Reasons for locations: The locations chosen were not only due to the colours of each but also due to their connections with the idea of being alone. The girl in our music video is presented as a character that creates her own life, moving from city to bookshop to beach via train and being content in her own company. This was something we felt the track reflected-the lyrics talk of a destroyed relationship as the writers partner 'runs away', and so we felt it would be an interesting concept to explore the idea of being happy/content without anyone else and that the breaking of a relationship isn't always something so solemn. The museum and bookshop were used to highlight this; both locations hold activities that condone being alone, reading or looking at paintings/artefacts, and so seemed the most appropriate and also easiest locations for the audience to see the characters happiness in being alone. The intertextual reference of Amelie was also used for this reason, the main character lives alone, happy in her own company and enjoying the free time she has to find hobbies for herself. In this respect our music video is quite like Amelie; the film is also deemed fairly progressive due to the female lead being driven by her own actions and her lack of reliance towards men. This was another thing we wanted to explore and, although initially we thought of presenting the broken relationship through both partners, we realised that a slightly more fitting (and for us interesting)side of the situation to the genre would be to take something that is seen as a sad happening and present it as good. The costume of all black/grey was used for aesthetic reasons as the background would be more noticeable if our character also wasn't in bright colours.
Natural lighting for each shot excluding the indoor lighting at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the bookshop in Cromer.
GREEN
Location: Cambridge-bridge Shot type: Close up/still shot Character: Katie Action: Looking towards the river Camera used: Lomokino and Canon 600D Location: Fitzwilliam Museum-Green walls Shot type: Low angle Character: Katie Action: Looking around/smiling at camera Camera used: Canon 600D Location: Cromer-Green building Shot type: Panning Character: Katie Action: Walks past green building Camera used: Canon 600D Location: Cromer-Green building Shot type: Close up Character: Katie Action: Looks into camera lens Camera used: Lomokino Location: Cromer-bookshop Shot type: Panning Character:// Action: Pans across green books Camera used: Canon Location: Train-Green fields Shot type: Still shot Character: Katie Action: Sitting on train/with title card Camera used: Canon Location: Norwich-Elm Hill- Green window Shot type: Close up Character: Katie Action: Looks into lens/walks off camera Camera used: Canon 600D Location: Norwich-Antique hall Shot type: Panning Character: // Action: Pans across green bottles Camera used: Canon 600D
RED/YELLOW/ORANGE
Location: Cambridge-Fitzwilliam Museum
Shot type: Panning Character: Katie Action: Sitting in red room Cameraused: Canon 600D Location: Cambridge-Fitzwilliam Museum Shottype: High angle Character: Katie Action: Sitting in red room Cameraused: Lomokino Location: Train Shottype: Still shot Character: Katie Action: Sitting on red seats Cameraused: Canon and Lomokino Location: Train Shot type: Panning Character: // Action: Train stopping/leaving with red doors Camera used: Lomokino Location: Norwich-Elm Hill- Red house Shot type: Close up Character: Katie Action: Looks into lens/looks around Camera used: Canon 600D Location: Cromer-beach Shottype: Wide shot Character: Katie Action: Standing on sand Cameraused: Canon and Lomokino Location: Cromer-yellow house Shot type: Close up Character: Katie Action: Looking into camera lens Camera used: Lomokino
Location: Norwich-Elm Hill-yellow house Shot type: Low angle shot Character: Katie Action: Standing still Camera used: Canon 600D Location: Norwich-Elm Hill-Yellow wall Shot type: High angle/Mid shot Character: Katie Action: Sitting on wall Camera used: Canon 600D Location: Cromer-bookshop Shottype: Panning Character: // Action: Pans across orange penguin books Camera used: Canon 600D
BLUE
BLUE Location: Cambridge-train Shottype: Still mid-shot Character:// Action: Blue train leaves Cameraused: Canon and Lomokino Location: Cambridge-river Shottype: Still shot Character: // Action: Water ripples Cameraused: Canon 600D Location: Cromer-beach Shottype: Wide shot Character: Katie Action: Looking over sea Cameraused: Canon 600D Location: Cromer-beach Shottype: Still shot Character: // Action: Sea ripples Cameraused: Canon and Lomokino Location: Cromer-blue house Shottype: Close up Character: Katie Action: looks into camera lens Cameraused: Lomokino Location: Cromer-bookshop Shottype: Still shot Character: Katie Action: Reading blue books Cameraused: Canon 600D Location: Cromer-blue doors Shot Type: Symmetrical mid shot Character: Katie Action: Walking between blue doors Camera used: Canon 600D NO SPECIFIC COLOUR/ALL COLOURS
Location: Cambridge-railings Shot type: Panning Character: // Action: Moves across railings Camera used: Canon 600D
Location: Cromer-beach huts Shot type: Close up Character: Katie Action: Looks at camera lens Camera used: Canon 600D
Montage sequences are created through the edit of contrasting shots or clips. The idea behind the montage technique is that the clips are related through the symbolic association between the ideas within various shots rather than a narrative or action. Russian theorist Sergei Eisenstein demonstrated the aesthetic, physical and ideological aspects of montage video and his work presents the juxtaposing technique very well.
