Statement of Intent

Here is my statement of Intent:

Camera Work and Mise-en-Scene

Throughout filming I tried to vary my shot types as much as possible, although watching back my footage I am aware most of my shorts are medium to long shot. All of the footage of Olivia is as such and I wish I had taken some other shots of her, closer up. My initial edit and video that I posted didn't have much variety and I wanted to change that.

So I have been editing my video again, trying to get more shot range and incorporating some shots I hadn't previously used so that the video has more variety in the shot types. Because of this the music video won't have been posted on YouTube on the date that is stated on the website. 

Most of the props used and their purposes have been spoken about in my 'Analysis of my Music Video' blog post. One thing not mentioned is the phones seen in the video - this modernises the video. This links to the target audience as the age bracket are typically heavy users of devices such as phones. This means that the audience can relate to the video and story line. 

Music Videos that Inspired me

When doing research to find videos that had a narrative and a dance aspect to it, I found that there weren't many. I did find many that had more than one narrative in it an switched between it, like I do in my music video. 

In an earlier blog post I analysed some of Taylor Swift's 'Delicate' Music video as it has a narrative and a dance component. I took inspiration from this music video as the story line of my video links to the dancing, as it does in Swift's video. However, I didn't have the same people dancing as acting in the story line component in my music video, making it differ from Swift's video.

Another video I drew inspiration from was 2002 by Anne-Marie. This music video also features a double narrative which is jumped between throughout the video. The one narrative is Anne-Marie singing in current time and the other narrative is her when she's younger and in school. This was the initial video that encouraged me to have more than one narrative/story-line to it. 

The romance and multi narrative idea was inspired by the music video for the band BigBang's song 'Don't Wanna Fall in Love'. This video features 4 different romances - one for each member - and this inspired the idea of a romance with more than one narrative. 

Final Product 2

Here is the link to my website for the second component of the coursework: 

https://benyons17.wixsite.com/ocrcoursework2019

My analysis of music video

Throughout the filming and editing process, both with Eleanor and Martyna, and with Olivia, I was always thinking of what I can do to create representations and link in inter-textual information.

1. At the start, Olivia walks into the shot, showing how the relationship is starting and still new to them.

2. The shots initially have a pink undertone, with increases saturation to increase the colours and their intensity - showing the love and passion in their relationship - in the colours - and the intensity through the increases saturation. 

3. The red blanket that Eleanor and Martyna are seen lying under in several scenes, shows their love for each other and how strong it is as the red is vivid and usually central when it features.

4. Olivia wears a red shirt throughout - again showing their love and vivid passion for each other. 

5. There are two scenes where they take pictures, one in which Martyna is taking pictures on Eleanor and one where Martyna takes a selfie with Eleanor - this shows how they are public about their relationship - that they're comfortable with others knowing they're together. 

6. The kitchen scenes, where they're dancing and singing whilst cooking and washing dishes, shows that they're comfortable around each other. Furthermore, it shows how their relationship - like any serious one - has a domestic component to it. Cooking together and washing dishes has a very domestic connotation to it. 

7. When they're seen in the park at first, it shows how they can have fun - when Eleanor is chasing Martyna - but that they can also have more serious conversations when they need to - shown when they're seated on the swings and deep in conversation. 

8. In the scenes where they're watching a film, the film I put on was Love Actually. It is such an iconic and significant love story that by showing it, it furthermore shows how their emotions for each other are strong.

9. In the scenes where they are watching a film, a picture of them together is shown with pink backing it. The picture of them together shows how long they've been together and the pink shows their love for each other.

