Camera Testing

We also practised using the Go Pro to film the inside and outside of a moving car. The quality of the footage was adequate, however when filming our final scene we will need to make sure the glass clean so that no smudges are shown on the screen. The camera was fairly sturdy but any shakiness could be resolved during editing on iMovie.  

Location Shooting Practise - GoPro

Shooting on the GoPro produced high quality footage with extensive detail of scenes. This will allow viewers to become engulfed with the scenes and therefore allow them to create a deeper connection with the protagonist and the music video. However this camera is not appropriate for many shots as it's strength is wide, location and therefore was not as beneficial on close-up shots as the Sony camera. Another issue I encountered when editing the footage was the stability. As the camera is designed for action shots, in a miniature size, many frames were too shaky to be used in our video and would only be suitable if the camera was on a tripod instead of being handheld. In conclusion, we will only use the GoPro camera for particular aspects of our music video, such as establishing and point of view shots.

Location - Campfire

To create a scene exposing the happier persona of our protagonist, we considered a scene by a campfire, with a few of our characters friends. This will show a more typical teenage side of our character and will represent a more sociable and content aspect of the character's personality. An issue we may encounter when filming this scene is lighting. In order for the fire to have it's full effect, we will film during a darker time of day, however we will need to take lighting into consideration, to make the shots clear and maintain their quality. 

Location - Boat Graveyard

We thought this location would be effective in our music video, as the abandoned boat in a vast landscape will give the video a freeing connotation. It also fits with the song through lyrics such as 'like a small boat on the ocean'. 

Despite this, the location will not look as professional as shooting in a studio with proper lighting. This can be resolved by specifically choosing what dates we shoot on, according to the weather and natural lighting as well as editing our footage later using Adobe After Effects. Another issue we may encounter is the possibility of mixing performance and narrative scenes, due to similar locations. For this we will need to make sure that our protagonist is lip-syncing in the majority of shots in order to make this distinction.

Location/Prop - Piano

For a section of the video we had an idea to have a scene by the piano, playing along to the song. This will be linked to the pub scene as we see her writing in a depressed state of mind, progressing to the piano where we see that music is a therapeutic release for her. However within this scene, our variation of angles will be limited due to the placement of the piano, Therefore we will need more variation in shot types.

Genre Research

Location - Empty Room

We thought that this location would be appropriate for our angry/depressed persona. The dark room with natural faded lighting coming from the window connotes a sorrowful, eerie atmosphere, coinciding the character's body language, style and facial expressions. This form of location would be immediately imply a sad atmosphere to the frame, revealing an aspect of her dual personality.

Lyric Analysis

Before planning our video in detail, I conducted an analysis of the lyrics so we had a greater knowledge of the lyrics and their deeper meaning. From this we gained our initial ideas for our narrative plot and other aspects of mise en scene such as costume and location. Listening to the pace, I also took basic timings and editing into consideration. All of these factors will allow our music video to be relevant and correlated to the lyrics. Some aspects of the song also gave me a few initial ideas of shots as they could be visually represented in our video, once again connecting our project to the song.

Performance - Costume, Hair & Make-Up

For the performance aspect we wanted to have our protagonist in a white flowing dress, as we thought this was a natural look. It's important for us to have three very separate characters who will be primarily distinguished through their style. This costume is designed to not clash with either character in the narrative.

Sad Persona - Costume, Hair & Make-Up

For this persona, we wanted to present the character as depressed through her fashion. We will do this  through a simplistic t-shirt and jeans in order to convey her character as effortless, in juxtaposition to her other character.

Happy Persona - Costume, Hair & Make-Up

For this character she will be dressed in a stereotypical teenage girl style. With each costume for the different persona's and the performance, we will keep one element the same, such as a necklace, so all three scenes are linked.

Questionnaire

Before beginning to construct my research, I interviewed 16 individuals from our target audience age category to find out their opinions on music videos.

I also then asked what some of their favorite music videos were, with which I got a response of mainly famous videos, such as; Chandelier, Millionaires, Thriller and Stressed Out. Whereas a few others favored more unique videos, such as Jar of Hearts and How To Save A Life which have more abstract plots to them. Watching these videos I can now recognize the style of music video our target audience is interested in.

I also found that teenagers and young adults want music videos to be relatable, have an interesting plot, to look like a short film and to bring the music videos to life.

I also discover they are frequently put off music videos when they are too long, have voice-over/background speech/sound effects, when the video is not related to the song, if there is no interesting story as well as when they are sexist, similar, relationship-based or stereotypical.

Conducting this questionnaire will help my project as I now know common likes and dislikes within performance and narrative within my target audience and therefore I will know what to include and what to avoid in my videos.

Task Eight

From completing this task I have an extensive understanding of the ways in with to convey an emotion through editing and particular aspects of mise en scene. I've also learnt the importance of each frame and the impact elements such as camera angles can hold over an audience.When filming our music video I will need to take these factors into consideration to make sure the message of our music video will have maximum impact.