Our initial storyboard helped us to gain a rough idea of how our film was going to transpire, not all the shots have been planned out yet but we have a beginning, middle and end. Most films have equilibrium at the beginning, where everything is going fine and the characters are established, our film shows the girl leading a normal, happy life, albeit alone.
Then there is disequilibrium in the middle, this is when something affects the protagonist and/or the audience in a bad way, in this case the main character is kidnapped, the stereotype is adhered to up to this point. Finally there is new equilibrium, where, in most films, everything is back to normal. Our film ends differently, the final shot is of the serial kidnapper cutting up images of another girl. This shows that the cycle goes on, that someone else is about to get kidnapped and that there is no way out.
In this mood board is an assortment of images I feel our short film can relate to. All of the images convey a feeling of fear, entrapment and loneliness. The genre of our short film is a psychological thriller, this means our audience will hopefully feel fear but not from intimidation, but from their deepest fears, which could play on their minds and cause them to feel true fear.
In our mood board I have included 2 particular images which may seem out of place, but when you consider our main character is a young girl who looks normal on the outside, but behind closed doors has hidden problems, the images do indeed relate to our production. I am reffering to the image of a young woman walking her dog and the image of a pot of pills spilling over.
The mood board also contains two images of our main protagonists influences. The Joker, from the Batman movies, is one of our character influences because of his mental instability yet his ability to predict, plan, assess and act like a highly intelligent person. Our other influence is an image of a hooded man, this I feel gives our character a stronger sense of danger since you don't know who or what you are dealing with.
For my A2 Advanced Media Production I, as me, have decided on focusing on a mature audience. I expect both men and women, between the ages of 18 and beyond, to be most interested in my production. My production will contain kidnapping, scenes of a violent nature and a strong emphasis on the thriller genre; therefore I find it most suiting to target those who will both understand and therefore find the events in my production most frightening. Those who are aged 16+ have more knowledge with the way the world works and what goes on, they know the world is not as wonderful as it seems when you are younger. This, I feel, gives my audience a strong sense of vulnerability, and will make the events of my production seem all the more real and frightening.
According to the BBFC official ratings chart our production falls into the category of a rated 15 production. I feel this in turn further enforces our choice to target the ages of 16 and above, the BBFC rating of 18+ can only be issued to productions which contain graphical images of violence or scenes of a particularly sexual nature.
Target Audience pt. 2 - Where our film would be shown.
When deciding on who our film would target, we also have to consider how we will reach this audience and where it could be possible. For us the answer came clearly, the 8th London Short Film Festival would be perfect for our needs. The 8th London Short Film Festival will take place from the 7th to the 16th of January 2011, and with over 200 short films, the festival is a wonderful event where upcoming film makers can show their work. For ten days the films will be shown in Shortwave Cinema in London, one of our capitals most presigious cinemas.
The 2010 statistics for the London Short Film Festival were as follows:
2010 Facts & Figures
• Over 6000 tickets sold • 42 events across 10 days and 10 venues • 75% of events sold to capacity • 8 major media partners and 16 creative programme partners • Over 200 films screened (Statistics as seen on http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/about-the-festival/)
As you can see, it is very obvious the London Short Film Festival has a large number of films shown, and also a large number of viewers, many would be film enthusiasts between the age of 18 - 26 which is our target audience, making this festival the perfect place for our film to be shown.
Bouquet of barbed wire is TV Drama series featured on itv; it’s the second re-make of Andrea Newman’s original book. The series focuses on a father and daughter’s relationship and the struggles which come with the marriage of his only daughter. The husband of Prue (the daughter) is followed as being an aggressive creep to the audience.