10. The page turn video transition shows how the page turns in their relationship and they start to argue after that. They start to fall out of love and have disagreements, with Martyna drifting away from Eleanor. There is a change in emotion and mood in the music video.
11. The colour effect of the music video is changed to a  blue colour, with a decreases saturation showing how their relationship is losing passion and boldness of colour. The blue gives the music video a more depressive, melancholy feel to it. 
12. Martyna pulls away from Eleanor at the park and when they're walking together. This shows how their communication is failing as Martyna is keeping things from Eleanor. This is a common thing that causes relationships to start to deteriorate - linking to the idea that their relationship is like others - regardless of sexuality. 
13. As soon as the more argumentative scenes and depressive feel comes into the video, Olivia's dancing slows down which shows how their love is starting to slow down.
14. The argument scene shows the two views on their relationship and it's current state. Eleanor's body language shows how she is open to sorting things out. She's talking more - showing how she wants to sort it out and wants to communicate more. Whereas Martyna's body language is really closed, her arms crossed over her chest and she doesn't talk nearly as much as Eleanor does. This shows how she is closed off and doesn't want to communicate. 
15. Martyna goes through pictures of them - showing how she misses Eleanor and how she is mourning their relationship ending. The picture of Eleanor lying in bed is from the shot earlier on in the music video, showing how their relationship comes full circle from being in love and taking pictures together - to being broken up and missing each other. 
16. The final clip of Olivia is slowed down after she has looked down. This shows how their emotions slow down and how everything goes back to reality. How she is hesitantly walking away from the past, something good - being their relationship - and leaving it behind. Olivia walking our of the shot shows how the relationship is left behind and walked away from.

So, throughout I used media language to represent and reinforce ideas in the music video. 

Final Product 1

As my music video is too large for Blogger, I have uploaded it onto YouTube.

The link is: https://youtu.be/nKBawShbwco

Idea for music video

Main idea

The idea that I wanted to express in my music video is that all relationships, regardless of if they are between two females, a male and a female, two males, a male and a transgender woman - love is love and all relationships have ups and downs. I wanted this to be the message as I think that sexuality isn't something that is normalised enough within the media. 

The idea that I want to show through the music video is that the relationship that Martyna and Eleanor have, is just like others. At first they`re in love and enjoy each other`s company, and as the video goes on, they fall out of love being pushed apart until the one leaves. I wanted to have a feel good video, with a component of 'pulling on the heart strings' to make the audience realise the reality of their relationship. 

Editing the Dance Clips

The dance clips were more difficult than the clips of Eleanor and Martyna to edit as I had to sync the time to the singing in the song as the dancer dancing along to the music. I did this by watching the videos I'd recorded and selecting the times that I wanted to use of each clip. Then I edited each clip into groups or individually - depending on how many clips I was taking from each video.

Once the videos had been edited down into the clips I wanted, I went back and identified where they are from in the song and wrote down these times onto a sheet of paper. 

I then created a timeline and identified where I had footage from in the song and if I had any clashes, which I did. I went through and chose which clip I wanted to use for the clashes - often resulting in me having to watch the clips numerous times and deciding which one represented the messaged I wanted to portray to the audience. 

When I'd chosen the clips, I then opened the editing that I'd done of Eleanor and Martyna's clips and put them in their time slots - making sure it flowed well and adding effects and transitions. 

Filming the footage

Acting with Eleanor and Martyna

I filmed with Eleanor and Martyna on a day in the October half term. We managed to film all the footage in one day. We used my house and the park close by as the two main locations. I had planned to film in town as well but it ended up being very difficult to find the time to film on two days so I was only able to film in two of the locations. 

The filming went smoothly, Eleanor and Martyna were very willing to help and were comfortable in front of the camera. I was happy with the footage that I got and then spent the next month or so editing and sorting it out. 

Dancing with Olivia

I had planned to film with Olivia with a projector - projecting the footage that I'd gotten of Eleanor and Martyna over her as she danced. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get hold of one in time and just had to film with Olivia as normal. 

The filming with Olivia went well, although I was hoping for a completely white location but was unable to find one - so I used my school's sports hall, which was where I took the concept pictures with Olivia. 

I filmed Olivia dancing to the whole song twice through so that I had excess footage in case I needed it. I also filmed shorter clips where I'd ask her to emphasise an emotion just for a certain part of the song.