Recreating Bittersweet Symphony: Result & Analysis

Here is our final recreation of Bittersweet Symphony:

 

Overall, I think we definitely grasped the whole concept of a continuous shot which follows the actions of one character. Due to a limited amount of time to film, we could not get the representation of the main character spot on, mainly through costuming, so this is one thing we would improve if we were to re-shoot. Another thing we could improve would probably be the location choice, but we were again limited by time and by budget, so could not shoot on a bustling high street as the original version does. Despite these, I think we carried out the task accurately, and it was well co-ordinated and framed.

Recreating Bittersweet Symphony: Planning & Preparation

Here is the music video for Bittersweet Symphony, we will be recreating the first 32 seconds.

LOCATION:
In the music video, the setting is a busy highstreet pavement with market stalls and shops on the character's right, and a busy road to the left. We have found a row of shops which are very similar to those used in the video, so will be aiming to make the recreation as accurate as possible.

CAMERA ANGLES:
The shot used is a continuous tracking shot, so in order to recreate this we need to ensure it is kept as smooth as possible. It starts off as a close up of his head/shoulders, and zooms out to a long shot of his whole body as he starts walking. It also pans up his whole body from his feet at the beginning. To achieve this smoothness, we will use a steady cam which will make the shot less shaky and thus gives it a more proffesional feel.

LIGHTING:
In the music video, the light is rather dark and damp, as the streets are quite run down so there is quite a dreary feel to the scene. We will probably have to colour grade during editing in order to recreate this effectively as we are just using the natural light.

SOUND:
We will have to mouth the words whilst we play the track in the background, so that the timing is right, then we can overlay a clearer HQ track during editing so as to avoid any background noise (e.g cars, talking, bikes etc) which would make our shot look less proffesional. We also need to sync the steps to the music too, again improving the accuracy.

PROPS/COSTUMING:
We will need to costume similarly to the main character, who is wearing all black clothes, and a leather jacket.

Recreating the Adele Close-up: Result & Analysis

Here is the close up we recreated:

 

 

I think we successfully recreated the concept of a close-up panning shot of Adele. Due to a lack of internet, we could not play the song in the background, and consequently made the decision not to sync the lyrics on this occasion. To improve it further, we'd adjust the lighting and sound, as well as making our character a more accurate representation of Adele (e.g. make up, costuming, hair etc) but overall I think our experiment worked well.

Recreating the Adele Close-up: Planning & Preparation

We have decided to recreate the Adele, 'Chasing Pavements' shot in order to gain further experience in terms of conventions of music videos. 

We have had to consider aspects such as location, camera angles, lighting, sound and props/costuming.

LOCATION:
We have found a suitable tree within our school grounds which is very similar to the tree in the music video. It went through vigourous testing processes but passed with flying colours; we are very happy with our choice.

CAMERA ANGLES:
Although the shot is primarily a close-up, there is also a slight high angle point of view, which causes Adele to look up into the camera lens. In order to achieve this, Georgia will be playing Adele, who is quite short whilst I film as I am quite a bit taller than her! We will do a test shot in order to establish the correct angle too.

LIGHTING:
In the music video, the light is very much on Adele who is in the foreground, with it being much darker in the backgrounnd to create a clearer contrast. To achieve this ourselves, we will use the LED light on Georgia's face and darken the background mostly in editing.

SOUND:
Georgia will have to mouth the words whilst we play the track in the background, then we can overlay a clearer HQ track during editing so as to avoid any background noise (e.g wind) which would make our shot look less proffesional

PROPS/COSTUMING:
We don't really need to aquire any props apart from an outdoors jacket, which is the only part of her costume we can see. Alongside this, we want to recreate the make up Adele wears during the video, which is mostly natural with some heavier eye make-up.

Sound within Music Videos

Today we were discussing the importance the actual sound plays within music videos. By sound I mean the actual song/backing track which accompanies the visual.

The sound plays a huge role within music videos, mainly due to the fact that often the chosen visuals are selected because they are relevant to the song. Other aspects that have to be considered when selecting visuals, which include tempo, rhythm, tone, mood, emotion, colour and lyrics, all of which develop connotations and a meaning for the song.

We decided to focus on the song "Life is a Gun" by Jay Malinowski in order to establish how important the lyrics of a song are when deciding upon narrative and creating the visuals to accompany the song.

