Music Video Narrative

Narrative Devices

Plot Twist

Plot twist is a narrative device where something that is not expected happens which changes the course of the story. The music video I have chosen for this is Tom Odell's Another Love.

 At 1:50 we can denote that there is a plot twist as Tom Odell's character has been putting up missing signs for a girl who turns out is not missing and he even gives her one of the signs but when she tries to talk to him he ignores her. This is not something we expected as when someone is putting up missing signs we assume that the person in question is actually missing so it turns the story on it's head when she isn't. The emotional effect this has on the audience is confusion and intrigue as they try to understand why the character is putting up missing signs for a girl who is clearly not missing and it intrigues the audience as they watch to try and pick up clues as to to why the character is doing is what he is doing.

In Media Res

In media res is when a story begins midway through events, rather than at a natural beginning.

Alt-J Hunger on The Pine is a music video which uses this style as at 0:04 we denote someone running away as arrows fly past him so we can connote that someone is after him. It does not start at a natural beginning  as if it did it would establish why he is being chased but instead all we know is that he is being chased and running for his life. The emotional effect this would have on the audience is excitement and is captivating for them as it starts straight in the action. They're on the edge of their seats from the start of the video and stay there till the end. It also leaves many things unclear to the audience and so they don't know if the main character is actually an antagonist or not but they still root for him regardless.

Omnipotent Narrative

An omnipotent narrative is one where the audience are Godlike,knowing everything that is happening in the diegetic world. 

The music video which uses this style is Skrillex's Bangarang, we can see there is an omnipotent narrative at 0:28 we can see where the Ice Cream Man is, 0:35 know what the boy in red is doing, at 0:37 what the boy in purple is doing and 0:51 what the boy in black is doing. This is more information than any one character has but the audience knows everything and is aware of the boys scheme against the ice cream man before the ice cream man does. The effect this has on the audience is the anticipation that is built in waiting for the heist to be pulled off as we know what each boy is going to bring to the heist and how it might go down but the audience eagerly wait for them to pull it off.

Structure

Mckee's 5 part structure involves an inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax and resolution. A music video that follows this narrative is Thriller by Michael Jackson.

We can denote that at 1:41 we can denote human like creatures emerging from graves and through the use of mise-en-scene like costume and actors we can connote that these creatures are zombies, this is the Inciting Incident of the video as an event has happened that gets the story going and in this case it is zombies coming to life. The Progressive Complication occurs at 2:20 when the key character and her companion are surrounded by zombies determined to attack them and it looks very bad for the character,2:26 is when it gets even worse for the character otherwise known as a crisis where her companion is now also a zombie and she no longer has an ally to help her against the zombies. We can denote the climax at 4:20 (blaze it lol) when the key character of the story is seen cowering in a corner surrounding by the inching ever closer zombies this resolution appears all of a sudden as we see the that the character is in a different house and the use of location helps the audience understand that the resolution has occurred as the house look more done up and actually lived in and not abandoned as before, her companion also looks like how he used to and there are no other zombies around so it seems like everything is back to normal.

Character Driven

Propp's narrative theory suggests that there a re several roles which any character may assume in the story. A music video which follows this theory is Iggy Azalea's Black Widow.

At 2:52 we can see that Iggy Azalea's character is the hero as she is given a task to kill someone or in other words departs on a search which is what most hero characters do. We also see her getting training from the Donor we can see at 2:38 who is running her through different tests to train her ability as a samurai to see if she is ready to eliminate her target. We can see at 4:22 that Rita Ora's character is the helper as when Iggy Azalea's character is surrounded and looks outnumbered she comes in to help. We can denote at 4:59 that the male character is facing the girls aiming a gun while they stand ready with their swords this connotes that he is the villain character in this as he is struggling agaisnt the hero and attempting to stop her from completing her task.