The show has the theme of an upper class family, who at the start appear to be happy, however as the story processes we see the family falling to pieces. We liked the idea of taking an upper class happy family and turning there worlds upside down with one traumatic event. We believe this will leave a more memorable stamp on our short film. However as our story has developed we have changed our family to one female who’s home alone. We’ve shot the girl living in a big house and used the connotations that come with the upper class, such as an Aston martin car etc. We show the girl walking her dog and looking generally a normal happy young girl. We first stir up the notion that there are some complications when the audience see her taking some tablets. This is then clear when we see our antagonist switching the tablets. In Bouquet of barbed wire the husband tries to control Pure, not through drugs but emotionally, although we have no evidence of emotional taunting in our film we do have the notion of our kidnapper controlling our protagonist with drugs. The idea of being out of control is a very scary thought for most.
This short film, directed by Chris Nolan, has a controlling idea of a never ending cycle, the man in the claustrophobic room appears to be trying to catch a bug. The title sequence shows the name of the film with the two o’s shown as eyes shifting from side to side to create a spooky effect. This instantly portrays the genre of the film to the viewer. The opening images show an obviously deranged looking man holding a shoe, most of the shots are close ups to emphasise the idea of an enclosed setting. The soundtrack is also very eerie, this matches the genre of the film and draws the viewer in as it creates tension. A continuity shot of him diving across the room and hitting the shoe against the floor lead the viewer to believe he is trying to catch a bug or insect that is in this room. He continues to chase this thing around the room, a close up of a clock builds up even more tension as to what he is trying to catch. The phone rings and he takes it off the hook and slams it down emphatically, the person can be heard on the phone so he throws it into a bowl of water, his movements are very primitive, animalistic and violent. The thing he is trying to catch is shown moving around underneath a rather large cloth, showing that it is quite large. As the man lifts the cloth away a small version of himself can be seen. When he finally catches the smaller version of himself the viewer can see that he is also holding a shoe and hits something with it. He then repeats the action himself by hitting the thing with a shoe. Special effects allow the little man to be created, and for the even bigger man who continues the idea of a never ending cycle by squashing the main protagonist. The closing credits show that few people were involved in the film and the same font is used for the title sequence and ending credits.
Doll house is a short film directed and written by Pete Middleton that i discovered on YouTube. It is a Thriller/Horror hybrid that lasts 2 minutes 35 seconds.
Dolls house has a very interesting, smart uses of mise en scene throughout, as it is all filmed in black and white, giving it an eerie, spooky mood from the start. The dark colours like black and grey are often related to horror and crime, giving this the perfect tone from the beginning. Middleton has also used the non-diegetic soundtrack of a thunderstorm to add to the darkness of the film. Throughout the film Middleton uses the sound of the thunder to shock people (make people jump) the way a musical sting would usually be demonstrated in a feature length film. The credits appear in a typewriter font that adds a sharp edginess to the opening backing up the atmosphere the colours and sounds are creating. The second shot is of the little girls black bed in a big empty white room, showing us, the audience that she is secluded and alone. People do not expect a little girl’s room to be open and empty; therefore Middleton has instantly told the audience that this girl is the victim of the story. This is followed by a close up of the girl lying in bed looking at something off screen. This makes the audience curious for just a split second as to what she could be looking at. Middleton then allows us, the audience to see what she is looking at by placing the camera behind the object which in this case is a doll. On the right hand of the screen is the back of the doll whilst in the left hand we can see the little girl sitting up staring at this doll. The iconography of a doll is smart as it is a stereotype of fears for many people and using stereotypes is a typical convention of a short film that is often successful. The camera then cuts between front view of the doll in the side of the screen to the back view of the doll and the little girl, this is repeated several times and builds up tension with the audience. The next couple of shots are of the little girl staring at the doll, there’s a straight on mid shot of her sitting up followed by a side profile shot before then jumping to a close up of the doll which is now slowly moving its head, this is a good technique of subtlety as the audience isn’t sure if the doll actually moved or not. This follows the conventions of keeping the audience engaged and thinking. Throughout there are also flashes of lighting which he has smartly placed on the dolls face illuminating it. The girl then hides under her covers and the camera focuses on her for a while. A close up of the doll shows that its stopped swaying and the non-diegetic soundtrack of the doll stops. The audience know in the back of their minds that the doll is going to of moved when the girl comes out but they still stay watching in fear. A musical sting is then used briefly on a quick glimpse of the empty chair where the doll was sitting, this makes the audience jump. Middleton quickly moves over the chair before returning to the girl’s eyes where we see her staring in fear at the empty chair. There is then a mid shot of the girl looking under both sides of her bed, the young girls performance throughout is one of complete stillness, she doesn’t change her facial expression from this straight almost hazed look and she doesn’t make a sound, this brings a strangeness to the film and creeps people out. As she looks under the bed the camera follows the girls search to show the audience that the bed is clear, this keeps the audience guessing. Finally the camera returns to the centre of the bed as the girl sits up, as she does this the camera zooms in whilst a musical sting is played followed by the diegetic sound of the girls scream. This is a very predictable ending but also an effective ending as it does everything that is expected of a Thriller/Horror short film. It intrigues, it makes the audience think and it shocks.
