Evaluation Question 1

We knew we wanted to open with a graveyard scene as the video is mainly set in an around the graveyard. To create the effect of an actual graveyard scene, we kept everything very simple and everything slow, this was all planned before the filming of the graveyard, we knew we wanted it at the start to really set the scene of our video. During the editing process we desaturated the clip to really give it the black and white typical funeral feel, and also increased the brightness levels in the clip, the cloud’s almost chasing the sun looked fairly dark but after increasing the brightness levels the natural light really shone through. The graveyard's layout is very wide, so when we set up to film, straight away the whole group knew a slow pan across the graveyard would work well.

Lighting was a tricky issue for when we filmed the graveyard scene, being outside there wasn't really anything we could do to manipulate the lighting to how we wanted it to look. However the way we caught the light on the day was surprisingly very good, the strong natural sun light moves across the whole sky and the clouds follow it, almost like it’s chasing it.

Before setting off to film we knew wanted a very slow shot and then eventually the pan, we knew the position of where this shot was to be placed, certainly at the start of the video and at the end. The music is very slow and almost peaceful in parts, also, towards the end of the video where I am showing regret and visiting Claire in the graveyard, the music becomes very coral in parts, with slow mellow singing through out. This tied in very well with the church/graveyard connotations.

The way we showed myself and Claire’s relationship was very important for the balance in our video. The camera attached to the tripod was the best way of filming the happy scenes, if we used handheld to film these parts it would look shaky and wouldn’t match the music, or the rest of our video’s look. In terms of lighting the happy and romantic scenes we used natural light, the natural light gave us a normal scene that you would expect to see with any couple, we didn’t want extravagant lighting creating shadows. During the scene where Myself and Claire are walking along the road holding hands, the natural lighting was to natural and became quite a big problem, we watched back what we had filmed and the sun light completely destroyed any good footage we had, to get around this slight issue we changed the direction of where we walking and adjusted the camera position on the tripod.

The mise’ en scene was very important for when we were filming the happy scenes, we had to get the props and the clothing right for both characters, the two characters feature heavily in different outfits and also different personalities, so it was important that our target market you knew about the character that was on screen. We did this two ways, the first one was clothing. I wore a vibrant check shirt and jeans, and Claire wore a long white dress. The two outfits matched the personality's at that time in the video, we were happy and laughing and our clothes represented that. On the other hand during the argument scenes and when Claire was depressed we changed our outfits to darker clothing. This represented our moods and our aggression to one another, with me wearing a dark shirt, the audience can see me as a changed character with my new dark clothing, and my dark personality.

Cyber bullying was the main theme in our video, it is a huge talking point in today's modern society and certainly one of the key shot’s in the video. The lighting used to film the cyber bullying messages on Facebook was just the natural light that from the window and also the light from the computer screen. We wanted to keep the authenticity of a normal cyber bullying scene that would happen in day to day lifestyle, this was simply because we really wanted to reflect the cyber bullying victims. However when filming Claire receiving the text we used a portable plug in light, this was extremely effective and very useful, we could plug the light in anywhere around the room and the light was extremely bright creating a wonderful shadow which we used on other scenes as well, the shadow gave the effect that there were two sides to Claire. The camera angles used to film the cyber bullying scenes were vitally important for the success of this part of the video. When we filmed Claire reading the text messages we used a high angle shot with the use of a tripod, this created the look that I was looking down on her, and also that she was weak and defenseless.The mise’ en scene used for the cyber bullying was very important, we needed to keep the continuity of Claire’s appearance from earlier scenes, during the argument for example. We did this by dressing her all in black and also using black eye shadow, we used minimal make up for these scenes as well, if she wore foundation or lipstick it would look out of context and couldn’t fit the theme that we had built up.Intertexuality was a large part in the process of building our video, we did like the idea of having something to relate to, something that we knew was already successful, however for this scene I think our video has introduced something new onto the music video scene, I can’ think of any video’s that have clips of cyber bullying and actually bring it to peoples attention.

To purvey Claire as an isolated and lonely character in our video we shot all of her depressed scenes on her own and most of the time we were above her. We used the tripod for all of these scenes and filmed using a high angle shot. Filming from above her gave the audience the impression that my character was looking down on her, and it also created the effect that she was trapped. When it came lighting these scenes we wanted to keep the dark, gloomy, black and white feel running through out. We wanted our audience to easily distinguish the difference in Claire in the happy scenes and in her lonely scenes. We made the room pitch black and then used a very bright desk lamp, it did the job very well creating a mysterious and alarming shadow behind Claire, the shadow worked very well because it looked she had two sides to her, a happy one, and a lonely one. These scenes of Claire were during the slow parts of the song, when she was contemplating about her history of the relationship, but we also used them during faster parts of the song, especially when she was angry and also when she threw the phone away after receiving the text from me, we wanted the phone to land just when the music mellowed down. Claire wore all black clothing and minimal make - up during the filming of her depressed scenes, the make up that was applied was only black make up, we had to keep the dark and black vibe running through out these unhappy scenes, if we suddenly changed to a more colourful vibrant outfit, our target market wouldn't understand. We had to keep the continuity of these scenes through out! During the production of our video, myself and the group were influenced by Eminem's Love the way you Lie video featuring Rihanna, the actress in that video plays a very similar part to what Claire plays, they are both in distress and are struggling to cope.