Cause and Effect

Levi-Strauss

Levi-Stauss' theory suggests that all narratives are organised around the conflict between binary opposites. The music video I have chosen for this is The Arctic Monkey's Leave Before The Lights Come On. From the video you could suggest that the opposites in this video are between Sane and Insane. We first see that they are opposites and cannot co-exist at 1:49 when we denote her trying to kiss the man but him rejecting the kiss connoting that he is not comfortable with kissing her showing that even on a physical level they cannot touch and co-exist It also establishes that they are truly opposites as they want different things from each other. We then see another example of how they are binary opposites at 2:07 as the audience can denote that as he tries to get away from her she wants to stay with him connoting that they are opposites as one wants to get away from another while the other wants to be intimate with the other showing they have different motives and mindsets. At 3:03 we can denote that the characters are arguing with each other and it turns physical connoting that they can no longer co-exist as when they are they argue and fight. At 3:41 we can denote that the female character is attempting to jump off the building again which is the exactly what the other character tried to stop her from doing before and is exactly the opposite of what he wants signifying that their views and wants are completely different.

Week 3 Blog Reflection

Music Video Genres

One Clear Genre- Pop

The song I have chosen to illustrate one clear genre is Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. We can see the genre is clearly pop as it uses some form of the male or female gaze and in this video it uses the female gaze as at 0;23 we denote her watching the male taking off his shirt to reveal a six pack connoting that he is just something to be looked at by the audience and is given no real depth. This is conventional in many pop music videos where attractive people of either gender are denoted dancing around commonly in provocative clothing.

Another common element of pop music videos is the performance aspect of it which we can see here at 0:35 where she is denoted singing the lyrics to the song to the camera or the audience. Pop music videos do this a lot as an attempt to sell more concert tickets so they can get a feel for what it's like and want the real thing, the video is more about the star than the actual music making them famous so the institution can market easier as they have a clear brand.

One Hybrid

A hybrid song is a song where it contains a mixof 2 or more different genres.  Walk This Way by Run DMC featuring Aerosmith is a hybrid of Hip Hop and Hard Rock. In the video at 2:04 we can see the in the music video the rock element of it coming through as they are on stage performing it to a crowd. The mise-en-scene is also typical of the genre as the costumes they are wearing all black and the actors have long hair which many rock artists had in their music videos.

We can see the Hip Hop in this video at 2:39 as a low angle shot of the group is used to give them an intimidating look which is common in a lot of Hip Hop videos like 50 Cent's 9 Shots. The costume of the actors here also make it clear it is a Hip Hop video due to the white trainers they are wearing which appears in a lot of Hip Hop videos as many of them contain the theme 'the currency of cool' so they attempt to show off how cool they are with what they're wearing.

One Subgenre- Grime

Grime is a genre that focuses on real life, it doesn't sugar coat anything hence the name grime. Grime in the dictionary is known as dirt ingrained on the surface of something. What grime is about is revealing the dark side of London which is seen as a place of wealth but in reality there are places in London which are in real poverty. The grime song I have chosen is That's Not Me by Skepta. Throughout the video for it we can see that there is a lot of poverty and deprived areas for example at 0:02 we denote a wall covered in graffiti connoting that the area this video is set in a harsh area.

Another common feature of Grime songs is that the music video heavily features on the artist's performance, we can see this throughout the video as they have used a greenscreen to add their performance over the montage of clips playing. The reason they do this is to sell the artist and so that they can make more money from concert tickets as the 16-23 year old active audience for this type of song are more inclined to download music illegally so they need to make their money from concert tickets instead. We can see other grime songs do this for example Stormzy's Where do you know me from, this music video features the artist walking around performing his song with some visualisation of the lyrics.

Generic Conventions

NWA- Straight Outta Compton- Hip Hop

In this video we can denote that the artists are running from the police connoting that they have committed a crime and are being chased down for it. This type of narrative style is very conventional for Hip-Hop videos as the rappers try to establish how tough they are so to show this they are being hunted down by the police. 

The Mise-en-scene is also very typical as it uses a real location connoting that the artists are 'legit' and actually came from areas like this. We can denote in this shot at 1:33 the setting has lots of graffiti and rust connoting that it is set in a run down, derelict area giving the group some reputation as if they had a tough growing up the audience will be more accepting of them. We also see a similar shot in Eminem's lose yourself as the set design has a lot of graffiti, fading paint on the walls and his costume is stained which again is something linked with poverty and anchors the fact that these artist are tough and to be respected.

