Friday 19 December 2014
Monday 8 December 2014
Visual Story Board
Fiery Wave
"He's got these Brown Eyes..."
"shes got these blue eyes"
"I can't even find" - I interpret this as the artist being lost
"He's got these Brown Eyes..."
"shes got these blue eyes"
"I can't even find" - I interpret this as the artist being lost
Filming Diary- Why I Chose to Film Certain Things
18/11/14 - I filmed with the artist only in this filming session, we used two locations: a lake and an abandoned farm.
I used a 18-55 mm lens for the majority of the shots with an additional 55-200mm lens for long shots and shots where I needed a pronounced depth of field. The problem I had with the bigger lens was that the camera shook if I didn't use a tripod so if i wanted to film something from far away, such as the burning roses, I had to put the camera on the tripod and use a still shot. However, the smaller lens was more useful for shots where I could move the camera closer to the subject rather then zooming, because of the advantage of being able to use the camera hand held with reduced shake.
A problem we had was that the artists costume didn't keep her warm as it was 5 degrees Celsius. This meant we had to stop regularly for the artist to put her jacket on. This was also a problem because her costume didn't have any shoes.
Another problem we had, in shot of the flowers on fire, was that the flowers wouldn't set alight because they were damp. this meant that a match couldn't be directly dropped onto the flame and we couldn't effectively capture the ignition of the flame on camera.
Thirdly, there wasn't enough light in one of the buildings to successfully record a scene without the use of external lights. this is where I came up with the idea of lighting a match right next to the artists face for her to blow it out, this connoted her feeling non existent to the man the song is about. This provided a good effect because the shot goes from very dark lighting to immediately lighting up her whole face which looks very effective and provided an intended mood for the shot.
the scene where the artist was rowing down the lake on the boat, there was a problem with the level of water in the lake. this meant that it was difficult for her to get into the boat from a platform because the boat was so low. a safety precaution was taken by the use of a life jacket for when she got into the boat (she took it off whilst filming). Another issue was that there were strong winds blowing the boat which could've resulted in an injury if the boat would have been blown into a overhanging tree, for example. We prevented this by giving the artist a long ore so that if the boat drifted she could hold the ore out so that she didn't hit the object she was drifting towards.
Because of the fact we were filming in winter, it started to get dark around 4pm. This meant that we had to stop filming because of the lack of natural light. however, the last scene we filmed, where the artist is running through the field, the lighting was very dark. However in post production i edited the clip so that the dark, grainy shades appeared darker and the white dress she was wearing stood out. this gave a pleasing effect of disorientation which I thought had good connotations.
26/02/15
I filmed with the artist as well as her boyfriend on this day. Her boyfriend played the part of the artist's lover in the video, whom of which the song was about. We filmed shots of my artist walking into the sea as shown in the screen shot below. This was used to connote death and how insignificant mankind are in relation to something as vast as the ocean.
The artist's boyfriend was going to have a brief appearance in the video towards the endwhich would've consisted of a point of view shot of him looking at the artist. However, whilst my artist was in the sea and we were filming this shot, the water got too cold for her and she ran out of the ocean whilst we were still filming, screaming and laughing because of the cold. She ran over to her boyfriend who was holding her towel and he wrapped a towel round her and hugged her, which I caught on film.
This was unplanned, however I thought the nature of the shot I captured was very powerful and expressed the vulnerability of the artist, which I wanted to show. I kept continuity with use of black and white which meant that the artist's facial expressions were blurred. In my opinion, the use of darkened black and white creates audience interpretation to how she is feeling. I also used a "dream effect" which makes the image brighter and more distorted. This was used to express the fact that I wanted the shot of her running out the water and hugging her boyfriend to look like a dream, as this is what she wants to be her reality, however the reality is that she walks into sea and commits suicide, as shown in the last shot of the video which fades out to black.
I used a 18-55 mm lens for the majority of the shots with an additional 55-200mm lens for long shots and shots where I needed a pronounced depth of field. The problem I had with the bigger lens was that the camera shook if I didn't use a tripod so if i wanted to film something from far away, such as the burning roses, I had to put the camera on the tripod and use a still shot. However, the smaller lens was more useful for shots where I could move the camera closer to the subject rather then zooming, because of the advantage of being able to use the camera hand held with reduced shake.
A problem we had was that the artists costume didn't keep her warm as it was 5 degrees Celsius. This meant we had to stop regularly for the artist to put her jacket on. This was also a problem because her costume didn't have any shoes.
Another problem we had, in shot of the flowers on fire, was that the flowers wouldn't set alight because they were damp. this meant that a match couldn't be directly dropped onto the flame and we couldn't effectively capture the ignition of the flame on camera.
Thirdly, there wasn't enough light in one of the buildings to successfully record a scene without the use of external lights. this is where I came up with the idea of lighting a match right next to the artists face for her to blow it out, this connoted her feeling non existent to the man the song is about. This provided a good effect because the shot goes from very dark lighting to immediately lighting up her whole face which looks very effective and provided an intended mood for the shot.
the scene where the artist was rowing down the lake on the boat, there was a problem with the level of water in the lake. this meant that it was difficult for her to get into the boat from a platform because the boat was so low. a safety precaution was taken by the use of a life jacket for when she got into the boat (she took it off whilst filming). Another issue was that there were strong winds blowing the boat which could've resulted in an injury if the boat would have been blown into a overhanging tree, for example. We prevented this by giving the artist a long ore so that if the boat drifted she could hold the ore out so that she didn't hit the object she was drifting towards.
