Progress Update - Filming with Anne and Stan

To recap, the aim of our video is to outline and reflect upon the different stages of grief and loss. In doing this, we planned to film an elderly couple and conform to the ideologies of losing someone you love. On Saturday 27th of September we filmed with Anne and Stan, a couple who are friends of Molly. 

We are so thrilled with the stunning shots we filmed, and they look beautiful in both colour and black and white. The major shots we filmed are that of Anne reflecting at the window(a medium close up), thinking of the happy times with Stan which then leads into a flashback of Anne and Stan together. The shot of Anne reflecting at the window provides perfect shadow and natural lighting. We have also included shots of the couple together,  and close ups of them holding hands. 

We have used a variety of close ups, medium shots and we have also used a tracking shot to show them as they walk together. The shots that have been put into black and white are representing Anne after the loss of Stan as this could represent the feeling of emptiness and sadness. However, to create a contrast between the present time and flashbacks of happier times we kept the footage of Anne and Stan together in colour, to help to represent the mood of the happy memories compared to the current time after the loss of Stan.

We feel like these pieces of footage will work well in our overall music video as we can cut back and forth between several stories of loss, this being one of them. It will also show all different kinds of people; young, old, male, female etc experiencing loss.

Molly Masters

Our Progress - Filming Update

So far we have filmed the first part of our music video; Emily's storyline, which involved her packing her suitcase in the bedroom. We will also see her getting extremely upset as she does not want to leave. This is what we have done so far but we have planned to film the start of our next story line this coming weekend (27th September '14). Emily will also need more filming as we want to hopefully film a flashback of her and her partner before they split. 

When filming Emily's scene, we felt that it went quite well as we were able to get all of the shots we initially wanted. We were able to get the shots of her packing, which involved close ups, ariel and medium long shots. We did find that with some of the close ups of Emily's face, the quality wasn't as good as with some of the longer shots. 

The general outcome was more grainy than what we would have liked and the way the shot was lit was also not preferable, but we have tried to fix that slightly during the post-production by altering the brightness and contrast. However, we do quite like the shot because we think that it was framed quite well and captures her emotions well. Our video is also predominantly going to be in black and white which we think represents the overall theme extremely well. Thankfully, the shots we managed to get work well in both colour and black and white. 

Out of all of the shots we got during this time, we think that the shot from inside the closet was one of the ones that didn't work as well. 

It was difficult to get adequate lighting and so the shot appears a bit dark or darker than we would have liked. We were also not sure about the bar across her face. Obviously this was inside the closet and couldn't be taken out but we also think it could work well because it means we can only see her eyes. Her eyes might show the emotion that we want to portray in which case the shot works well. 

We think that Emily did very well to illustrate the kind of emotions and tone that we wanted to show and this is why we think that our shots represent her feelings quite well. For example, the first close up (above) was used to show how she feels whilst packing her bags whereas we also used medium long shots to show all of her and the room she is leaving. 

Molly Masters

Audience Research - Who is the audience for our music video?

The audience for any music video is presumably linked to that of the artist; as it is often that the audience are inclined to watch the music video after being fans of the song or the artist already. However, a particularly captivating music video can attract a wider audience of keen interest.

Particular elements attract an audience to a music video, in particular the genre or theme. Our music video promises to carry the theme of loss, love, and heartbreak. This is clearly already provided and symbolised within the lyrics of our chosen song, Make It Without You by Andrew Belle, but will be reinforced by the narrative of our video. Our narrative will capture the lives of several different characters before and after losing someone of importance to them. We hope to make it an emotive video, and an idealism that many of the audience can relate to easily.

Andrew Belle's music undoubtedly attracts an audience who are fans of acoustic, slow music, which is very similar to that of popular artists like Ed Sheeran and such. For this reason, it can only be assumed that due to an existing fanbase, Belle would find an audience within his own success, regardless of the pull factor of the genre or narrative.
We would estimate that these fans/ followers would average between late teens (approximately 17) and perhaps up to the age of 40.

Music videos which hold similar values, and attract similar audiences to our own is that of Ed Sheeran who, as previously mentioned, makes acoustic music which is likened to that of Andrew Belle. His video for his song Give Me Love, follows a relative theme of love, and is emotive for the audience to view, as empathy is drawn from them throughout. Several of Belle's music videos already focus on relationships, therefore i think our video follows the existing theme. Because of this, i think that the existing fans of Andrew Belle's music and music videos would also be interested in our video.

Molly Masters

Our Music Video Preliminary

As part of the project we have made a preliminary music video. The video only consists of lip syncing which gave us experience as we have had to overlap the original song and make sure that all of the lip syncing and the song is in time.

The preliminary is only short and simple as we did not spend much time on something that was essentially practice, therefore giving us more time to continue with our final project of our music video to the song 'Make It Without You' by Andrew Belle. However, in the preliminary we have done some lip syncing to 'Hey Soul Sister' by Train. 

Jess Hunt

Our Progress - Keeping Ourselves Organised

During the Summer holiday we decided to use a notebook in order to record our ideas neatly, and to file our pieces of inspiration. We have utilised the space and sectioned areas for different pieces of appropriate planning. For example, we have recorded shot type ideas, and categorised them into 'narrative shots' and 'filler shots'. We have paper clipped in sketches of the shots (so that we are able to manoeuvre them from the book to a table to create an interchangeable storyboard) with short descriptions underneath to clarify exactly how we want the shot to appear and why it is relevant to our narrative.

The book has also been a useful tool in which we can record our ideas in relation to the lyrics of the song (as seen in planning in a previous post). We have the lyrics noted as well as the order of the shots as we would like them to appear in order for them to occasionally link to the lyrics directly. We need the shots to be precisely planned so that we don't waste any time when filming with our actors.

This is only a brief update, and a post to introduce the planning book, but others will follow to conclude our planning and preparation before filming.

Molly Masters

The Pathetic Fallacy

We have purposefully postponed the majority of our narrative filming to target the Autumnal seasons which will provide appropriate pathetic fallacy for our characters.
We hope that the darker and cloudier days will be representative of the empathetic and emotive feelings of loss.

Adele // Someone Like You has similar themes in this sense because for the duration of the video, she is seen walking along an empty street in Paris. The city Paris is obviously associated with romance and love, or this case the loss of it. The video is entirely set in black and white which represents the feeling of emptiness and loneliness. 

These are the kind of feelings we want to portray in parts of our video and so we have considered using black and white for particular sections; such as in the moments of flashbacks, in which the characters may be feeling empty and lonely. 

Molly Beecham