Hip Hop artists try to seem as tough and strong as possible and so the actors in their videos act in certain ways to portray this. In NWA's video for Straight Outta Compton we denote at 0:44 there is a low angle shot of Ice Cube and Dr.Dre, this low angle shot signifies that the two rappers are intimidating and dominant. In R&B the singers try to look as attractive and sexy as possible to sell records, in Hip Hop the singers have to look as hard as possible to earn the record sales by the public as they have to be taken seriously to sell any. We see a similar type of shot in Eminem's video which is used for the same effect.

In Hip Hop music videos woman are seen through the male gaze and are sexualised and seen in provocative clothing, men however are seen differently in a Hip Hop video. This is because it is assumed the target audience are mainly other males so sexualising men in the videos wouldn't appeal to them. This is why the stereotypical representation of men in Hip Hop videos are that they are hard and intimidating as other men won't buy the records from men who they think of as weak for example Justine Bieber not many 16-30 year old males which would be the target audience for NWA would buy Justin Bieber.

Themes

One theme that comes across in this video is rebellion. We can connote this at 2;36 we denote them running away from the police or in other words rebelling against them and society as they have done something which goes against society's laws which has caused the police to come after them. They may also be rebelling against racism and signifying in this video that the police single out black men not for their actions but for their skin colour. This is backed up in the video as we don't actually see them commit any crimes but still see them running from the police. Fight the Power by Public Enemy also contains a video where there is a rebellion. In their video at 2:26 we denote a protest occurring with people wearing fight the power shirts, this connotes that they are protesting the government and all branches of it.

Crime is another theme that is focused on in this video as the narrative for the story involves the group being chased by police which we can see at 2;20, this could indicate that the group have committed a crime and this is the reason the police are hunting them down. Whether they have actually committee the crime is left to the audiences imagination as all we see is a group of them huddled around and instantly sprint away as soon as they see the police. The audience is lead to believe they have committed the crime as in society we are taught that if a group of young black men are together they are doing something illegal which links to the next theme in this video.

The police in the video are denoted to start perusing the group without no clear evidence of any wrong doing. The preferred reading of this might be that the police might be racially profiling them and are perusing them for no reason other than because they are black they must be doing something wrong. A negotiated reading could be that the boys have committed a crime and the police are rightfully perusing them and an opposite reading might be that even though the boys may have not committed a crime they should still be arrested due to their race. The theme of racism can be connoted when we denote that the police are chasing the group without any reason which could connote that the police are hunting them down purely on race.

Week Two Reflection

What Have You Learnt About Different Music Video Styles?

Throughout the week I have learnt many different music video styles including; performance, narrative,interpretive,impressionist,parody and many more.

I learnt that for a genre of song there is normally a type of music video style that accompanies it for example a surrealism music video would be made for a song that is of an abstract style. Below is the music video for Deep Six by Marilyn Manson which follows this rule.

I also learned that music videos have genres which they stick too. The genre of the music video defines what mise-en-scene, representations, editing style and recurring camera techniques. For example a Performance music video would use a lot of close ups to focus on the main star. If the star is female they will aim to sexualise her and give her the typical female archetype as something pretty to be looked at. The editing style will stay the same for most music videos in the sense that they cut to the beat but they might slow down time so that the audience can look at the star or longer.

My idea would use a narrative structure. A narrative structure is one where it follows a chronological sequential story from start to finish and for my idea we will follow a guy going through a breakup with a girl when he meets a man dressed in a rabbit suit who starts chasing him and they eventually go for drinks together. He wakes up the next morning and can't find the man in the suit anywhere however he finds a rabbit soft toy resembling the man in the suit before and gets an idea and gives it to the girl.

