Camera research

I had looked into different ways of making a steadicam, when I came across this video. It seemed a pretty basic and simple way to make one and was easy to understand.
However, I did find using the other steadicam stand a lot more effective - after trying both methods out - so that's what I had decided to use.

Ancillary task 1: research of single covers

This is the actual single cover for the song we are using in the music video, and although this is quite good, I would like to have a cover something like:

How the pose is simple but you get most of the artist in the photo. I also like the use of a glitter/light effect, which would be good for ours, as in the music video, glitter is used within the performance scene. Although it doesn't really have anything to do with the song itself, I still feel it is a good single cover.

When constructing my digipak, I plan to make the cover have some sort of link to the music video, rather than the song itself.

Ancillary task 1 - Digipak template

This is the basic template for the first ancillary task - a digipak for the CD - but it shows all the necessary measurements needed.
I found the template on: http://www.discmakers.com/templates/Digipaks.asp and it is a 4 panel 1 tray CD case.

Props needed: (updated)

Cinderella-like shoe and clothes for the stairs
Apple
Apple iphone
Mirror
Basket - like Red Riding Hood
Picnic stuff
Roses/Flowers
Ring and box
Drink bottle
Glitter
Photoframe
Teddy bear

Shake It Out music video, plot.

Scene 1: Break up. (Possibly subtitles.)

·         Music starts and the scene is drained of colour.

·         Over-shoulder shot – Jordan; “It’s not working out.”

·         OSS – Abbie; “Why not?”

·         LS – Abbie and Jordan are arguing.

·         LS – She throws something at him.

·         CU – Photo frame cracked.

Scene 2: Wake up

·         ECU – Abbie’s eyes, eyes closed.

·         CU – Abbie’s face, eyes opening, waking up.

·         LS – Establishes  the setting, Abbie looks confused

·         MCU – holds head

·         LS – Gets up, stumbles, looks around, and begins to walk.

·         LS – Track – Follow along path in town.

·         MS – Showing Abbie turn and look at a person talking on an iPhone

·         CU – Apple on iPhone

Scene 3: Snow White

·         CU – Apple in Jordan’s hand.

·         LS – From side (diagonal) – stumbles and drops apples.

·         LS – From side – apple rolling and Jordan chasing after it down the street.

·         CU – Apple stops rolling at Abbie’s feet, she picks it up.

·         MCU – Jordan bends down to pick it up as Abbie does.

·         MS – Both look at each other as she hands the apple to him.

Scene 4: Walking through town

·         MS – Walking through town, smiling.

·         LS – Walking through town.

·         LS – From behind – following Abbie, camera continues on following Red Riding Hood.

Scene 5: Red Riding Hood

·         LS – Following Red Riding Hood through the forest from behind, camera begins to move around, showing RRH from a more side angle, as RRH passes the picnic, the camera shift focus to it.

·         MS – Picnic scene. Jordan and Abbie laughing, flirting, eating.

Scene 6: Walking through town

·         LS – Walking through town.

·         MS – Walking through town, smiling.

·         LS – From the side – walking passed the florist.

·         MS – From the front – Stopping to look at the flowers.

·         CU – Rose.

Scene 7: Beauty and the Beast

·         CU – Rose petals on the floor.

·         Pans out as her feet go passed and then follows her from behind.

·         She gets some distance.

·         LS – From behind – as she walks around the corner, he is in front of her and he bends down on one knee to propose to her.

·         MCU – Happy face – Abbie

Scene 8 – Walking through town

·         MCU – Shaking her head of the memory.

Performance Scene?

·         LS – Walking

·         MS – Walking (different angle)

·         Pans from Abbie to a woman walking with a teddy bear in a bag.

·         MLS – Goldilocks is bumped in to and drops the teddy.

·         CU – Teddy bear on the floor.

Scene 9 – Goldilocks

·         CU – Teddy on the floor, hand comes into shot and picks up the teddy.

·         MS – Jordan handing the bear back to Goldilocks.

·         MCU – Goldilocks saying ‘thank you’.

·         OSS – (LS) of Jordan and Goldilocks talking from Abbie’s spot.

·         CU – Abbie’s angry expression and her shaking her head.

·         CU – Fists clenching.

·         MS – Jordan and Goldilocks talking, Abbie coming into shot from behind the camera, starts shouting at Jordan.

