Monday 26 September 2011

Feedback

During lesson time, Alice and i presented our present, blogged, ideas to our peers in order to find out what the general audience feedback was and see what possible ideas other people had..

Lauren from our class and a few others thought that the relationship between the characters wasnt best suited to the lyrics, and they interpreted a more accepting boyfriend who was letting go of his girlfriend in the understanding that he knew she was sick.

 From this Alice and i discussed the narrative of our video, and from class suggestions, thought about changing the storyboard so that in the video, the characters are shot in different time zones. The audience is in the present of the girl dieing with the male watching her in the bathroom and saying goodbye, but then during the male lip sync hes shot in the bathroom on his own looking at the bath as if shes there, but shes not...

Filming styles


I played our track over this video and although it doesnt always fit i loved the business of the video against the slow intro, and i also loved the layout of the screen and the way it was split into sections. This led me to then research the video below, which when played over our track fitted quite well, and the video itself followed a similar idea to the first; where the scenery was divided into sections, although this time is was blended more..



I loved this frame below, its different and could be used to show four different time in one persons life..




Shes mostly gone
Some other place
I'm getting by
In other ways

These lyrics could link to the video showing different activities he does to get by, showing them on screen all at once! However it may be easier to re-create this effect using a similar style to the first video where the screen is split by a white background.

Different music videos



This was a find by Mr.W and its similar in genre to ours. The black and white generates quite a simple impression, and makes the hollowness of the setting more noticable. I like the way the camera frames the artist..


Her emotion is shown through body language and facial expression, without knowing the lyrics, you can immediatly tell her unhappiness. I also like the way the camera is out of focus on the background imagery and only highlights the lines of her face and hands, it connotes a sence of solitude, as if she doesnt feel she has a place in her surroundings.



Alice then mentioned this recent video and commented on its setting and camera angles. She likes the framing of the starry night and quoted that it fits

"And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Are waving goodbye
I am staying right beside you"



And to add to this, i found that the intro is also very fitting to what we wanted, with the low angle sequence of the lady's legs walking down the street. I think it introduces her in quite a steriotypical way, by panning up her body the viewer can see her figure, which objectifies her and immediatly puts her in the male gaze..

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Location

I now have the location for our music video sorted, and i have tried to include photos that represent the camera angles we will be using.












Bathroom inspiration


The bathroom were going to use wont be as neglected as this, but the idea of squallar is similar.


Both alice and i are looking at camera angles which we think will be beneficial to the genre of the video. Close ups are going to be quite heavily used to frame to surroundings of the charatcer, and highlight the lack of repsect for her home.


This low angle shot of the female on the floor is really inspireing, and we will be including similar angles to symbolise the weakness in her mind and body, and also the feeling of being grounded and submurged by life.

Female Makeup and bath scene ideas



These are makeup ideas. We want smudged running makeup, to intensify the emotion and lackof self respect the female character has



This last photo is a perfect camera angle to capture the squallar she lives in, and added to the female character in a white dress its the perfect example of the scene we are trying to create.

Representations of decadant lifestyles

Both Alice and i have a strong vivid imagery of what we want our female to look like and the characteristics she is to adopt. Although no drug abuse is viewed in our video, we want the character to depict that 'type'.
Alice has already drawn on a strong current celebrity in the news ' Amy Winehouse '
I have now broardened our search by finding another celeb Courtney Love, who is a blonde skinny middle aged female, with a history of drug abuse. And a string of photos to capture her worst moments...

 The makeup is heavy and draws on her cracked lips and heavy drug abuse. From this i think to really bring out the features of our female character we should use heavy eye makeup to intensify the physical features of drug abuse.




Imagery

 This image strikes me as a very emotionaly engaging photo. The black and white contrasting against the very strong red, is an idea i wish to include in my own work. I think the contrast shows beauty in darkness and would be very symbolic when used to contrast the female against the beauty and power of love.