About a girl is directed by Brian Percival in 2001, it was very successful winning a BAFTA and 4 other nominations.
Straight away from the opening credits it suggests to us that the story is about a teenage girl due to the font used to open the film as the texting suggests her age. It then cuts to a girl singing Britney Spears’s Stronger by herself in a field, the lyrics in this song could represent how she is feeling. Here in the field she can be her self, we can tell this because she puts effort into the dance and song. Singing is her dream.
The next shot is of her sitting outside the pub were her Dad takes her to get a Coke a crisps, the camera zooms out to show her isolation. This also shows how interested her Dad is as he has most likely left her outside the pub whilst he is enjoying his after match Beer. The bench that she is sitting on is concrete, old, messy. This is similar to the surroundings. She is in a concrete jungle full of housing estates, factories and a canal. Typically working class.
There is then cutting between her walking along the canal and her with her friends on the bus. She is describing them entering a competition and making there own group. On the Bus the are practising again to a Britney Spears song, notice that this is the only time in the short film that we see her without the white coat on. Whilst they are sitting on the bus there young age is also represented here with a stereotype as they are sitting at the back of the bus where the ‘cool’ kids sit.
Carrying on her monologue down the canal she continues to talk down her mum saying she doesn’t do enough and spends all her money on ‘ciggies’. Although here again we cut to her mum trying to win on a scratch card which clearly shows that she wants a better life for them. The girl is talking about her dream, to live in a top end flat in London when she is famous, were she will be eating in top end restraunts drinking her Bacardi breezers and coke.
The canal in the next shot is full of rubbish, filled with old chairs and peoples waste. The background also shows how old neglected the area is with abandoned building. The long shot of the girl at the end of the canal shows her sitting there by herself with the white plastic bag she is carrying. The white used could portray innocence. It makes her stand out from the rundown surroundings.
We then hear the story about her neighbours dog, who was drowned in the canal. It then switches to a high angle shot of it. This infers that the canal is something dangerous. That it has power, water can also be used to suggest danger as nature is unpredictable and fierce. The girl then chucks the white bag that she had been carrying into the canal and walks away, she addresses that she has become well good at hiding things recently.
The director then uses a low angle shot as a baby drifts out of the bag down into the depths of the canal. We then see her walking away singing to herself totally unphased by what she has done. To her all that mattered was the dream of becoming a pop star.
We can now argue that instead of the white meaning innocence, it could have meant psycho which is another connotation of the colour white. Throughout the film the controlling ideas’ have been the canal and the girl. The film relied on monologue, and used foreshadowing. The dark miserable weather is normally something depressing, it has a psychological effect on the audience.
Straight away I have noticed that the top two films have not been English, this supports my research into Institutional Analysis's that Northern European countries have a much larger success rate in the Short film Industry. This list is also helpful as we can view these short films and analyse them, this will give us an idea to how they were so successful and what we should do to improve our short film and make it to the best of our ability.