Because of the fact we were filming in winter, it started to get dark around 4pm. This meant that we had to stop filming because of the lack of natural light. however, the last scene we filmed, where the artist is running through the field, the lighting was very dark. However in post production i edited the clip so that the dark, grainy shades appeared darker and the white dress she was wearing stood out. this gave a pleasing effect of disorientation which I thought had good connotations.
26/02/15
I filmed with the artist as well as her boyfriend on this day. Her boyfriend played the part of the artist's lover in the video, whom of which the song was about. We filmed shots of my artist walking into the sea as shown in the screen shot below. This was used to connote death and how insignificant mankind are in relation to something as vast as the ocean.
The artist's boyfriend was going to have a brief appearance in the video towards the endwhich would've consisted of a point of view shot of him looking at the artist. However, whilst my artist was in the sea and we were filming this shot, the water got too cold for her and she ran out of the ocean whilst we were still filming, screaming and laughing because of the cold. She ran over to her boyfriend who was holding her towel and he wrapped a towel round her and hugged her, which I caught on film.
This was unplanned, however I thought the nature of the shot I captured was very powerful and expressed the vulnerability of the artist, which I wanted to show. I kept continuity with use of black and white which meant that the artist's facial expressions were blurred. In my opinion, the use of darkened black and white creates audience interpretation to how she is feeling. I also used a "dream effect" which makes the image brighter and more distorted. This was used to express the fact that I wanted the shot of her running out the water and hugging her boyfriend to look like a dream, as this is what she wants to be her reality, however the reality is that she walks into sea and commits suicide, as shown in the last shot of the video which fades out to black.
Thursday 4 December 2014
Tuesday 2 December 2014
Weather for my video
For my video, I wanted the lighting to be strong so that I wouldn't have to use external light sources. I will use effects in post production to bring the brightness of the video down as well as reduce the colour to bring out the dark, sinister mood. This will mean that the clips won't be grainy because they've been recorded with good lighting. Another reason I'd like strong light from the sun is so I can film establishing shots, as I'm hoping to use a lot of establishing shots in my video, and they'll be easily visible and clear. A risk of filming with bright light is that it may not be editable to make it look dark and mysterious as I'd want it to look.
26/11/14 Post filming- the weather on this day was bright, however slightly foggy in some areas. this made the establishing shot I took of an old barn house very mysterious which I liked. however some of the light from the sun was blocked meaning that it was slightly darker than expected. However this didn't effect the quality of the video too much.
What Makes a Good Product
For the abstract genre of my video, I think key elements which make the video significant to the music are the use of connotations within the imagery and editing which cuts on the beat of the song. A range of different shots is beneficial in my opinion, including long shots to extreme close ups. This is so the connotations intended to be shown, such as, in my video, the close up of the artists lips connoting sexual connotations, are flaunted and emphasized. In summary, what ever the focus of the shot is, emphasize it by the use of cinematography. The reason I'll be using abstract shots, such as the edited shot of the pile of leaves spontaneously combusting, is because the feel of song is dark and melancholic and I believe this matches conventions of the genre.
I think a good abstract video will still have a subliminal narrative through the use of morals and themes. In my video I'd like the subliminal narrative to express the artist's confusion and fluctuation towards her dark relationship with a man. this will be connoted by the use of fire, both being ignited and extinguished: Such as the shot where she blows out the match and the shot of the burning leaves. The fire it's self is represented as the relationship and when the fire goes out it represents darkness in the relationship. I think it's important not to clearly explain what the darkness is in terms of a literal meaning, for example it could symbolize abuse, betrayal, uncertainty; however, I think it's good to leave the audience to interpret what they think the metaphor of the flame is.
A very important aspect, in my opinion, is for the artist to be connected emotionally with the audience. This is why, in certain shots, I decided the artist should look directly into the camera. This makes the audience feel as if they're experiencing the emotions of the video themselves rather than being a fly on the wall. I wanted to showing numbness, in terms of emotions, within the video, as I believe most audience members can relate to this through going through emotionally draining, or traumatic experiences. I expressed this through the use of the affect "Keyer", which shows dark shades within the video as even darker. I used this effect to make the artists eyes look darker and to merge the colour of her pupils into the colour of her iris. This added a slightly disturbing atmosphere to the video and expressed the numbness I wanted to portray in a visual way.
I think a good abstract video will still have a subliminal narrative through the use of morals and themes. In my video I'd like the subliminal narrative to express the artist's confusion and fluctuation towards her dark relationship with a man. this will be connoted by the use of fire, both being ignited and extinguished: Such as the shot where she blows out the match and the shot of the burning leaves. The fire it's self is represented as the relationship and when the fire goes out it represents darkness in the relationship. I think it's important not to clearly explain what the darkness is in terms of a literal meaning, for example it could symbolize abuse, betrayal, uncertainty; however, I think it's good to leave the audience to interpret what they think the metaphor of the flame is.
A very important aspect, in my opinion, is for the artist to be connected emotionally with the audience. This is why, in certain shots, I decided the artist should look directly into the camera. This makes the audience feel as if they're experiencing the emotions of the video themselves rather than being a fly on the wall. I wanted to showing numbness, in terms of emotions, within the video, as I believe most audience members can relate to this through going through emotionally draining, or traumatic experiences. I expressed this through the use of the affect "Keyer", which shows dark shades within the video as even darker. I used this effect to make the artists eyes look darker and to merge the colour of her pupils into the colour of her iris. This added a slightly disturbing atmosphere to the video and expressed the numbness I wanted to portray in a visual way.
Monday 1 December 2014
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