The Odessa staircase sequence from 'Battleship Potemkin' (1925) is a prime example of the use of the montage technique to create a wider atmosphere to the sequence. The audience's perception of time is altered with the elongation of the clips of the crowd running down the steps creating a confusing and distorted sequence to match the ideas portrayed. The use of juxtaposing clips throughout the sequence was an essential part of Eisenstein's work, he believed that with the use of a strong juxtaposition in montage the two clips could uphold a greater or wider meaning than if they stood alone. He wrote of five methods to create the conflict and inflict the emotional and intellectual responses he desired of the audience. 1) Metric, this is where the editing follows the rules of time, the shots are cut according to the amount of time specifically given- no matter where the clips are in their progression or what they are showing. 2) Rhythmic, this cutting happens according to the continuity of the piece and also may be used to keep in time with the pace of the sequence. 3) Tonal, this cut uses the emotion within the clips to create an audience reaction i.e cutting after a character dies. 4) Overtonal, this is an amalgamation of all three previous techniques to create a confusing and emotive piece. 5)Intellectual, this cut uses a range of clips from other film or media to create deeper meaning for example cutting to a scene of desolation after something tragic happens to a character to reflect emotion.
Our second locations to film was Cromer, and, unlike the filming in Cambridge, we had a set amount of colour shots we needed to capture. Our initial ideas were restricted to the colour blue, firstly because it was difficult to find blue locations to film in Cambridge and secondly because the obvious colours on the beach tend to be on the blue spectrum. We began filming the symmetrical wide shots of the sand and sea, these were important as previously in Cambridge we had filmed a shot similar but using the river, these shots will hopefully match each other. The next blue coloured shots we filmed were a close up shot of our character surrounded by a bright blue building and a few more of her walking by, we also filmed another symmetrical shot of two blue doors with our character directly centre frame. Again these two shots should hopefully mimic each other when we edit the piece. Later we fond various buildings of different colours and managed to film an identical close up of our character in front of the blue house but instead the house was yellow, we also found a green coloured building that matched the blue housing our character walked by and filmed another few shots of her walking in front of it. The final few shots we filmed were in reference to the short film by Spike Jonze 'to die by your side' as we found an almost identical bookshop to the one featured. We filmed a tracking shot of the orange coloured penguin books lined up on the shelf and also a few shots of our character reading and looking at some of the older, green and blue books.
The editing of our video will be extremely important, because the clips are not linked through narrative they will need to be connected through the editing of each shot. The shots with similar colours or frames will either be placed side by side, one overlapping the other or a lot of shots in one frame. This idea was influenced by the use of split screen especially in film.
I found this short film of
various clips of when split screen was used in cinema which gave me a
few ideas and allowed me to see the different ways in which directors
use the same technique to gain different effects.
However this
film I found on Vimeo had some interesting shots, such as the two trains
moving together, that gave us some additional ideas on how to link all
of our shots together. There are a few shots that we have that could
easily be connected using this editing technique and it could be a
unique way of creating something using fairly mundane shots.
Each of these shots connects the locations through the editing, although in our film only a few of the shots from different locations are similar in terms of the things in the shot as these are, the colours from each location will be similar and so it could be said that this technique will also work for our film.
IDEAS
MIRROR IMAGE Some of our shots have a symmetrical framing, e.g the shot of Katie beside the green house, these shots work well with a mirror image effect. Through trimming the size of the clip, cloning it and then horizontally flipping one, we can achieve this. SPLIT SCREEN ONE SHOT ONE WAY AND THE OTHER THE OTHER WAY The shots of the train are the best shots to use for this technique, the idea that one train can be going one way and the other going the other is an interesting one that we would like to try out. This can be done by again scaling down each clip, flipping one and then placing them side to side ONE SHOT ON TOP OF THE OTHER The shot of the green house felt too minimal and so we decided to clone the clip and then colour correct one to give it a blue tint, this clip fits perfectly on top of the original through scaling it down and placing it on top, because the clips are technically the same, the action in each shot matches perfectly. This can be used for other shots too. SHOTS COME IN ONE BY ONE The idea that we could split one shot up into four and have each section appear one by one could be used to match the timing of the music keeping the track and video linked.
