Thursday, 17 April 2014

Specific use of our storyboard in our music video

We thought about re-filming this scene but decided that the pixelated footage works well as it adds to the confusion and the mystery behind the young girl, it heightens the depressing tones which would be lost if the lighting was brighter. Because the message behind our music video was quite mysterious, dark and depressing, we decided that filming the running scene using dark surrounding was best as opposed to the white, bright running scene that is seen in our research. The running scene was used to create a sense of panic amongst the audience. The use of the car park with lots of cars surrounding her creates questions for the audience they are left wondering why is running. We chose to dress the model in school uniform to note that the fact that she was still in her teenage years and was an innocent young girl and not a villain. 

We decided to use a wine glass because its a distinctive glass which is used for alcohol consumption. As well as that we decided to use wine as our choice of alcohol because the blood red colour connotes danger and maybe even loss of life, again creating mystery, we used the pure white colour so that the red colour would stand out even more.  When I was editing the footage the group decided it was best to blur the footage to make it seem like a point of view shot which would highlight his mental state to the audience (his vision is blurred because he is drunk).

To start with the group was unsure whether to have or male model open his eyes or close eyes during this part of the video. We originally drew our storyboard with him having his eyes closed, after looking at both (in the planning stages and the filming stage) we decided it would be best to have his eyes open as it gave a more intense feel, making the audience feel like he is looking directly at them thus engaging them more. 

This shot was used to signify his depressive state of mind and dependence on alcohol. we used our research to show us how we could successfully put the focus on our model in a bare room to symbolise loneliness. Using dark surrounding with a spotlight coming from a torch to illuminate his face not only helped to successfully put the focus on our male model but also to help re-enforce the dark depressing tones that occur throughout our video. His arms being placed on his head similarly to that shown in our research acts as a dramatic effect, helping to give the message that the character is troubled and in deep thought possibly about the mysterious girl seen throughout our video. 


Originally we planned to use an old fashioned clock which we would film changing time. We searched on a number of different sites including eBay and Gumtree but just couldn't find a clock similar to the one we had planned to use. Therefore we then referred back to our drawings and found a clock similar to the one that we drew; this was easy as many clocks similar to the ones we drew were used in school. This clock worked well as the second hand in the clock help make it clear that time was passing by quickly. 

The group chose to include this shot of our female model to portray that the fact that she is always on his mind for reasons that are never made clear in the video. I edited the footage to keep blurring in and out of focus to highlight the fact that he is drunk whilst thinking about her which leads the audience to conclude that the motive behind his drinking is her. Another reason that I decided that the blurred footage would be best is because it indicates the fact that she could be dead as the image of her keeps coming in and out of focus as if she is a memory fading in and out of his head, the audience is able to link this to the first scene where she is running away from the car, maybe it hit her? 


The group chose to include the bath scene because it is conventional in music videos, in our research we noticed that bath scenes were often used to show; deep thought, gloominess, danger, fear and mystery, and we wanted to include this in our music video for example, you see our male model coming up quickly out of the bath and grabbing the sides creating panic and fear. We chose to alternate between the male model and the female model in the different chorus’ as this shows that that they are in some way linked to one another, he is thinking about her and that is why she keeps appearing. Even though the story of the two isn't made clear in the video, it’s obvious for the audience to understand that this mysterious female character is the reason why our male character is such a depressed state of mind. 

This footage was an essential feature of our music video as the use of alcohol bottles throughout our music video is the most obvious way to show that our music video was based around alcoholism. Filming the bottle rolling on the floor (because the male character is so drunk he has passed out on the bathroom floor and dropped the bottle) works well as it creates a good visual effect that represents the fact that our male character is often drinking and his world at that moment in time revolves around alcohol, hence why this footage constantly appears in the bridge of the song. 

This shot links with the shots above because they actually show the model drinking, which again shows how he is constantly drinking. The dark room represents the sinister feel of the video along with the dark state of depression he is in. 



This footage was important as it helped to consolidate the audience’s questions. From the messages on the phone we can see that there is a problem occurring here. His mother’s message with notes how she is worried in contrast to his friends message to bring drink at a party makes it clear that he is choosing drinking and partying over getting help for his depression and this is becoming dangerous. it was difficult transitioning the shot from light to dark because it was causing the camera not to focus so the message on the phone wasn't seen clearly, however we managed to achieve a clear shot in the end by decreasing the brightness on the phone. 



As we progressed further with planning our video, we chose to include this shot as we felt it could be used as a visual link to something which maybe happened in his childhood years, we also felt that it worked well with the lyrics as they hint that alcohol was part of his childhood life (“now I been grew up round some people living their life in bottles... granddaddy had a golden flask”). As well as that the teddy adds a melancholic edge to our video (also teddy bears are often seen as a source of comfort in times of sadness for children) helping to create the right tone for our video.


This footage of the bottle smashing is important because it visually represents his self-destructive behaviour. It was a struggle filming this shot because the bottle falls so quickly so we were unsure whether it would work in the video. However once I slowed it down when editing it, it was easy to see that it worked well in the video as it portrayed the message we planned.




As you can when filming and editing the footage of our music video we have closely followed our research and you can see direct links between our research and the footage we have used. Because of the fact that we closely followed out research to develop our final cut, we found that our planning went smoother and we were able to plan more effectively and come to every shoot with a variety of ideas. 

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