Rear window is a 1954 Psychological Thriller. It has one numerous awards and one of the most well known today, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
The story revolves around a wheelchair bound photographer who spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced that one of them has committed a murder. After story boarding and initiating some ideas we found that Rear window was a key influence in the thinking behind our end idea. We needed a disequilibrium, Rear window was a huge influence. Wendall the photographer becomes convinced his neighbour has committed a murder, this is the basis of the story line.
As a group we like the idea that the character has certain disabilities that made him venerable and not your typical hero, he had limitations. This influenced how we built our characters. We decided that our main antagonist should have something that holds her back. A limitation was that we couldn’t make it anything to drastic, for example have her in a wheelchair as we didn’t have access to a wheelchair and it would also be impractical to film with. Instead we decided to go for something more subtle and practical that is an important part of the film and part of the iconography. We have created her to be on some type of films, although in the short the audience is not to find out what she takes her pills for but a shot shows her briskly turn around after seeing a man in the mirror, we want the audience to question if someone is really there or is it something psychological in her head?
Secondly another main influence was the use of the camera as part of the iconography (props). Were in ‘Rear Window’ the antagonist uses the camera to spy on the protagonist we decided to switch the role of the camera, as being the tool in the spying of the antagonist by the protagonist. In our short however we have decided not to shoot the villain taking the shots as we don’t have enough time as we are limited to 5 mins, instead we have incorporated the images that he has captured on his camera into the opening credits and the ending of the film.
Disturbia is a 2007 Drama/Thriller directed by D.J. Caruso starring Shia LaBeouf, David Morse and Carrie-Anne Moss. Its story is centred around a boy under house arrest who become convinced that his neighbour is a serial killer.
When we were mind mapping ideas as to a dis-equilibrium Disturbia was a main influence and has influenced our choice of plot. In Disturbia LaBeouf becomes convinced that his neighbour is a serial killer, he then spends his time spying and trying to get access into his neighbours house. His initial feelings that he has turn out to be correct when his mum gets abducted by the Killer to his house. He must then try to save her from a man whom of which had earlier hurt his friend and had whiteness him hurt women through the window.
Our initial idea was to try and replicate in our own individual way the idea of a character becoming convinced that his/her neighbour is a serial killer. However we found many problems arose when planning this. For example we were unable to find a location that enabled us to have access to two houses where both are in view of the other. This was a major flaw that could not be avoided. However some main ideas have still influenced our short film. Like in Disturbia we have the innocent victim (Francesca) who is kidnapped by the serial killer from the comfort of her own house. We had to change this idea to make it our own. In Disturbia there is a struggle when the mother is taken, and we no that the film will end by LaBeouf being able to kill the serial killer and save his mum in time, which is thus predictable. With the capturing of Francesca we wanted our serial killer to be more organised, hence he knew she takes pills and her daily routine. That gave him access to her house and gave him a convenient way to change her pills over. There is no struggle as the pills render her unconscious and unable to fight back. Secondly, we thought that giving a Francesca a relationship with another character would just give an obvious ending where she is rescued by that of a boyfriends for example. The way we have intended to end the film leaves the audience wondering what is going to happen and how she will escape, or not.
As our group sat down and started to discuss ideas for our short film we struggled to decide on a specific genre. We first narrowed it down to doing a drama, horror, thriller or psychological film, we then thought of an idea where a man stands on the edge of a cliff looking over, the audience would see the surroundings from his point of view and would be left wondering why he was there. We were then going to have him commit suicide, and show the lead up as to why. However with much discussion we decided that not only was this a highly predictable concept that’s been done many times before, but we knew we could improve the idea. The second idea was that rather than a man, we would use a child, who would fall from the cliff when chasing after her dog that had got away. As this happens the screen would cut to black and we would just hear the diegetic sound of the dog barking and the mum, who was on the beach, screaming. This idea would have started with a close up of the little girl’s hand laying on the rocks with the sea crashing against her, the thoughts behind this idea, came from the notion that a small girl falling to her death was a shocking concept for the audience and would leave them “horrified”. However, realistically this idea was near impossible to achieve and was a random scene with no real plotline.