Music Video Pitch

Remake Evaluation

Research & Planning

This stage of our process was very simple. As we had to make a shot by shot remake our research was to watch the video and write down what happened in each shot and the duration of it. For our planning we made a shooting script which gave details about the location,camera shot,camera angle,description,actors,equipment and duration. To do this we just looked at what they did in the actual video and replicated it with a few exceptions to location and actors. From this task I became much better at creating and following a shooting script as with good planning I was able to pull off a very difficult scene in which a group of boys had to walk towards the camera.

Conventions

What sets a music video apart from other media texts are the conventions which are typically used in it. One of the conventions we tried to match was to make it look quite bright and vibrant as many are including thrift shop. To do this we had to look at mise en scene and give the actors brightly coloured costumes and props to use. I think we matched that as best we could and had the actos wear similar clothes to the characters seen in the video. For example the fur jacket that Macklemore wears we had a Jacket like that.

Creativity

Our section of the music video was a shot by shot remake leaving us little room for imagination. That is until we looked at the lyrics for Thrift Shop and we saw that there used to be a bit in the beginning where a kid asks Macklemore if there can go Thrift Shopping. This tiny detail allowed us to be more creative and so we produced a Cold Opening where Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are playing cards when Ryan Lewis asks him the same question. In the original video they did this over the opening shot and we never saw the interaction between the two characters, so we were able to add something new to the piece. 

Post Production

Out of all the skill areas, this area was the one I learnt the most from out of the Thrift Shop Video. This is because I used Final Cut Pro to actually edit a whole video together whereas before I had only used it to add graphics to my BSR opening. I learnt how to use the razor too and the select tool to cut the videos and an important aspect of Music Videos is to cut to the beat so this is exactly what we did. Out of all the editing software I've used Final Cut seems to be the best.

Digital Technology

Through this task I became more confident and skilled with the camcorder and I was able to use different camera shots and angles for this production. I also used some camera movements I had never used before like the tilt up in the cold opening.

Skills Reflection

 Research & Planning

In Year 12 our task was to create an opening sequence for a British Social Realism Film. This was a genre of film I did not regularly watch so doing research for this was vital. For some research into what the conventions of British Social Realism Film are we found YouTube clips of British Social Realism films and looked at the technical aspects of it and found some conventions within the genre for it. To understand what the exam board required of us we looked at past students work and evaluated it looking at the positives, the negatives and how we could improve on it. The institution we were creating the film for was film 4 and so we had to research them heavily to find what kind of films they generally produce so we looked at their ethos and history and examples of their films.

 We also needed to know who our target audience was so we created vox pops and asked them various questions. Some of the questions we asked were if they were watched BSR films and whether or not they thought our idea was good. We also created a theoretical audience for our film in a PowerPoint slide and said what kind of films our audience watch and what they do in their free time.

 We also had to do a lot of planning to make sure the production process went smoothly and during this we made; call sheets, location recces, cast list and location lists. All these things helped us during the production phase as it gave us a clear guide.



From this I became much better at understanding what my audience is like through research as we can see from my original 'Meet the Audience' blog to the more recent one which included much more detail.

Another example of how I improved my research and planning skills is my planning for when, where and what I will film during production. An example of this is my shooting scripts for my BSR film and the Music Video Mashup


If we compare these two shooting scripts we can see that the first one which is the one for the mash-up has much more detail. As well as that during production we actually followed it better meaning it was less of a disaster and made the editing process much easier on us as we didn't have to salvage a mess.

Conventions

Camera and Editing

To make a BSR film you have to use the conventions of BSR. Using the research I found out the conventions of all the technical aspects of BSR films.  Here is an example of a blog post looking at camera and editing in a BSR film and what about it is conventional in a BSR film. Some conventions of camera typically was that there was an establishing shot in the opening sequence for most of the films. We also noticed that the editing in these films is generally very basic and consist of mainly cuts to add to the sense of realism created. One way I improved was that I learned how to use continuity editing better as when we compare my opening sequence with my continuity editing exercise it was a much better piece. My editing in general improved to as it looked smoother and more refined than previous pieces of work.

