A very very rough cut!

This is an extreamly rough version of what the final piece will look like. Currently alot of shots are missing, due to technology being unreliable they got deleted.
These shots being:

-The beginning shots of Rosie walking up the street, along with the close ups and tilting of her putting her gloves on and smiling.

-The shots when she pets her Cat outside her house just before she takes her boots off and enters the house.

-The whole entire ending - where shes lying in bed, brick blocks appear on the back walll, zooming in on her face against the bricks, then zooming out realising she is actually outside. Along with the shots of her walking away.

All of which equal to about half of the actual video, meaning i have resedualed to reshoot these shots on the comming Saturday morning.
Not only this, but i feel some of the colouring of the shots need to be darkened, the exposure is farrr to high, i may also enhance the clarity of the shots to give a professional look to the piece.

Once i have all the shots, i willl be ableto edit the timing to fit the song.

Current issues

Seeing as it has been snowing non stop for the past two weeks and our deadline is approaching rapidly in the next week or so it will be close to impossible to get good footage, perfectly edited for then.
My actors are always busy and unable to shoot leading me to completely give up on this idea. Im using my initiative to change the whole concept of the music video, even if it means its more work for me to do - at least i will have my work completed.

My idea is to stick with my original idea of using the song - Just a silhouette, this is an easier song to base to narrative to compared to the song Photo booth, which limits me to the 'photo booth' idea. Because of my actors i originally chose are unhelpful and too busy to use , i've decided to use my friend Rosie Webber, a friend who lives very close to home and who i see weekly. This will definitely be an advantage seeing as i will be able to reshoot when i need too without any problems.
My new idea is to make my whole video as a stop motion, this will enable me to use clever animations throughout. Not only this but i have used stop motion before using Rosie and i feel it was very successful.







After searching the web for further inspiration I came across this beautiful stop motion video called ‘Lost Things’ , which I feel really inspired by. The location is set in a home environment and has a dream-like element that I want to include in my music video. My idea will be subverting the typical conventions of a rock music video as I am taking a much softer approach to the ideologies behind it, making it narrative based rather than focusing on the band and the ‘sex drugs and rock n’ roll’ image most Indie bands portray.



Seeing as its snowing and probably will be here a fair few more days, leading me to decide to shoot some shot outside in the snow and make it cute and wintery, this could work well as the song has a sweet melody that would fit with the cute look i want to go for.
I also want to base some of the narrative inside Rosies house seeing as its decorated in a typical English style - fitting in with the style of the video.
My current idea is:

-Begin with Rosie walking up a snowy path (long shot)
-Comes closer and focuses on her hands putting gloves on, then panning up to her face which is really smiley and happy with her hair flowing.
-Walks round corner to house, outside meets the pet cat and kisses/plays with him.
-Camera positioned inside house and films Rosie taking off wellies outside.
-Comes in, closes door, takes gloves off and coat.
-Places coat on banister, walks upstairs.
-At top of stairs she find a old looking box in which she opens and discovers old rusty vintage style keys.
-Places key in door and slowly opens it.
-She enters room slowly and looks fascinated smiling a lot.
-High angle shot looking down on Rosie, turning round looking happy.
-Films her jumping onto huge comfy looking bed.
-Duvet covers move down using stop frame , then come back up and tuck her in bed.
-She gets cosy whilst rain


Animatic:

Even more problems!

For the past week i have had 3 days in which i have been ready and prepared to film. The only problem is, is that follow class mates have not been returning equipment, even when i have approached them and maturely asked them if i could use it on the certain days. Because of this, it has now leaded me to fall even further behind than i already was. Luckily, the school technician has informed me that she has ordered a new batch of Panasonic HP cameras, and will save one for me.
I have now organised to reshoot on Wednesday the 16TH December. Fingers crossed i won’t come across more problems!

More problems:

Two weeks have passed by and neither Cat nor Ryan have been available, ive been getting really frustrated because there is nothing else i can do until i have the footage. To make things worse, Ryan, my lead man has unfortunately been in a car crash, meaning he won’t be able to be used for another week or two. During this time i have considered using a different actor, however i realised that means redoing everything, when the stop frame footage i took is usable still, so it would make sense to wait for Ryan to recover.

First shoot:

I organised my first shoot to be done at my house on a convenient ILP day with Catherine O’Brien and Ryan Carroll. It didn’t really matter where i filed – seeing as i was shooting it against a green screen.
I set it all up in my front living room where the lighting appeared best. The shoot was really good, we encountered no problems and everything went smoothly until i uploaded the footage. When i first attempted to edit the green screen away i realised it wasn’t lighted efficiently, there where slight shadows, making me realise how sensitive the software is to pick up the certain shade of green needed for it to work. Everything i shot that day was now unable to be used, causing a lot of frustration in the fact that i came to realise how difficult i have made this project for myself. The only positive thing i can say that came from this mistake is that i know where i have gone wrong now, and will hopefully avoid the same situation on the next shoot. To try avoid the same situation i may talk to the drama teachers to use the drama studio lights, this way the lighting will wash the shadows out of the green screen rather than attempt to use lamps, which will most likely be inefficient.

animatic

Before going out and shooting the music video i need to create an animatic, which will be used as a rough template of what my final outcome will be. From this i will be able to see the pros and cons of my idea – what works, what doesn’t, and will help indicate what i can improve on.

Below is my animatic.

I have tryed to show each scene and major change within the shots, this being quite difficult seeing it will be in stop motion. I think the shot order works really well, the continuity of the piece flows well. However my drawings don’t visually put across my idea, from this ive decided to create a rough stop motion piece made out of paper to show the movement of each piece.

Finding actors

The singers of Exlovers have distinctive styles. After researching photos of them, i realised they only ever wear the same accessories – a hat and black rimmed glasses.






This makes it easy for me to dress actors up to look similar to them, as long as they have a similar shaped face and hair.
Luckily, close friends of mine are fit for the job - Ryan Carroll and Cat O’Brien.
As we all go to the same school and they both live locally it means there easily accessible, perfect for the job.