·         MS – Opposite direction. Shows Abbie’s face, she’s pointing at Goldilocks but not looking at her, while shouting at Jordan. Jordan keeps getting cut off.

Scene 10: Walking through town

·         MCU – Pensive expression, still walking.

·         LS – Walking, dog in the distance of the shot.

·         POV – Dog trotting towards her.

·         CU – Worried face

Scene 11: Three little pigs/Big bad wolf

·         CU – Worried face – lifts glass to drink

·         MLS – Drinking. (Fades between many changes of drunkenness.)

·         MS – Jordan walks in. “How much have you had?” Shakes head.

·         MLS – Jordan tries to take the drink off her. She pushes him back against the wall.

·         CU – Jordan scared looking stumbling back.

·         MCU – Flickering from Abbie to wolf and back.

·         MLS – Abbie stumbles off as a wolf, not caring.

Scene 12: Town

·         CU – Abbie realisation of Jordan in the distance.

·         LS – Jordan in the background, leaving shop.

·         LS – Abbie begins to speed up.

·         MCU – Jordan’s reflection in a shop window

Scene 13: Snow White: The Mirror

·         MCU – Jordan’s reflection.

·         MCU – Shoe on the stairs. (Put camera on zoom before filming.)

Scene 14: Realisation (Continued from 12)

·         MLS – Abbie stops running as Goldilocks comes out of the shop.

·         CU – Abbie looking confused.

·         MS – Jordan and Goldilocks flirting and laughing.

·         MLS – Going to sit down

·         LS – POV – Jordan and Goldilocks walking away, holding hands.

·         CU – Abbie on the bench, taking the ring.

·         CU – Ring on the bench, rocking.

Six week plan

Props

Brief

For our project, we are going to be constructing a music video for the song Florence and the Machine - Shake It Out. Our plan is to make it hint at fairtytales by switching from real life to flashbacks with a hint of different fairytales. The main character keeps finding objects which reminds her of her past, which then leads to the flashbacks of a relationship based around the objects. As the storyline continues, you can see that the relationship begins to get worse and it is in fact her who treats him badly and that's why he left her. For the ancillary tasks, we are creating a digipak and a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

My role in the project

My responsibilities in the project are; organising props and cinematography manager.
I will have to research into how to use the camera effectively by analysing more music videos. I will also have to organise which props will need to be used in each scene.

Review of preliminary task

Preliminary analysis on Prezi

Analysis of last year's projects

Last year's projects

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A2 Preliminary project - Chase Scene

How To Love - Lil Wayne

·         Before the actual song starts, the video begins with a woman lying down being told to stay calm etc. After a few seconds, you find out that she's going to have an abortion, but she panics and runs out of the room crying, which is when the music starts.

·         The video exchanges between shots of Lil Wayne, to woman’s life. Starting with showing the baby crying but you can see a man and a woman fighting.

·         “Now you're in the corner, trying to put it together.” At this point, she's picking up the baby, trying to stop it crying whilst in the background, the man is walking away.

·         The next scene is set a few years later, where the child has grown up. The mother and child are visiting  - presumably – the father in prison. The little girl looks happy to see him, and all is fine until the couple start arguing and she is dragged away.

·         Again, a few years later, is medium-close up shot of her looking like the innocent teenage girl. “But you can’t have a man look at you for five seconds, without you feeling insecure.” At this point, you see the male in the background watching her as she watches the TV and the mother is asleep on him. He soon gets up and tries to drag her away quietly, so the mother won’t wake up.

·         The video goes on and then you find out she is now working as a stripper to earn money for the two kids she has. We figure she is a single parent as there is no ‘father’ figure seen. She takes a shot of alcohol and is looking into the mirror crying. “The way you moving your body like you never had love.” She clearly doesn’t want to do this.

·         Her clothing is provocative – as it has to be for what she does – and also shows how vulnerable she is.

·         “You had a lot of crooks, trying to steal your heart.” Now, the man who gave her money on the stage is now leading her away. It then cuts to a medium shot of her sitting smoking, looking unhappy and miserable, as she watches the guy put money on the table and then leave. She shoots him a small, weak smile before he does.

·         The whole video up to this point, shows how lonely and unhappy she is and how messed up things have been. “Never really had luck, couldn’t ever figure out how to love.”