Shot 4 – Claire’s depression and Shot 4 – Claire’s depression and isolationisolation

Shot 5 – the roseShot 5 – the roseThe rose is a very important icon that is portrayed to the audience through out the video and also through the two ancillary tasks, it represents the love between the characters, the loneliness and the hate. The rose is used on many occasions through out the video as a metaphor to represent the love of the characters, and also to represent when the two characters split up, Claire uses the rose to remember me by. When filming the rose it depended on which scene and which mood the two characters where in, for example in the happy scene where I first give Claire the rose it is very free and loose and we film it using a medium shot then tilt as we walk together, the tilt captures the happiness of the two characters whew they walk away together. However if you look at the camera angles of the rose in the more dark and depressing scenes, where Claire is alone, the rose is filmed head on using a medium close up, filming it this way it show's Claire's isolation. The camera work when filming the rose on top of the grave is also a medium close up, we didn't want any distractions to draw the audiences attention away, we wanted them to view the rose alone, like our actress now is. When filming the rose on the grave we used natural light, we wanted to keep the realness of that show the best we could. When filming Claire on her own picking the petals of the rose and also ripping up the rose, it is a dark gloomy time in the song, and the lighting represented that well, we made the room dark and shone a small bright desk lamp towards Claire generating a wonderful shadow behind her. During the research into our video we realised the video love the way you lie by Eminem and Rihanna shared with us a lot of inter-textual references. For example in our video we have the rose that the actress cherishes and loves but then however eventually destroys, and that's the same with Eminem's video, however this time it's a small teddy bear that the actress is given and that she loves but then eventually destroys.

Shot 6 – Argument sceneShot 6 – Argument sceneThe argument scene was a very important stage in the video, it show's the actor's splitting up and crucially their reactions of one another. To convey the power and authority I had over Claire we filmed it from a low angle and had me shouting into the camera like it was Claire's face. Filming from a low angle really represented my power and dominance over Claire, in comparison we filmed Claire using a high angle shot, this showed the audience her helplessness and how dominant I was over her. We filmed the argument scene using natural light from where we filmed, we wanted to keep this scene as natural as possible just like a normal argument. The mise' en scene for this scene at the time was very important however after uploading the footage and watching it back we agreed it would look better if we desaturated the whole argument scene, because the argument is dark and depressing time for the actress. However at the time we still wanted to keep the dark gloomy feel to these argument and depressing scenes. Both characters wore all black to represent the gloomy mood of this scene.

Shot 7 – Rose to pillsShot 7 – Rose to pills

The rose to pills scene is very simple, but beautifully effective. It show's our actresses life in a simple couple of seconds, happiness to depression. Which is what the video is truly about. To light this scene we used natural lighting for when we filmed the rose petals, we wanted to keep the real life situation has real as possible. However when we filmed the pills on the table we made the room a little darker, this enabled us to show the characters feelings and depression at this point very subtly. To film both the pills and the roses we used a medium close up, we felt this gave us the best and clearest view of what we were showing our audience.

Shot 8 – The opening of the eyesShot 8 – The opening of the eyes

To commence the start of the argument we have a desaturated medium close up of Claire laying down with her eyes shut in , then the music crashes in and the clip turns into a sepia effect and she opens her eyes. The opening of Claire's eyes is like the opening of the misery that will eventually unfold before her. When editing this clip it was very important that we were in time with when the music crashes in, the opening of the eyes doesn't work as well if it hasn't got the music behind it! We used minimal make up for this scene as we wanted to keep the depressed black and white theme through out, however we did use black eye liner to enhance Claire's eyes, and her dark feelings at the time.

Shot 9 – Cross dissolvesShot 9 – Cross dissolves

This is actually a specific shot in our video, but with the amount of cross dissolves used in the video, I certainly feel it is an important factor. With The Funeral being a slow song we had to make sure our transitions matched the pace of the music. If we had used cuts the video would seem very quick and jumpy, we wanted a slow balanced pace through out. I think we used cross dissolve's best at the start of the video, the song starts with a very slow pace and it is also sung very lightly with almost coral notes in parts, using cross dissolves for this part of the video certainly reflected the pace and the mood we were trying to achieve.