame.
48. 2 shot of them face to face, he touches her face and she moves her head into his hand instinctively. He moves his hand to the back of her neck and then moves the other one too.
49. CU on her arms wrapping around his waist.
50. OTSS of her putting her head on his shoulder.
51. OTSS of her as her head falls into nothingness.
52. ECU of her eyes looking confused. (he has disappeared)
53. POV shot as she looks down to a dark head of hair, looks at her dress, stained with colour and lifts up the childs chin to find a clown child crying.
54. Same wide shot from across the lake but there is no one there with the girl. She is alone with her arms wrapped around nothing.
55. Close on her stained dress with no one there.  Fast zoom out, across the river, though the trees across the fields, to the first shot in the ‘white dress’ scene where she is sitting amongst the tall grass.
56. Close on face with clown make up on it. The girl tilts her head upwards and has an evil smile on her face.

 

Inspiration

Inspiration

 

Once settled on the song, Florence and the Machine was a big influence for the initial thoughts of the music video. In terms of themes and ideas we were, of course, influenced by Oh Land and by the song lyrics of Numb. However, Florence’s music videos also inspired us in terms of Craig Davis’ theory. Florence usually has music videos that fit into the amplification category and we liked this idea for the surrealism involved and the creative interpretation possible.

   We took some general themes from Florence such as the idea of nature and the natural, and the idea of the surreal, which we were certain of from the start.

   Costume-wise, I wanted something shocking and unusual as to uphold the surrealism that the video involves; also something to represent the metaphors and connotations in the video. The costume of the clown for example, the clown primarily, has been used to represent a sign of death. The white make up represents loss of life and the colored make up over the top represents the emotion. Therefore the clown is a combination of both the deceased male in the video and the emotional, deluded female protagonist. Another thing that the clown could denote is society, society looking down upon mentally ill women (big political statement, however, this connotation would be for the past eg. The Rest Cure ect.)

In the first, second and third scenes our female lead is wearing a black formal dress. The black here connotes loss and is associated with death, evil, and mystery. Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown. It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humor, 'black death').  In heraldry, black is the symbol of grief, which could possibly insinuate (as well as the mysterious white glow of the male) that her assumed husband is dead.

In the second section of the video she wears a white wedding dress. White is associated with light, goodness, purity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. White means safety. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. Therefore the sudden wardrobe change is to highlight the fact that she is closer to ‘him’ and finally she reaches ‘him’ and is euphoric.

Another inspiration for us was the film Alice In Wonderland, we liked the strange, eccentric vibe to the film and the innocence and naivety of Alice and so we wanted to create this for our female protagonist. Also the theme of confusion and being lost in our video is taken from Alice being lost down the rabbit hole. 

Initial Song ideas.

The first ideas that were brainstormed for the song were Something’s Happening Here by Buffalo Springfield, Indiscriminate Act Of Kindness by Foy Vance and, initially, Heavy Eyes by Oh Land. However we then discovered Oh Land’s Numb; which is video-less and were enticed and interested in the surreal factor that we could portray within it.