Themes and Narrative

The theme of our film was racism and from researching we found that this was a very common theme in BSR and we saw that BSR films normally have a negative theme like poverty or abuse so our was keeping with these which was good. This is England is a film which has some similar elements to ours as we both had scenes of racism where a man betas another man due to his race and we see the corruption of youth too as Shaun in This is England witnesses the abuse so does Joe in our film. For narrative we looked at Mckee's theory and tried to follow it as best we could. McKee's narrative involves an; exposition, agents of change, conflict, elaboration and a climax. I felt I improved with narrative over the year as my BSR opening told a much clearer story than my continuity editing exercise. 

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is a big part in all films an encompasses very key elements including; location, actors, costume, era and props. When we were planning our BSR production we kept all these things in mind and wanted all these things to match what they would be in a BSR films. This is why in our shooting script we paid such detail into the mise-en-scene so detailing who our actors were where we were filming and what equipment we needed as props. We saw that in BSR films most of the character live in poverty or run down areas, this is why in our film we used mise en scene to match this. For example in my opening sequence we set the largest scene the fight scene in a run down alleyway and had the characters wearing very cheap clothing.

Sound

In order to keep the idea of realism many BSR films have only diegetic sounds meaning what we hear is what the characters are hearing with the odd exception for a voice over or soundtrack. We kept the same style in our film and keep most of the sound diegetic mainly being dialogue.

Creativity

The definition for creativity given by Csikszentmihalyi was "creativity occurs when a person, using the symbols of a given domain has a new idea or sees a new pattern, and when this novelty is selected by the appropriate field for inclusion into the relevant domain. This means that when someone comes up for a new idea for something within the restriction of a genre and the conventions within it and is approved by the teacher and deemed worthy by the exam board then it is creative. I showed this when I came up for my idea about a BSR film as it stuck to the conventions and was a new idea which was approved by my teachers. When we compare this task to the continuity editing exercise I showed a lot more creativity with the story and the the editing techniques I used as in the continuity editing exercise I just used simple cuts that told a story in chronological order but for the BSR opening I used the idea of parallel editing which added another level of depth to the piece.

Post Production

Video
I think the biggest improvement of mine over the year has been my editing. I learned many new techniques such as; match on action, continuity editing, parallel editing , fades, dissolves and many  more. These techniques allowed me to improve upon my work and saw a drastic change in the quality of my continuity editing exercise to my BSR opening. For example in the editing exercise the clips jump around and there is very little continuity but in the opening there was much more continuity and it flowed much better.

Sounds
Most BSR films consist of mainly diegetic sound meaning what we hear is what the characters hear with the exception of some voice overs or music. In my film most of the sound was through the dialogue exchanged by the characters. I used the dialogue recorded by the camera which made my job easier but the quality of the sound was not as high as it could have been if I used a mic. Sometimes when a character was speaking when off-screen I had to separate  the sound from the video and place it over the clip I wanted it to play under.

Graphics
For graphics I learned that the graphics in BSR films are played over the video which differs from other types of films where the graphics are shown on the screen by themselves. In order to do this we imported the clips and the graphics into final cut and placed the graphics on a higher layer than the video of the film. This helped me imitate a BSR film opening even more as I followed one of the conventions.

Digital Technology

Hardware (Digital Equipment)

For the course the digital equipment we used were the Cameras and the Macs. I have developed my understanding how different camera angle and shots can convey different meanings. For example in this shot in my opening I used a low angle of the bully to connote his authority over the other character.

Software Digital Programs

When making my BSR piece I became proficient with iMovie an editing software, something within iMovie that I never did before was adding in external audio into the movie and editing it. I did this with the music for the film and also recorded basic background noise that I put into the film. As well as iMovie I used final cut to add in the graphics. Final cut is something I have never used before so everything was new to me but I learned how to add in images and place them into the timeline.

Online (Web Base Technologies)

At the beginning of the year when I made blog posts t on blogger and not use any other form of digital technology. As  the year went on however I began using other technologies such as E-maze in my evaluation.

