Filming Day 1

Yesterday the first third of the music video was created. This went very successfully as I achieved the results I wanted. The filming went well and I got some really good shots of Sara's bedroom and the idea of "isolation" was conveyed well because her room was quite dark. A successful shot that conveyed this was the mid shot of Sara looking through her closed blinds. As Sara cowers away from the bright sunlight, it clearly shows that she is in a state that leaves her with no imagination.

The weather was perfect on that day. There were slight intervals of sunniness, and I got some decent garden shots. As the sun shines, it shows that the singer is slowly getting more inspiration.

The second date of filming will be in the woods, which leads on from Sara entering the her garden shed and entering a mystical and mysterious world, where the "tinsel journey" continues.

The third filming date will be on bonfire night so we can get some firework shots into the music video. This is where the music video will end and it works perfectly as the lyrics are "I need a spark to ignite my pilot light." This is a play on words and directly correlates back to the music video.

There are things that I need to make sure of when I film these parts... continuity:

• Sara's hair, clothes and make-up need to be exactly the same. This includes the bedroom slippers she is wearing when she leaves her house.
• The tinsel needs to be bought also, so the trail can be continued.

Risk Assessment

Music video

 

This is a collage of a few of the features that could be in my music video.

Casting

For my music video, I will definitely need a "singer" to play the part of Amber. I believe that Sara Da Silva would be perfect for the part, as she has participated in the performing arts before, is a good singer herself, and would be able to play the part and lip sync professionally. Sara is also very reliable as an actress, as I have used her in the past for other projects.

"Pilot" Shot List

Shot 1: Close-up shots of origami birds hanging from the ceiling.
Shot 2: Mid-shot of Amber in woods (performance) looking melancholy
Shot 3: Mid-shot of Amber attempting to write music, and make music with her acoustic guitar but then fails. "Hiding out from the world..."

Shot 4: Side, mid-shot of Amber looking through blinds, seeing nothing interesting and then leaving.
Shot 5: Mid-shot of Amber walking across bedroom.

Shot 6: High-angle shot of Amber noticing the tinsel and reading the note on it.
Shot 7: Close-up of the note.
Shot 8. Amber getting up and following the tinsel
Shot 9: Amber walking into the kitchen
Shot 10: Close up of the note
Shot 11: Amber puts down the note and continues following the tinsel out the back door.
Shot 12: Amber walking down the back wall towards the garden
Shot 13: Amber walks towards the shed
Shot 14: Close-up of note on the shed door
Shot 15: Amber opens the door
Shot 16: Close-up of Amber's hand trailing off the door handle
Shot 17: Amber opening the door on the other side
Shot 18: Amber is in the woods, looking confused
Shot 19: Amber performance part, standing with the woods backdrop
Shot 20: Perspective shot of Amber's shoes, walking through the leaves
Shot 21: Amber performing - woods backdrop
Shot 22: Amber following the tinsel around the woods, crisscrossing in and out
Shot 23: Performance part, tracking camera of Amber walking through the woods nicely dressed.
Shot 24: Low angle shot of trees blowing in the wind
Shot 25: Low angle shot of branches blowing in the wind
Shot 26: Mid-shot of Amber lip-syncing... trees in the background
Shot 27: Tracking mid-shot of Amber following the tinsel towards a log with a note on it
Shot 28: Amber sitting down on the log and picking up the note
Shot 29: Close-up of the note
Shot 30: Amber puts down the note and gets up
Shot 31: Amber lip-syncing
Shot 32: Amber walking back up a hill
Shot 33: Amber lip-syncing
Shot 34: Amber walks behind a tree without a coat
Shot 35: Amber comes out from behind the tree with a coat on
Shot 36: Amber lip-syncs the last note
Shot 37: A high-angle shot of fireworks exploding in the sky

Ideas - Alice in Wonderland

From my interpretation of "Pilot" by Amber Rubarth, I got the impression of trying to find inspiration and failing to do so.

Initially for the music video, I wanted an Alice in Wonderland concept for the music video, as "Alice"/"Amber" stumbles across different fairytale characters in a unique and surreal world. As I carefully considered all the elements realistically, I decided that there are many things to consider:

• The costumes and props: a number of costumes would be necessary such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, fairies, various animal costumes. Props would include a sword, a pocket watch,  fairy wands etc. This could be expensive.

