Our Reasons for Angles

Throughout our videoing, we have tried to use an extensive use of angles and shots in order to display our story and capture emotion. As you can see when looking through, a lot of our shots are filmed from different angles with use of the Bird's Eye View. We have been using this shot in order to convey that Alice is not in control of her life. This view portrays that life is weighing her down. 

However, when it comes to taking the pills, we decided to use Worms Eye View. This was done on purpose in order to emphasise that Alice has control over the pills she is about to take. This is the only thing that she seems to be able to have power over. This pushes her to take the pills, wanting to finally take full control. 

Other shots that we have used extensively throughout the filming are close up shots and extreme close up shots. These have been very successful in allowing us to successfully capture Alice's emotion properly. Using these shots, we have used various angles. This is so that our video remains intriguing and captures our audience's attention.

Lastly, there is also a lot of use of Establishing Shots. This means that the audience knows exactly what is going on within the video and where Alice is. Establishing shots are regularly used in videos especially at the beginning of new scenes. 

Our Lighting

For the lighting side of filming, we needed to ensure that our group knew exactly what we wanted before we filmed. This would allow all of our filming to go to plan. All of our lighting will be NATURAL LIGHTING as we are creating a film linked to realism. 

 There is photo evidence below to show how we experimented with different lighting and chose what was most successful. 

INSIDE

Firstly, we looked at controlling our lighting inside of the bathroom, which was now to be our main setting for the video.

Below is the bathroom at its Natural Light. With the blinds open and the main light switched off. It looks rather dark. It would be a problem if the sun was not bright as the blinds still manage to cover up a lot of  the outdoor lighting.

By turning the light on, we control the lighting more allowing the room to become slightly brighter. However, this light appears to give off a rather yellow tint (something we do not want to be obvious in our video). As well as this, the light is rather small leaving the scenery vulnerable to shadows etc. This lighting is not good enough for us to use. 

Another form of lighting already available to us in the bathroom is lamps next to the mirror that Alice will be standing in front of. Again, this would increase brightness BUT the yellow tint is still obvious. Also, Alice's face would be very lit up by these lights, maybe giving viewers a false sense of hope for her.  

 For the blinds (as shown below) we tried to open them and shut them to see the effect of the lighting in the room. Of course, shutting them was too dark as we were using no electrical form of lighting else where. Having them open however, could be risky due to it needing to be sunny outside to get a lot of lighting in. 

Shown below is how we perfected our lighting. By opening the blinds completely during filming, we allow the outside lighting to take control. Whether it is sunny or not, the lighting will always remain bright enough to film and will mean that the whole room contains the same amount of light. This is essential to maintain continuity and make sure that attention is not drawn else where in the room. The lighting should be the same on Alice, it should not matter where we film her within this one room. 

For the classroom, we will keep all the blinds down and have the MAIN lights on. The main lights will not cause a glare as they are all around. This will mean that the room will have an equal amount of brightness, something we need in order to keep Alice the main focus. 

OUTSIDE:

For outside, controlling the lighting is a lot more difficult due to the weather constantly changing. In this country, it is very hard to predict what the weather is going to be like. To solve this problem, we will try to do all our filming on one day (and hope that it is not too sunny). If there are problems, we will have to reshoot the scene once more. It is essential that the lighting remains the same as there is no change in time (we need to maintain continuity). 

New Locations

With a change in the story line, came a change of location (we have ensured to continue sticking to our research).

The Bathroom

The bathroom will be a key setting. This is where Alice will take the pills, mirror scene and the final moment will be here. From our research, we have discovered that the bath seems to be a place where sad moments tend to happen. I believe this is because it is a private place, no one can see what you are doing. Being alone allows Alice to reflect on her life and show how upset she is. She may hide her unhappiness in front of other people. 

This is where the outside scene will be. The lonely bench means that we can emphasize the  isolation of Alice too. The openness of the setting allows Jessie to come and leave whenever she wants. 

Other then this, we will use the same classroom as before. 

Our New Schedule

Before, our schedule was quite brief. As our change in plan has come about, we decided to make this one specific to the week to ensure everything gets done in time for our deadline.