This is when we came up with our current idea, which falls into the hybrid genre of a psychological horror; we will shadow the life of a girl between the ages of 15 and 18. Our first scene will be of a man cutting up pictures of a young girl. We will then see her taking some tablets this immediately hints to the audience that she has some kind problem/illness. Next the young girl will be looking in her bathroom mirror and will see a man standing behind her but when she turns around there’s no one there, the audience won’t know if there really was a man there or if she’s going mad. Just before this scene we will see the psycho man’s hands removing her tablets and replacing them with his. The girl then takes the tablets and becomes dizzy and faints, we will have a point of view shot from the girl on the floor, looking at the man’s feet walking towards her. Throughout the film the audience will not see the man’s face. In the next scene the girl will wake up in a dark room where there will be another girl, to show that this is not the first time he has kidnapped someone. The film will end with a repeat of the first scene, the man cutting up pictures of another girl, giving the impression that it’s a cycle that will keep going round.
‘Psychological Thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.’ (Wikipedia)
Conventions of a Psychological Thriller
Low level lighting, shadows, rapid editing, sudden changes in camera angle, high tension music, flashbacks, use of photographs/images/articles and black and white colouring. Shadows are closely related with low level lighting and are used as a convention of a thriller film; they are used to represent the fear and horror within beings, and can also add to the tension that is created. Rapid editing is used frequently in thriller films to increase the feeling of fear and shock; it is often used during important or particularly ‘thrilling’ scenes. Flashbacks contribute to a sense of time disorientation in a thriller and this confuses the audience; it is also a convention of a thriller film because it can display what has happened in the past to give the audience an insight into why the characters are the way they are. It could also display the sense of the character being confused and psychologically unstable. Black and white colouring is another convention of a thriller, because it increases the effectiveness of shadows, and can often appear quite scary because you can’t see what’s hiding in the shadows. The main aspect which changes the genre from a Thriller to a Psychological Thriller is the lack of brute force and the particular emphisis on phobias or something most people fear even though it may not be particularly harmful. (EG: Tight spaces + Darkness = Clostrophobia) In thrillers, the credits are often specially designed for the genre. The text will normally have an effect which heightens fear and makes the viewer’s feel like something bad is imminent.
Before shooting and planning our short film, we have to establish the different codes and conventions. Short films must contain a narrative of some sort and contain a constructive format which the story must be explained. Most short films usually trail one character throughout; however there are typically other external characters helping to precede the storyline and helping to create different meanings to the audience. External characters can have a negative effect on the plotline and end up being damaging towards the initial meaning. These characters are usually connected to the main protagonist in a low level way, however can end up having a positive effect on them. Short films must contain some kind of plot, the audience needs something to follow and keep them interested, because of this, the majority of short films do not contain any sub-plots as this would distract the audience from the main focus, fore the time is limited and brief. The short time span not only limits any kind of sub-plot, but means the main plot needs to have a “shocker factor”, the climax needs to be something un-expected and un-predictable that will leave the audience thinking. A vast majority of Directors choose to use the message in a disturbing manner that will stick with the viewer. An example of this is the short film “About a Girl”, About a Girl is about a twelve year old girl who talks about her family life. The majority of the film is all focused on her and doesn’t really have much significance to it, however in the last 30 seconds of the film we see the young girl throw a plastic bag into the canal, the bag contains a dead baby representing that the girl, or her mum (We never find out who) can’t look after this baby. I think this is a very shocking and disturbing concept which leaves the audience unnerved. Another convention of a short film is flashbacks; flashbacks don’t have to be used and do not appear often, however when used they are extremely affective. Flashbacks are a positive way to explain the plot in a short amount of time, they can bring external characters to support the focus character and they give the audience some background information quickly. However flashbacks only appear occasionally because they can also wander off from the main plot and cause confusion and uncertainty. The main convention of a short film is to keep the plot simple; the short time span limits the plot and should therefore be kept simple. The only complexity about the plot should be the climax, the shocker, although even then the notion must not be too confusing as the