• At least 5 people for cast: As Alice/Amber stumbles through a fantasy world, she finds many different characters - a lot of people need to be cast. The problem with this is how to attain so many people at one time. Having a high number of cast for the music video makes it difficult as people could be unreliable. It is important that everyone shows up on time, and it would be easier if I required few cast.

• There are very few places that could be presented in a "fantasy" atmosphere. A number of forests and woods in the surrounding areas would have to be looked at.

In this collage, I have analysed the interests of the girl in the center, Ellie, aged 18 from London. Her interests are less mainstream and more dedicated to quirkier and "indie" things. Her favourite actress is Zooey Deschanel, famous for (500) Days of Summer and hit US TV show, "New Girl". She plays guitar, likes to read and loves attending gigs. Her favourite musicians are She & Him, Tegan & Sara and Ellie Goulding. She comments she loves the delicateness of their voices and their catchy, unique tunes. In her spare time, she does a little songwriting herself. 

Ellie listened to "Pilot" by Amber Rubarth and carefully listened to the lyrics. She felt that she could associate with the song herself because she often feels that she needs inspiration when she's is feeling down. All in all, I think the audience I need to aim towards for the music video should be people like Ellie, but I will also keep my options open in order to promote Amber to different people to see if they will find her music appealing too.

Storyboarding

Gender Representation in Music Videos

In class, we looked at a music video by The Pussycat Dolls called "Buttons." Upon looking at the music video clearly, we noticed that there were a lot of aspects to the music video that could perhaps be "sexist" due to the provocative dance moves and mysterious facial expressions whilst Snoop Dogg overlooks them which relates back to the "male gaze."

After the lesson, I went off on my own and investigated other genres apart from the pop/hip hop genre that represented. US Pop/Rock band "Boys Like Girls" have a music video for their song "Love Drunk" which features Ashley Tisdale. The music video shows boys staring at the girls, as if she is an object.

Lyrics - Ideas w/ illustration

This is a picture of a sheet of A3 paper in which I had listened to "Pilot" by Amber Rubarth and written down the lyrics. After listening to the song several times, and whilst playing close attention to the rhythm and lyrics, I composed images in my head of what could be happening in the music video. I jotted some of these down and then incorporated these "images" onto the lyric sheet.

The Auteur Theory

François Truffaut claimed in his essay "A Certain Tendency in French Cinema" that a film is a great way to express a director's personal ideas. He believed that this meant an director should in fact be named an auteur.

An auteur simply means that the film-maker influences their movies so much, that they rank as their author.

"There are no good or bad movies, only good and bad directors." - François Truffaut

A man famous for being a film auteur is Tim Burton, who is famous for creating dark and quirky-themed films such as Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.

Almost like a genre in itself, Tim Burton contains a lot of themes in his films, that are dark, mysterious and slightly creepy. However, a twist has been added to the films; despite it being dark and mysterious, there are elements of isolation and quirkiness. For example, in the film "Edward Scissorhands", the character of Edward at first glance would be something that would initially be feared, but as the story goes on, we learn that the character is harmless and completely misunderstood.

Steering more towards the direction of music videos and whilst keeping the auteur theory in mind, I am going to look at some music video directors who are famous for their unique styles they have created in the past.

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is a well-known director, producer and actor whose work includes a range of mediums such as producing and directing advertisements, short and feature films, television shows and music videos.

One of their music videos for American band "Weezer" was created in the style of 70's television program "Happy Days." The music video could easily be mistaken for a 70's video/performance, despite the video actually being shot in the 90's. The quirkiness of the music video enabled the music video to win MTV Video Music Awards 1995 for Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Video.

In the music video for "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire, the scenes are taken from Spike Jonze's short film "Scenes From The Suburbs" which involves scenes of young teenagers getting up to trouble in the suburbs. The video involves no lip syncing whatsoever, and literally just has a back story of the lives of the miscreants in the suburbs. I think this is an interesting concept, as it tells a story in a whole other way, and makes the band the narrator of the story (which is usually the case with music in itself).