·         The music cuts out and we’re back at the hospital with the same nurse and doctor, but it’s the daughter being seen to, not the mother. After she finds out she has HIV, she runs out of the hospital and down the corridor, just like her mother did.

·         “See I just want you to know, that you deserve the best, you're beautiful.” The whole video rewinds back to the scene of the baby.

·         After this, it goes down a different route and shows the life she had if the mother had of just walked away. It goes through all the same years, each time the girl is happy and so is the mother as she gets married and is treat right – this means, the girl grows up in a good environment and sees what it’s like to be loved. When she's an older teenager and she's sitting on the same steps as she was previously, she's studying and then a boy comes along and this time she seems happier.

·         The whole video uses quick cuts to go from scene to scene.

·         She graduates and finds out she's pregnant (back at the hospital again.) When the song is finished, she thanks her mother for ‘teaching her how to love’, referring to the title.

·         The whole video and song shows the impact one thing or one decision could make on the rest of your life – or someone else’s. 

Skyscraper - Demi Lovato

·         Opening shot is a deserted pathway/track.

·         Then there is a long shot of her standing on the path, showing she is walking this alone..

·         It is then a close up as she starts singing. “Skies are crying.” Ironic because she's the one who is nearly crying.

·         Then we see the first shot of the red heart in a glass box, surrounded by smoke.

·         Another medium-long shot of her standing on the same pathway singing. Basic outfit, not glam. White dress which has connotations of being pure and innocent. Has a sense of vulnerability which matches the lyrics. “You can take everything I have; you can break everything I am.” Close up on her face to show the emotion.

·         “I awaken and untangle you from me.” The camera then cuts to her unravelling a black piece of material from her body.

·         She walks barefoot on the broken class, giving the impression she is stronger and shows how raw the video is.

·         All throughout the video, she is alone.

·         The glass casing around the heart starts to shatter in the big build-up of the song. At the end, you see the clear glass has shattered and is broken, but the red heart is still intact. Although, the glass heart could easily be broken, it was still whole… which sends the message from the video and the song that even though the shield was broken, the heart was still strong. “I will be rising from the ground, like a skyscraper.”

·         The video and song is filled with emotion. It isn’t about the typical ‘love’ or ‘glamour’. It sends out a powerful message and even though, not much happens in the video, it still says a lot.

We Found Love - Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris

·         First clip is of – what you assume to be – council flats. Often stereotyped as being ‘rough’.

·         As it starts with a woman talking… describing the type of love the song is about. The video shows clips of the woman and man separately; seeming angry and upset but when they're together, happy.

·         Drugs symbolises how toxic the relationship really is.

·         “No one will ever understand how much it hurts” and then a long shot of when she falls to her knees, signifying she's given up or she's broken.

·         “You feel hopeless, like nothing could save you.” From here to the end of the speech, it shows them as a couple – distressed and smoking.

·         The music kicks it with lightning. She's standing in a room, but the dark mise-en-scene makes it where you can’t see her face but the whole room flashes with the lightning. This idea continues throughout.

·         They're laughing and having fun as a couple. Quick cuts to different scenes – skateboarding, kissing, laughing, playing on an arcade machine, riding a bike where they seem genuinely happy, even when they're doing reckless things.

·         One scene in particular with the sparks and the pair kissing, but at one point the sparks are out of control which denotes the idea it is dangerous – like their relationship.

·         Throughout the whole video, you see contrasts between what would be considered a healthy relationship and what would be a bad one. 

·         He catches her so she doesn’t fall; keeping her from being hurt but this is ironic since later on in the video, he is the one hurting her – emotionally.

·         They only seem to be happy when they're drinking or have taken drugs.

·         The quick cuts show how fast and out of control everything is.

·         Repeated shots where the background is spinning and the camera is close up on either one or both. Shows everything is a blur once they’ve taken the drugs.

·         “We found love in a hopeless place.” Screaming and shouting at each other and she leaves him in the car.

·         The whole video shows the love hate relationship that matches with the main lyric. “We found love in a hopeless place.” Even though they love each other, it’s clear it can’t work out because it’s not healthy for either of them.

·         Her clothing throughout is usually quite revealing or short, to look more appealing to the male audience.

·         When she's singing this part again, there is a projection of a building falling behind her, meaning it’s destroyed.

·         The last scene is where she comes home and gives up. He tries to stop her leaving but it’s too late.