24th and 25th of February:

• -        Major discussion with the group
• -        New story board/new time line
• -        Health and safety (new idea, new risks)
• -        Agree on new locations

26th and 27th of February:

• -        Start the filming outside
• -        Think more about lighting

End of February:

• -        Find the best date to film the first shots in the bathroom
• -        Look at the lighting

1st - 7th of March:

• -        One set of filming (Wednesday afternoon) - bathroom
• -        Start ancillary task research
• -        Ensure to keep blogging

8th - 14th of March:

• -        One set of filming - Bathroom scene (Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning)
• -        Finish the research into the first ancillary task

15th - 21st of March:

• -        three lots of filming (filming should be finished this week minus re-shoots)
• -        Ensure to comment on use of angles etc.

22nd - 28th of March:

• -        Last reshoots
• -        Photographs of Alice taken (taken within a media lesson - Monday morning)
• -        Ancillary task 2 research

29th - 4th of April

• -        VERY PRODUCTIVE WEEK
• -        Edit the video (Jessie and Lauren will take more control over this with feedback from Jess)
• -        Edit the ancillary task 1 (Jess will take more control on this with help from the others)
• -        Edit the ancillary task 2

5th of April on-wards:

• -        Concentrate on evaluation questions
• -        Final touches
• -        Feedback from teacher
• -        Finish by the 18th of April 

New and Last Storyboard/Timeline

Due to the change of plan, we needed new story boards and time lines. We also wanted to ensure that our new story boards and time lines were more specific. Shown below are the time lines we have drawn. They are rather rough but, I believe will be essential to give our filming the push it needs. 
Rough time line: 

Specific Time line:

The first minute of our film: 

For the first minute of our film, we have made a timeline shown above. Within this minute we have a clear change of scene, allowing the video to remain interesting to the viewer  The transition from the school classroom BACK TO the bathroom will hopefully be a lovely transition as we will make Alice perform the same action. This will allow the two scenes to link, ensuring that the viewer understands that there is a link in the emotions of the character and the setting.

Change of Scene happens at: 

- 18 seconds

- 34 seconds

The Second minute of our film: 

Above, is the second minute of our film.The action is constantly building. The transition from the bathroom scene (at the very beginning) and the outside scene (with Jessie and Alice) is something we hope will appear very successful and professional. We will have it 'Fade to Black' which will emphasize the fact that it is a change in scene. 

Change of Scene happens at: 

- 1 Minute, 5 seconds

- 1 Minute, 36 Seconds

The end of our video: 

The last part of our video will contain a lot of action (especially in the 'Flashback' section). In this section we will cut and fade to all the different scenes and moments within the beginning two minutes of the video. I believe this will increase the drama at the time and we will ensure that each cut goes to the beat of the song.

Change of Scene happens at: 

- 2 Minutes, 9 Seconds

- 2 Minutes, 33 Seconds

New story line: 

Health and Safety Issues

With a change of plan, came health and safety issues. Although we looked at these before, we never thought to think about them seriously until major issues have arised. 

Firstly, we thought about the danger in our location.

The Bathroom:

The major health and safety issue with the bathroom is the use of water in the bath. This could cause many issues such as a wet floor. A lot of the time, there will be three or four of us in the room. We need to ensure that we contain the bath, not allowing too much water to get anyway. We will control this through use of bathroom mat and ensure to keep checking the floor. With Alice getting in and out of the bath, this is a particular safety issue concerning her. 

The pills: 

Another safety issue is that we are now dealing with drugs. We want to present Alice committing suicide. We decided to use paracetamols as we know that that they are rather harmless and not too expensive. We will ensure that Alice DOES NOT actually put the pills in her mouth. 

To ensure this does not look unrealistic in our video we will carefully angle shots so that we present the moment of swallowing as a long shot. This will mean that it is not obvious to the audience that she is not really taking them. 

Working outside:

Working outside can always be an issue. We will working next to a road most likely therefore, we need to always be conscious of cars etc. However, we will be filming opposite my own house on a road we know very well (it would not be busy). This decreases our risk of any accidents happening. 

CHANGE OF PLAN

WE HAVE A CHANGE OF PLAN

After looking at the filming we had already done, none of my group felt happy with our product. We felt like the story line was not realistic enough to have Alice wanting to self harm. Therefore, we decided to add a controversial scene. We decided to make Alice a homosexual, being in love with her friend and confused about her sexuality (having no one to talk to about it). 

Increasing our problems in the major issue that Alice has dyed her hair. This has meant that all our future shots with her will be her with darker hair. We have to re-film everything in order to maintain continuity. 