audience have got to understand what is happening. Nearly all feature length films contain Equilibrium (The start of a film where everything is normal) Disequilibrium (The middle of a film where something goes wrong e.g. someone dies etc.) and the new equilibrium (The end of a film where everything is back to normal but there’s something different). Some short films do also contain this structure by “Todorov” however most do not. A lot of short films often start with the disequilibrium or follow a different theory altogether, either way it is clear that short films do not have to follow the typical beginning, middle and end that most feature length films have to abide by. Locations in a short film are incredible important as they help deliver understanding to the audience and the character in the film. The location is often a well recognised place that people can relate to; this is because settings and locations are all a part of the mise en scene of the film and can influence the audience’s views. This leads on to stereotypes within short films, using stereotypes is a quick way to develop a certain view for something. Everyone views films differently so if the Director wants to send out a specific view the easiest way is to stereotype. The director can stereotype through their selection of mise en scene, for example if the film was set in Essex the audience would automatically assume that everyone in the short film fell under the “stereotype” of Essex etc. As well as this the director chooses what iconography will be present in the shots which all contribute to people’s views on the characters. Overall a short film must contain a simple plot with a shock factor, one main focus character, possible other sub characters, good locations that can influence the plot line and the characters and carefully planned mise en scene that boosts the audiences understanding of the storyline.
The storyboard for the opening of our film shows an obviously psychopathic man cutting up images of a girl, the film ‘Seven’, directed by David Fincher, begins with various shots of doing various strange and creepy things, such as cutting up paper. Most of the shots are close ups and the characters hands are filthy, the lighting is very low key.
This creates a creepy effect and makes the viewer wonder why he is doing this and why he has ended up in that state. This same effect is going to be created by showing a montage of one of the main characters in a small dark room, to create low key lighting the windows will be covered with newspapers. He will be wearing black gloves, to match his all black outfit which maintains anonymity. All this put together will establish that there is something wrong with him and that he is going to have an influence on other characters and the viewer. The credits in ‘Seven’ are very effective by showing a mixture of eerie images, then credits which shake and move about the screen. This creates a sense of fear for the viewer which we intend to do in our film by using a font and soundtrack to match the genre of the film.
Another influence for the idea of our film was ‘The Human Centipede’ where characters are drugged by the main antagonist, he does this by putting tablets in their water, then takes them away. Our film is similar because the man shown at the beginning switches the main protagonists’ pills, which force her to pass out, she is then kidnapped by the psychopath and taken back to small dark room that was seen in the opening shots.
The film ‘Disturbia’ involves a teenager under house arrest who is convinced his neighbour is a serial killer, our film can relate to this because one of the characters is a teenage girl who is taken by a by a crazed man, who, later on in the film, is discovered to be a serial kidnapper.
A short film is a piece of visual images that last up to 59 minutes, however most short films fall between the duration of 20 to 40 minutes. Trailers for feature length films are often mistaken for being short films in spite of this they are not; fore trailers are just various clips from a feature length film thrown together. Short films must contain an Equilibrium (beginning), dis-equilibrium (middle) and new-equilibrium (end). This is similar to a feature length film as it must contain some basis of a plot/storyline. However the plot within short films doesn’t have to make complete sense and can leave the audience guessing. Although short films need to have a structure to them, they do not necessarily have to have a defiant ending. Short films can be of any genre and are often viewed as a genre in themselves, the advantage of this means that there are no limitations with what you can do. As long as they have some kind of message or something intriguing to the audience they will succeed, this is because the Director only has a short amount of time to portray their view and has to make a lasting impression. A good example of a short film that successfully leaves a lasting impression, is “about a girl” Dir. Brian Percival, The story is a simple “in the life of” with no real drama, until the ending where the young girl throws a plastic bag in the canal which contains a dead baby. The effect of this is huge as it is completely un-expected and is a horrifying concept for people to grasp, it goes against our human nature, causing us to stop and think about what the short films trying to portray. Justine has done a textual analysis on “About a girl” below where, she has analysed what Percival is trying to portray to the audience.