REPETITION In keeping with the idea of distortion in our video, we could repeat some of the clips intentionally one after the other. Along with the beat of the music this will create something that both lengthens the amount of footage we have and also allows for the distorted mirrored shots to not look out of place.
This would be the camera use when filming the darker locations e.g the shots of Elm Hill in the evening or some of the indoor shots that may need more lighting. This camera would also be used for any close up shots as the Lomokino would be too blurry to film less that 1m away from the subject.
Lomokino Movie Maker
This camera can be used in lighter locations to re-create a similar effect to the other music videos we have referred to, this camera is slightly more difficult to use as the firstly you cannot watch the footage immediately and secondly once the footage is shot it cannot be replaced or deleted and so we only have one chance in each location to shoot. It may be more effective to use the shots taken using this as part of the print productions.
The first location that we filmed in was in Cambridge, and, as mentioned before this is where the initial colour shots were formed. Cambridge was chosen as one of our 'main' locations not only due to the various different places that we could easily film, but also because of an unofficial music video that I previously watched from the artist Nick Drake, a similar artist to James Edge. The music video had clips from the artists time spent at Cambridge University and also a few clips from the time period (1960/70s) that were either relevant to the music or were important movements at that time. From this our ideas developed, especially for the CD cover and posters, as the film and television covers from this period seemed to have the same colour scheme that we were using for our shots. The raw footage from Cambridge is broken and unclear, due to the fact our video will have no story, and so the editing of all of the clips will be important. The footage from the Lomokino will need to be developed
Amelie was the first film I thought of when thinking about the use of colour in an interesting way. Each scene is carefully put together with one colour in mind, although many of the scenes are red or green(this being the main palette of the film) there are various scenes that stick to yellow and blue.
The red, green and gold in this film were used to depict Amelie's childish view of the world, the other colours throughout the film seem to present the other characters emotions or Amelie's situation. This could be something to think about when filming our video.
TO DIE BY YOUR SIDE (BEGINNING)
The beginning of this short film features a large grey cathedral lit with bright white lights against a dark blue sky, this would not only be fairly easy to re-create (the Norwich Cathedral is often lit like this in the evening) but also fit very well with the blue shots from Cromer e.g the sea or blue houses.
The next shot is a small, dimly lit bookshop, the perfect location for the warm palette we want to create alongside the red shots from the Fitzwilliam museum and the orange lights from Elm Hill. There is a small bookshop similar to this in Norwich however we will need to ask permission for filming and check whether they are open lat enough to re-create this effect. The best shots to re-create here would be the one looking at the man through the two bookshelves as it would be an interesting and useful shot in terms of establishing our character and also the panning shot of the books along the bookshelf, we could again incorporate colour here in the cover art on each book e.g have some blue then green and finally red.
PIERROT LE FOU The colours in this film are visually stunning and throughout the scenes continue to use a specific colour palette, the red, green and blue is common throughout and will hopefully be used to the same visual effect in our video.The film also uses colour to display the characters emotions or situation, the primary colours throughout present harmony however occasionally a secondary colour will appear e.g the pink of a dress etc and cause disharmony to the scene.
This effect is achieved both through the use of specific props and colour appropriate backgrounds but also through colour correction in the editing, this will be something that we can easily try out when editing our video.
POSTER ART
These two posters would be useful to use as our cover art inspiration because we would be taking various ideas from each film. The posters also have an interesting layout, the first is almost a print effect that could be good to use and prints can have the same image over and over just with a different colour- just as our video would. The second poster is laid out as a classic novel cover, this is something to take on board as it gives us an idea of all the different media that can be incorporated into our cover art.
MUSIC VIDEOS
CELLO SONG-NICK DRAKE
This video (although unofficial) includes shots of the artists time spent in our main location of Cambridge. Because this is an old video the camera it creates rich colours, something we need to try to create when filming our music video. James Egde's music reminded me of Nick Drake's work and so it seemed fitting to find one of the few videos produced for the artist as inspiration.
ART
MARK ROTHKO
Mark Rothko's colour use creates means to present human emotions. The colour collection was heavily influenced by philosophy, each painting reflects different emotions using a similar colour palette within that may be entirely different from another painting. This is similar to our piece of film as, with the use of different colours, we can present different moods/atmospheres.
The use of similar colours in each painting e.g the red,yellow and orange, will be used in our video as it will not only be easier as it is difficult to control locations exactly but also will hopefully also be effective as the colours will be heightened with the use of a rich palette.