New Story Line:

Scene one:
- Alice in the bathroom

FADE

Scene two:

- Alice in an empty classroom
- Alice being shouted at by her teacher (we do not need to re-shoot a whole class)

CUT 

Scene Three:

- Back to the bathroom
- Alice in the mirror - Rubbing make up off

CROSS FADE TO BLACK

Scene Four:

- Alice sitting on the bench (outside of the school) 

- Alice tells her friend about her feelings (Jessie) 
- Jessie rejects Alice

Scene Five: 

- Back to the bathroom 
- Takes pills

Scene Six: 

- Getting in the bath 
- Goes under

My Popplet

Something that has been extremely useful for our project has been popplet. This site has allowed me, Jess and Lauren to communicate on a much wider level. Being able to use media to communicate has been very beneficial in allowing us to express our opinions and convey what we need. Examples from our popplet are shown below:(I have commented on all the content in other parts of my blog)

The equipment we will use is simple. We will use a video camera as our main piece of equipment as our main task is the creation of the video.  The camera is also a major piece of equipment, as it will allow us to take a lot of photographic evidence and allow us to take photos for our ancillary tasks. 

The popplet allowed each member of the group to get involved and allowed us to see what needs to be done.

Contingency Plan

What is essential for our project is that we have a Contingency Plan. Due to the fact we will be working over many months, a lot of things could go wrong. Therefore, we have picked out the three main problems we may come across and have decided what we are going to do to solve these problems when it comes to it.

1). What if we have problems with our actresses?

Many issues can arise with our actresses. Our main actress, Alice, will be needed often for filming and photographing. Possible problems that may occur are:

- She may be ill during times we want to film 

- She may not be able to make it to some of our filming as she is busy with her own work 

- She may decide she does not want to film for us anymore

- She may feel uncomfortable in front of the camera

Some of these issues, I do not believe are applicable. Alice has been a model for people previously and appears extremely keen to act for us. I do not believe that she will back out of the project. HOWEVER, to control this, during our first filming we will ensure that she feels comfortable and let her know which scenes she will be in. If she is not happy with this, we can find another actress. Me, Jess and Lauren would not mind playing the part ourselves. 

We know that at times, Alice will be busy with work. Being a good friend of hers, I will ensure to find times she is free and organize our filming around this. This will allow her to get her work done when needed. Having a regular day for filming will also allow her to organize her work around our filming. 

We want to film every Wednesday afternoon possible. Me, Jess, Lauren and Alice are free during this time as we all have school free's. Filming during school time will mean that Alice can still get her usual way home. This will not be an issue. 

2). What if we really do not like our product after filming?

We have discussed many ideas as a group and have decided on our final idea. However, it is always possible that we begin to dislike our idea. If this were to happen, we would need to have a group discussion. 

Things we could do to if we do not like our product:

- We could re-think our story board and if we have time, re film our video 

- If we do not have time, we could think of ways to use the videos we have in order to create a different story

- We may have no choice but to use the videos, we would have to ensure editing is sound

We will need to try and change ideas quickly in order to give us time to do create new story boards.

3). What if our lighting is not good enough?

Due to us planning to film a lot of scenes outside, we fear that our lighting may not be good at times. We can never predict the weather. Due to us doing a lot of filming in winter, snow, rain and winds are very likely. This makes our filming sometimes different.

Things we could do to try and control this:

- For each time we film, we could decide which scene to film based on the weather. If it is a snowy day, we will concentrate on filming the Indoor scenes. 

- If the lighting is different each time we film outside, this will be hard to handle. However, we can do our best to fix this during the editing process. 

Indoors, we will try to use the same type of lighting each time. Again, a lot of the lighting will be from natural light (through windows etc), therefore, some of the above things could apply. We could also try to control blinds, curtains, and inner lighting. 

Story line and Research on Angles

Firstly, the camera will pan across the floor of a room showing empty bottles etc. Through use of panning we will then show Alice lying on the floor, obviously having over dosed. This will also be the END scene. The screen will then fade white to hint that we are going back in time.

Then, the clip will show Alice in a school room, with a failed test paper and the teacher shouting at her. We will use worm eye and birds eye shots to promote the teachers authority over Alice at this point.

At this point, Alice will then storm out. She will walk down the school hall, we will film her using a follow shot from infront. This will mean that we can see her anger as she comes towards the camera.

