Preparation for Practice Filming

 

Setting

Based upon our pitch, we imagined our music video to be urban and edgy. This is due to the lyrics in the song and the fact that there is a semantic field of negativity and heartache throughout the song. Due to the lyrics we feel that it is vital to portray a sense of anger and despair throughout our video and this is why we have chosen specific settings, such as an empty subway, in order to give these connotations. In order for the music video to be effective, appeal to our audience and to comply with the conventions of Andrew Goodwin's theory and so on (alike to many existing products) we need to ensure that the settings we pick have the correct purpose. This is why I have completed this research.

 

Unfurnished Room
 

 

As a group we feel that the setting of an unfurnished room would portray the idea of loneliness well to the audience as it would appear empty and unloved on screen. This is the impression that we want to give as it would allow the audience to understand the lyrics even further by using necessary visuals. The song is very moving and deep so it is therefore important to use the correct settings as a part of an effective mise en scene.

 

Subway

 

 

Our next desired setting is an underground subway. Again this gives dark negative connotations of loneliness and would make the audience empathise with the characters seen on screen. Although the image to the right appears to be of low key dark lighting, the subway near my house has continuous lights traveling down the ceiling. I feel that this would be a good setting to use as it would provide us with artificial lighting that will emphasis the quality of the video footage that could possibly be damaged due to the conditions of the weather. The brick wall is edgy but simple meaning that not too much will be distracted from the artists herself.

 

Brick Lane
 

 

Using Brick Lane as one of our settings would add in the effects and events of everyday life: making our video appear more realistic. The first two locations would feature only one person on screen because they are private or empty locations (Karina's house and the subway) whereas Brick Lane is a public location and therefore there would be many other people in the background of our footage. This would make the lyrics become more true as they are about people not caring and people being selfish. Therefore if people are walking by in the background whilst ignoring our artist it shows the meaning of the lyrics.

 

London South Bank
 

 

Based upon our research of the previous three settings, I have noticed that we have a dark look. Although this reflects the tone of our song well, it will not be interesting for the audience. This is why we like the next setting which is located in London South Bank. The urban, dull area has been brought to life with bright and colourful graffiti. The theme of vandalism here will portray the mood of the song well whilst adding colour to our video at the same time.

 

Field
 

 

Alike to the previous setting in London South Bank, a field adds colour to our setting list. It is plain and simple so the main focus would be upon the artist. It would be a good idea to flick back and fourth between the chaotic scenes to some plains scenes in order to give the audience some variety. The setting gives connotations of nature and nature is natural. This is good because the lyrics talk about people forgetting about others and only thinking of themselves.

  

Weather

In order for our music video to go as planned, the weather is an important factor. First we have to take in to consideration that we have expensive equipment and will be walking around local areas with it in hand. Therefore if it does rain or thunder we need to ensure that the camera, laptop, tripod etc doesn't get ruined or affected. 

 

 

We want to do the filming in the early morning when we film in the basement room, this is because we are hoping for a beam of light to shine through the window and reflect off of the actors face. Later on in the day we going to travel down to the subway, and although it is underground the weather still does matter. This is because we want it to be quite dark to make it clear that we filmed at night, however we don't want it to be too dull and gloomy so that it isn't even clear. After research i have noticed that with some cameras that don't have as much MB the pixels don't look as clear when filmed dark at night; and the filming never looks as effective. Therefore this is something we need to be careful of. Understanding that it is end of October/ November, we know that it will be really chilly particularly at night so we have ensured that our artist (Karina) will wear a coat so that she isn't too cold and it doesn't come across on camera when she is singing.

 

 

We have arranged to some random bits of filming, just to see how it comes across on the camera. for example we thought it would be a good idea if we held the camera at the wind screen throughout the day to film the journey. We will fasten up this filming just to see what it looks like to potentially put it in parts of the video that don't need narration. The filming will be similar to the video below apart from the settings will obviously a lot different.
 

 

Something else we're planning on filming is the artist walking along beside the motor way. We think we should do this at night time because all of the bright lights from the cars will be flashing in the background, it will hopefully look really effective and also bring a bit of mystery by making the audience ask where shes going and why. We need to make sure it doesn't rain or the wind is too strong in order for it to work. 

We have been checking the weather forecast on our I phones regularly to make sure that the weather on days we have chosen to film is how we expect it to be.