We heavily analysed the lyrics and what certain lines could connote:

• There is a lexical field of guns/war, which could link to the battles the two characters are having within their relationship
• "Crash into you" is sung at the same time the girl knocks over the milk. This reminded me of the phrase, "There's no point crying over spilt milk" which also links to the lyrics, "What's done is done" - they can't change it so they should move on and sort it out rather than worrying about what has happened in the past.
• Following on from this, there is a real sense of history betweeen the two characters which is perhaps affecting their current situation. This made me think whether the gun is being used as a metaphor for the problems/issues they have faced within their relationship, as at one point he has the gun in his back pocket, so he puts their problems behind them, but then when he turns around, she pulls it out again and points it at him, so perhaps she brings up past problems. In the end their previously unsolved issues are what ends them. The lyric, "On the road we became old" further supports this idea that they are running out of steam/their relationship is coing to an end.
• The gun could also represent teh power within tehir relationship, which heavily links to the lyric, "The well won path". This holds connotations to victory - and again war/battles. The power is constantly being fought for and it eventually causes them to end it.
• Another interesting connotation is seen when he places the gun down next to the Oscar Wilde book. He is wearing a trench coat, similar to that of Dorean Grey - who is on the front cover of the book, so shows he perhaps holds similarities to the fictional character. This idea is strengthened when in the next shot he is shown looking into the mirror (through a POV shot from the view of the mirror) and he is shown spending quite a lot of time looking at his reflection whilst washing. This links to the character trait of Dorean Grey who is extremely vain and self-obsessed, which eventually causes him to lose his mind.
• There are some very subtle references made to their relationship status too, for example, there is a shot of a kettle boiling at it's max, which could connote to their relationship having reached it's boiling point so to speak (pardon the pun). Another prop/costuming aspect which contributes to the meaning of the song is the fact they are both waering black/dark clothing, which represent death and negativity. This again links to the lingo of guns/triggers etc used as they too are very negative aspects, "Life is a gun"
• The lines, "A story shotgun that came undone" and "Lay these guns in the ground" represent something coming to an end, which again is linked to the fact their relationship is over, and the last battle for power is taking place.

So overall, sound within music video plays a huge role in representing meaning within the song and thus has a huge influence on how the accompanying visuals will look.

Investigating the use of Close-ups within Music Videos

Today we looked at the types of shots used in music videos, and began by listing all of the shots we could think of:

• Close up
• Extreme close up
• Point of View (POV)
• High angle
• Low angle
• Long shot
• Mid shot
• Over the shoulder
• Crane/Bird's eye
• Tracking
• Panning
• Shot - Reverse - shot
• Establishing shot
  

We then watched 4 different music videos including:
~ Adele, 'Chasing Pavements' (Pop/Ballad)
~ McFly, 'Five Colours in her Hair' (Pop)
~ White Stripes, 'Seven Nation Army' (Rock)
~ Goyte, 'Somebody I Used to Know' (Pop/Indie)

 

 For all of these music videos, we observerd what types of shots were used. We found a common shot that was used amongst all content was the close-up; every video used it at least once.

Wikipedia definition: a close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium is a type of shot, which tightly frames a person or an object.

 

It is commonly employed to give a stronger connection between the audience and the artist, adding to the non-physical relationship they have with one another. They are usually of the artists face, but can also focus on certain body parts too, such as eyes, lips, hands etc to make the audience feel intimate with their idol.

 

 

This in turn will encourage more people to watch the music video, as there is a kind of curiosity as to what people actually look like, and by studying certain features, fans can start to build up an image in their head of what their looks like to them - developing their own interpretations.

It also holds connotations to focusing on the smaller details rather than the broader image, which is often very important in life as it is the small things which make a difference, however this will be interpreted differently by everyone. Overall it is an extremely important shot to include in a music video, and certainly one we will be employing within ours.

Reflections

Today we discussed the nature of the A2 course and discovered it was very evaluative and will require us to reflect upon our previous AS work. using the following question prompts in our groups, we began to deconstruct our AS work:

1) How have digital technologies impacted your production work?

• Improved the quality of our work drastically
• Made our use of time more efficient

2) To what extent did knowledge of media products influence your media product?

• The conventions of genres we investigated helped us to develop our film
• Convergence: for example, using the iPhone to create content

3) What skills have you developed from the beginning of the course to the present day?

• Setting up a shot
• How to use a DSLR camera
• Storyboarding
• Shotlisting
• Screenplaying
• Further development of Final Cut skills, including colour grading
• Analysing moving image/recognising rerensentation

4) What new terms or concepts have you learnt this year? 

As well as many more, but these were the ones I could think of on the spot!