The use of editing and eclipse of time will then be used to show her walking down a lane. The follow shot will be used again to show her coming around the corner. It is here that we plan to use over the shoulder shots aswell as trying shots from different heights to capture the same scene in various different ways. It is then that she will get upsetting messages from her friends. When these messages come, we will use text on screen as reflection in the phone may be a problem. These texts will lead her to storm angrily home.

Next, is the scene inside the house. After a follow shot from behind of her walking in, the clip will then show Alice's drunk mother, played by Ashliegh. After trying and failing to get a wine bottle of Ashleigh, Alice will then grab her own bottles and some pills and go up to her room. This is when the repeat of the pan shot of the empty bottles and the last image will be Alices arm lying across the floor with Ashlieghs feet in the background.

Some examples of the shots we will use are shown below:

Over the Shoulder shot:

Worms Eye shot:

Birds Eye shot:

Intial Location

The School Location

For the scenes in school, our group decided to use the outdoor buildings in our own school. This is effective as we are able to use the double doors. This allows Alice to storm out. 

As well filming outside, we are also filming inside the classroom. The photos of this classroom are also shown below. 

The House Location 

The Lane Scene Location

For the Lane scene, we wanted somewhere that was near to school but also perfect for our video. Luckily, we found this lane which passes a church in Wilmington. Our group decided that the lane shown below was perfect for our video. Being long in length, meant we would be able to film a lot of Alice. It also will give us opportunities to try shots such as Follow Shots due to us being able to walk a long way down. Since being such a long lane, we had a variety of different places on the lane in which we could film meaning our group had many options to decide which part of the lane was best. 

It is possible that our locations will change if we do not thing they suit the video in question.

Our Schedule

Our Schedule:

Research and Planning stages:

September and October will be our main planning and research months. 

September:

• -        initial discussion with group
• -        Deciding on our resources
• -         Research and specific research into music videos
• -        Research into sound/decide our song choice
• -        Creation of our first story board/time line

October:

• -        Deciding on our resources
• -        Contingency Plans
• -        Create a group discussion (Maybe a popplet)

November:

• -        Filming takes place
• -        Every Wednesday afternoon to film
• -        Try to film every Thursday morning (providing Alice is free)

December:

• -        Filming continues
• -        Editing begins taking process

January:

• -        Editing should be fully underway
• -        Research into ancillary task begins
• -        Any re-filming

February

• -        First draft of edited video should be done
• -        Photographs taken for our ancillary tasks
• -        Any re-filming

March

• -        Editing should be done for video (finished)
• -        Ancillary task being edited
• -        Extra photos taken if needed
• -        Start of Evaluation

April

• -        All should be finished.
• -        Evaluation stages should be completed

Resources

Make Up:

Our group having had a discussion decided that the main character Alice was the character we needed to take the most time discussing; Make up being the main topic of our first discussion.

Straight away, we all agreed that we wanted to convey Alice's personality through the use of makeup especially on the eyes.  This is when we agreed on the 'smokey eye' effect. If used right, we will be able to convey the mystery of her character and her hidden anger and hurt. Before filming therefore, we will take care to ensure that the makeup is exactly as we  want it.

Clothing: 

Next in our decision makingwas to decide Alices outfit. Wanting to have a scene in school, it had to be formal and presentable. We have decided to use the sixth former look. We will dress her in a plain white shirt and have her wearing a skirt, blazer and tights. This will help us to express her age through use of the camera. One last addition to her outfit will be the use of her sixth former badge which will be further portrayal of her age.

The use of the plain clothing yet dramatic makeup will reflect Alice as a character. The clothing will reflect the way she tries to hide how she truly feels whilst the makeup will mirror her inside passion and want to let her anger out.

Video Camera:

The Main piece of equipment we are going to use is the video camera. This will allow us to shoot our scenes, hopefully successfully  We will ask our teacher how to get started so we do not lose any time. 

Normal Camera:

Our next essential piece of equipment will be a Sony Camera. This will allow us to photograph evidence all our work. We want to ensure that all our work is recorded and we have proof of our filming. 

I-Phone:

Me, Jess and Lauren all have the same phone (an I-Phone). This allows us to constantly communicate with each other. 

On this message, we will be able to organize filming and evaluate work. We can discuss ideas.