 This photo inspired a new idea for the video.
- females hand hanging out the bath
- water dripping off her fingertips
- extream close-up of ladybird crawling down the edge of her finger
- ladybird falls off the tip of her finger encased in a water droplet
"Watching you drownI'll follow you down"

Storyboard idea

Alice has already blogged our ideas for the storyboard and has left the ending open. This is what we have:

-Male and female break up
-female becomes intoxicated whilst out partying
- male is worried and constantly calling
-female suffers with depression amongst other personal issues
-female stumbles home one night (or day) after a partying, potraying a prostitutes life syle and appearance
-she takes off her leather jacket and boots; looks at her phone ringing and chucks it on the floor
-she gets in the bath fully clothed wearing a white thin under dress
-make up and body filthy and dirty; bloodied and scratched and bruised
-male keeps calling from his own flat
-female reaches out picks up her phone then drops it in the bath
-male notices that the phone has stopped ringing
-in the males flat you see all the photo frames with pictures of the couple
-he gets up and leaves (slow motion) hes running through alley ways and dark streets
-shes feeling weaker and weaker, she has consumed drugs
-she lights a cigarette and smoke hovers around her
-the bath water is muggy and dark
-a ladybird crawls along the rim of the bath
-he is running up to her house
-she drops the cigarette in the bath (she is dying)
-hes is running up her stairs
-her head is slowly going further and further down the side of the bath reaching the water
-suddenly her head is completely under
-he reaches the landing and opens the door
-he races forward and lifts her out

I think the ending should have some closure similar to the lyrics, and he should be holding her head out of the bath even though he knows hes too late and she has died. The night sky can be viewed from the bathroom window and the stars begin to go out of focus and the light slowly disapears.

"Watching you drown
I'll follow you down
And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Are waving goodbye
I am staying right beside you"

Thursday 15 September 2011

Goodwin's 5th Theory - Notions of looking (objectification)





This is from the same video as a previous post, but after observing the slideshare i realised this was one of the theories. In my own music video the notions of looking are important as they will tell the story. It inspires the idea that she only realises how much he loved her through watching him sing about her after she has died.

Goodwin's Theory



I missed the lesson where i would have learned about Goodwin's wonderful theories, so i have found a slideshare to help me :) I have been through it, and it successfully breaks down the theories into manage portions. I shall be referencing this post regularly!

I'm In Love With A German Film Star - Fiorious (Official Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-2ilpPatNA&feature=pyv
Likes:
  •  Black and white video
  • Silhouette figures
  • Low angle shot of woman's heels with a male shadow following


The way the camera has framed the low angle shot of the females legs with the male silhouette, really adds to the mood of the music video. I'm inspired by the black and white imagery also, as it re-focuses the audience on the characters rather than the surroundings.  The second clip has the same idea as what i want in my music video, with the intro hiding the identity of the male from the female.

Inspired by this i like the idea of keeping the two characters divided until death; only when the female dies does she see the pain he is in because of her suicide.

Brainstorm

Inspiration

The genre of music provokes quite dark images, and Trainspotting has inspired a great scenery idea.
This shot really captures the squaller we want to portray and the angle highlights the imence grime of the barthroom. We want to use an equally grimey bathroom, but we want to caputre a young female in the bath, which i highlighted in my last post.


This scene is also key, as the emptyness of the room could represent the hollow feel of our song. I think the colours in this shot are so dirty and draining, that they connote the lifestyle rut, the character is in.
 Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb also uses a similar setting. It highlights the lonely rut a person can be in without the realisation that people around them care. I think the spotlighting intensifies the seldom character and I think this lighting would work well with the genre of our music video

Ideas

From the lyrics it quotes somthing about drowning in water, and for me i want the video to be deep and thought provokeing to match the genre of the music. Researching drowning scenes from films such as The House of The Devil, Requiem for a Dream, Cabin Fever and The Shining has encouraged a bath tub scene...



Track 12

Re-creating the video for this song; the lyrics help to set a narrative for what are video will be about.
These are the lyrics..

She's mostly gone
Some other place
I'm getting by
In other ways
Everything they whispered in our ear
Is coming true
Try to justify the things
I used to do
Believe in you

Watching you drown
I'll follow you down
And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Have finally arrived
I am staying right beside you
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/n/nine_inch_nails/lights_in_the_sky.html ]
I tried to stay away
You know
Just in case
I've come to realize
We all have our place
Time has a way you know
To make it clear
I have my role in this
I can't disappear
Or leave you here

Watching you drown
I'll follow you down
And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Are waving goodbye
I am staying right beside you