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. 

Sound Research

Knowing that PINK sings a lot of rather dark, depressing songs. We were pleased to find that this song was able to relate to our story.

Shown below is the lyrics to our video:

Made a wrong turn, once or twice

Dug my way out, blood and fire

Bad decisions, that's alright

Welcome to my silly life

Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood

Miss, no way it's all good, it didn't slow me down

Mistaken, always second guessing

Underestimated, look, I'm still around

Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feel

Like you're less than, less than perfect

Pretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feel

Like you're nothing you are perfect to me

You're so mean when you talk

About yourself, you are wrong

Change the voices in your head

Make them like you instead

So complicated, look how big you'll make it

Filled with so much hatred, such a tired game

It's enough, I've done all I can think of

Chased down all my demons, see you do the same

Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feel

Like you're less than, less than perfect

Pretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feel

Like you're nothing, you are perfect to me

The whole world stares while I swallow the fear

The only thing I should be drinking is an ice cold beer

So cool in lying and we tried, tried, tried

But we try too hard, it's a waste of my time

Done looking for the critics 'cause they're everywhere

They don't like my genes, they don't get my hair

Strange ourselves and we do it all the time

Why do we do that? Why do I do that?

Why do I do that?

Ooh, pretty, pretty, pretty Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feel

Like you're less than, less than perfect

Pretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feel

Like you're nothing, you are perfect to me

You are perfect to me You're perfect, you're perfect to me

Pretty, pretty please if you ever, ever feel Like you're less than, less than perfect

Pretty, pretty please if you ever, ever feel

Like you're nothing, you are perfect to me

These lyrics, in my opinion, will go extremely well with our idea. Pink wrote this song in order to convey effects of depression, suicide and self-mutilation which is exactly what we want to portray through our video. We want to express to the audience that no one is perfect and no ones life is perfect. We hope our video will make teenagers watching feel like they're not the only ones who feel like there is no hope for them.
Other then the track, we will not use any other sound.

Using Real Media to Form Ideas

Shown below will be points of my research that I would like to use to form ideas for my own video. I will return to these ideas in my evaluations to see if I was successful. 

Firstly, within the real products, I found that many sad scenes happened in the bath. I believe that the reason for this is because of how private it is. When in the bath, no one else can see you or disturb you which is why emotions are easily conveyed. It is a place where people do not mind showing that they are unhappy as no one will ever see. 

I would love to put this idea in my own video, hopefully ending the filming with Alice in the bath. 

P!NK:

Rihanna:

A lot of my research contains the same kind of shot. An example of this is shown below. I have looked the the Close Up's and Extreme Close ups. 

Delilah:

 Adele:

Rihanna:

 Avril Lavigne:

I believe this type of shot is very successful when thinking about my themes. Our main tone of our song is depressing, pessimistic and hopelessness. I believe that the above shots are examples of how close ups can convey emotion. Although someone may appear fine, looking into their eyes can tell a lot about how a person is feeling. The images above show that each character is unhappy, something we have to portray in our video. We will therefore, try to use a lot of shots like these in order to highlight Alice's emotions.

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