The brief for our task is to produce a short film, which can be up to 5 minutes long. Along with the film we have to make a promotional poster, a magazine review and do several ancillary tasks. We also have to create a blog to accompany the short film, the blog has to show everything that we did to contribute to the planning and making of the film.
We have chosen the psychological/thriller genre, the film begins with the drugging and kidnapping of one of the main protagonists and the never ending cycle idea comes into play when the girl who is taken doesn’t escape and the kidnapper leaves to chase his next victim.
Different shots and cinematography is used to show that the protagonist is under the influence of drugs, a handheld camera shows this, and editing makes it seem realistic. Low key lighting will also support the idea. The main protagonists’ stability comes into question when she is seen taking pills, this question is left unanswered and creates an enigma for the viewer, and the fact that her drugs are interchanged shows this.
Dialogue has not been included in our film because we feel the actors would not be able to create a good enough effect and it could make the film look amateur. Our film is set in 3 different locations, the first one is a small dark room, in which the antagonist keeps his victims and chooses his next ones. The second is the main protagonists’ home, from where she is kidnapped, and the third is the woods where the girl takes her dog for a walk, meanwhile the psychopathic man is in her house changing her pills.
Our A2 course consists of either filming a short film or a music video. As part of the research into the decision whether to make a short film or music video we felt that is would be helpful in actually analysing each and deciding on which we feel we will best be able to film, and achieve the best possible grade.
The music video I have decided to look at is the Eminem ft. Rihanna-Love the way you lie. I decided to analyse this video as the genre of music is that which will all enjoy and are more likely to create a video to. The song was released August 17th 2010 and reached number 1, directed by Joseph Kahn.
The music video starts with a close up of Rihanna then cuts away to a long shot of a couple lying on the bed. It then continually switches to the close up Rihanna standing in front of a house on fire and then to the long of shot of the couple on the bed, and the girl holding a ball of fire. We are then introduced to Eminem, the mise en scene changes dramatically as they have used him standing in a field as the location. They have used this to contrast with that of the house of fire, which shows danger, anger, fierceness and violence, to that of field which interprets calmness, innocence, and being free. The serenity of it all. They use a mixture of camera movements including quick pans and dolly’s, the camera movements and shots increase with speed as the song gets more into it, this keeps the viewer from getting bored as the video gets more visually stimulating.
They use a mix of hand held cameras alongside steady cams. The camera used has an effect on how the audience are going to feel. For example when the couple start fighting, when it cuts back to Eminem they use a hand held to show his emotion, that things are ‘rough’. They use the hand held cam here instead of with the couple as the audience have to see what is going on and understand the message.
During the music film it has included a vast amount of different camera angles, shots, distances and movements. This includes; close ups which show emotion of characters: mid-shots: long shots which show the location and isolation: high and low angle which show power in the relationship. All of which match the tone of the song and what the viewer is watching on the screen. The speed of cuts also matches the pain, distress and vulnerability of the protagonists.
Over all they have been extremely successful in using every shot to tell a story, and have kept the audience entertained throughout, they are less likely to change channel.
Although as a group we like the idea of making a music video we feel that there is more that can go wrong due to access to equipment. Firstly, we don’t have high tech enough equipment to be able to dub in the voices properly without making it look like a 6th form video. Secondly, music videos require a lot of camera movement and frankly we do not have the equipment to make quick pans which are smooth and the ability to use a Dolly track. Furthermore, we have looked at a range of music videos from previous years and found that many of them look cheesy and too much like a 6th form video. I t has also occurred to us that the locations used in music videos are extremely professional, they have the ability to travel long distances and the funds to do so, we however do not and therefore are limited to what we have around us. As the location is a vital factor in a music video we would be unsuccessful in making one.
Unfortunately the negatives of choosing a music video over a short film outweigh the benefits, we have therefore decided that it is best we film a short film as it is more practical and there isn’t as much restriction on access.
