Costumes

Costumes

I decided to research potential costumes for our characters in the video. The costumes the actors wear are very important in terms of showing both character and genre, with the clothes being part of the media language that form the video. Since the characters will have several outfits, as the video is set at different times, I decided to look into general costumes instead of specific ones. I did this by creating a moodboard of indie clothing, shown below. This can be used to give suggestions to our actors about what they could potentially wear to the shoots. General trends include woolen clothing, checkered shirts, denim, lace, flowers and a sense of comfort and style. There are also themes of vintage and distressed clothing.

The one costume that we thought about in more detail was the projector room outfit for Crystal. This outfit has to be mysterious and dark, so I thought she could possibly wear black leggings, black boots, a black top and a long, flowing black shirt over the top; below is an example of potential clothes she could wear.

Props

Props

In our music video there will be many props that we will need to get. In order to make sure we don't forget anything, we looked through our storyboard to see what we would need for our video.

What we will need:

• projector - to create the projected images necessary for our video
• pocket watch - we wanted to show the idea that Olivia-Mae was waiting for someone, but didn't want to use a phone as it was too modern; therefore, we decided to use a pocket watch to fit with the indie convention
• lighter - Olivia-Mae looks for the lighter but instead finds the letter - needed for plot purposes
• letter - a note from another character (Jenny) that shows Ruth's unfaithfulness
• guitar - for Ruth to play with Olivia-Mae in the garden, another indie convention
• broken guitar - to set on fire to show Olivia-Mae's rage

After deciding what props we would need, we set about sourcing the props. Below are ideas for who could provide the props, along with pictures of them where possible.

projector - Sam
pocket watch - Hannah's sister

lighter - Hannah or Crystal

letter - Coral (who will play Ruth)

guitar - Sam

broken guitar - Joseph (a friend)

Actors

Actors

We need three actors to play the characters in our video, plus a few extras to play friends in the get-together scene. Crystal will still be playing Olivia-Mae, the main character whose perspective the video is from, as she acted in our AS video and we know her abilities. We also need someone to play Ruth, the girlfriend who cheats, and another to play Jenny, the girl Ruth cheats with. We have decided that our friend Coral will play Ruth as she has acting experience and we know her quite well. We have also decided that I will play Jenny as I also have acting experience and know the group well. The fact that Jenny is a minor role also allows me to be involved in the actual filming most of the time, meaning that we shouldn't be short of hands. We will also need a few extras to play the friends. We will find these people according to availability, ensuring that they are helpful and focused people with an indie-esque look.

Storyboards

Storyboards

To prepare for the shoot we decided to make a storyboard of our idea. Storyboarding is helpful as it allows us to visualise our idea and prepare what we need to shoot and how. Last year we found storyboarding to be an incredibly useful part of our piece, knowing what we were going to do saved time and helped the shoot go quickly and smoothly. Although there will likely be some improvisation while on set, it is good to have a plan for how we want our shoot to go.

Rearrange Lyric Analysis

Rearrange Lyric Analysis

I decided to analyse the lyrics of 'Rearrange' to see how they could fit into our original music video idea. This song matches the tone of our last song well, so finding specific themes in the song will help us tailor our idea more and create a better overall music video. It will also help us match themes or ideas in our video with specific lyrics, helping us make a more finessed video.

I've got a lot of love and I've got a lot of ways to show it

But you should know by now that I'm broken and I need your help

I wrote a hundred songs to make sense of the meaningless

I'll un-write them all if you help me clear up this mess

Cause I would never break your heart

I would only re-arrange

All the other working parts will stay in place

Listen to me when I say, darling you're my everything

I didn't mean to hesitate, please stay with me

I've got a lot of rage and I'm struggling with ways to control it

When I wake in the morning I've forgotten what it is to cope

I scratch at my eyes and it renders me visionless

Even in the dark, what I want isn't what I need

Cause I would never break your heart

I would only rearrange

All the other working parts will stay in place

Listen to me when I say, darling you're my everything

I didn't mean to hesitate, please stay with me

Cause I would never break your heart

I would only rearrange

All the other working parts will stay in place

Listen to me when I say, darling you're my everything

I didn't mean to hesitate, please stay with me

This song seems to be about the idea of a break-up or the end of a romantic relationship. The writer seems to be struggling to cope with the idea that their partner is breaking up with them, seeming to be begging their partner to stay with them.

Lyrics begging their partner to stay with them - relates to the idea of Ruth walking out and Olivia-Mae's attempts to keep her, even though she can see the end coming

Lyrics involving the idea of changing or rearranging - relates to the manipulation of the natural world and it's events by the character in the projection room

Lyrics about how they feel - feelings of sadness and anger relate to the feelings of Olivia-Mae throughout the video

Lyrics about what they are willing to do - relates to Olivia-Mae's desire to stay with Ruth

Changing Song

Changing Song

After working very hard to try and get an original song recorded, we eventually felt that it wasn't working as well as we would like it to. None of us are particularly experienced in recording a song, so we were learning the process as we went on. Although it was a really valuable experience, helping us to learn new skills and letting us establish the tone we were going for, we just didn't think it was working particularly well and have decided to change song. Below are some of the versions we tried out:

After deciding not to use Missing You, we started looking for a new song. We quickly settled on Biffy Clyro's Rearrange because the tone matched the tone of our old song well. We were able to keep many aspects of our original idea for the video. However, we did have to change our ideas to shift the artist from Olivia-Mae/Crystal to the existing band Biffy Clyro.

Our Idea

Our Idea

We have decided that our video will center on Olivia-Mae and be based, like the song, on a cheating ex-girlfriend. We liked the idea of having a slightly confusing video, and decided to have 2 settings - the 'real world' and a mysterious projection room where an unknown figure (later revealed to be Olivia-Mae) manipulates footage of the 'real world'. The basic narrative of the video would follow the breakdown of their relationship, starting at a positive point, then showing the realisation that Olivia-Mae's partner (named Ruth in the video) is cheating on her (with a girl named Jenny), ending with Ruth walking out on her. In this way, our video will engage in Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium, as the video will start with them together (equilibrium), the Olivia-Mae realising that Ruth has cheated on her (disequilibrium), then the two breaking up (new equilibrium). Throughout this we would have the footage of the real world be manipulated and changed by Olivia-Mae in the projection room, for example by making Ruth fade and a guitar catch on fire. Our video would end with Olivia-Mae closing her eyes in the real world and opening them in the projection room, showing that the real world manipulation was her re-visiting her memories and changing them to express her anger.

We were slightly unsure whether to make it obvious that the song is based on a gay relationship. On one hand, the song is based on one, so showing this would defy societal hetero norms, making our video accepting and refreshing. On the other hand, however, this may scare some people away, which would not be good for a smaller artist, plus showing the negative side of a gay relationship may hurt the cause instead. However, we decided to go against the norm and make it clear that the relationship is homosexual as the LGBTQ+ community needs more representation in the music video genre.

Recording 'Missing You'

Recording 'Missing You'

Here is a behind the scenes video of us recording 'Missing You', the song we are planning to use for our A2 music video.

Indie Screenshot Analysis

Indie Screenshot Analysis

Here we analysed screenshots of indie music videos and annotated on top of a chosen shot. Within these shots we can see what they do visually well. We took a still and decided what made them indie and unique according to the typical conventions. Each shot has at least one person in the frame and they're all artistic in some way. All portray a sense of darkness whether in colour or through imagery use through some visual effects.