Week One Reflection

In this week we were asked to decide between making a short film and music video. At first our class unanimously decided to make a short film but then after some thinking we realized that we know the ins and outs of music videos much better than we do short films. Many of us have only watched very few short films but have watched a lot more music videos in comparison, meaning our attempt at a music video is more likely to be a better imitation than out attempt at a short film which is very new territory for us. Also during the end of year 12 we made a segment for Thrift Shop which gave us some experience with it. So as a class we got together and decided that the best thing for us would be to make a Music Video as we feel we can get more marks for it. Other had an idea they had for a short film which they're really keen on and so will continue with a short film.

My initial idea for a music video is to make a video for 'Can't Stand Losing You by The Police'. In the music video I will have a cold opening of a Girl breaking up and closing the door on him. Then when the music starts playing we see him walking home and all of a sudden a guy in Rabbit costume starts following him and wherever he goes the Rabbit is waiting for him. He eventually makes it home locking the Rabbit out until he feels bad for him and lets him inside then we see a montage of them playing video games getting drunk and just having a good time. The man wakes up the next morning and can't see the Rabbit anywhere until he sees a Rabbit Teddy Bear on the floor and gets an idea. He leaves the rabbit on the girls front door with a note reading "I can't stand losing you".

My idea for a short film came from the idea that a twist occurs that offsets the persons normal day. This is where I got the idea to make the lead character found a million dollars on the street and we see how he deals with it in a comedic sense so instead of buying Toasted Flakes he may buy Corn Flakes instead and feel proper fancy. This in until he sees a very flustered single mother in the street who drops her bags of shopping and as he helps her pick it up he places the money in one of the bags. The final shot will be a close up of him walking away pleased with himself and suddenly say "nah can't do it" and begin to run back to it.

I was hoping to work with one of my best friends San for the project. I feel she would make a good partner as she works hard and is as passionate about the project as me. We're close friends which means working as a team will be easier. 

My hopes for the project is that I manage to make a piece I can be proud of and get a good grade for. My worries for this project is that it all goes wrong and our work will be a mess.

Short Film Conventions

Duration

A short film is defined as being any film that is under 35 minutes long but is usually between 5 and 10 minutes

This film follows the general trend of most films by being on 8 minutes long it does this by having a short simple story and not giving the characters any backstory. The impact this has on the audience is that it does not require as much concentration and effort to watch as a feature length film would be meaning they can just watch the film without needing to free up 3 hours of free time. I could use this by making my film short and would do this by giving it a simple narrative where a guy is running away from an angry duck.

Budget

Short films are usually very low budget which we can see in their use of mise en scene, equipment and cast.

We can see in this film they are using a small budget as they actors are not very well known and so would work for cheaper. The locations are real and not sets which saves costs, the mise en scene is very basic and thereis nothing too extravagant for example she wears a hoodie for most of the film.The quality is quite good but high quality digital cameras are not that expensive especially if rented. They would use a small budget simply because they did not have access to large funds. The impact a small budget film like this has is that it could take away from the verisimilitude of the story but a small budget performed well can avoid this like this film does and you don't really notice the small budget unless you're looking for it. In my film I'm going to have to use a small budget and will only be given the equipment, everything else like mise-en-scene and actors I will have to find myself most likely for free. I would do this by making a film set in this area with actors who are around the ga eof myself and my friends so I could include them in my film, to do this I could make a film about a student failing at school.

Storyline

The storylines of short films are usually basic as they only have a short time to establish it but it can still be quite hard to interpret. Some can follow the traditional todorov narrative, a more unconventional storyline.

This film is an example of how short films normally have a very simple narrative as this film is about 3 boys waiting for their friend to get ready while they talk about tight jeans. The characters backstories are not established and it doesn't even tell us where they are waiting to go to. The effect this has on the audience is that it makes watching the film a lot easier and don't have to think too much when watching and can just enjoy. I would definitely use this style in my film as our film has to be 5 minutes long so a complex storyline would not work a film with a story like this would be perfect. For my short film I would create a film where two groups of boys in a park fight over which football is there as they look the exact same.

Characters

There are usually between one and three key characters and little background is given.

https://vimeo.com/117849018 (full film)

Skyborn is a short film about a father and son set in a post apocalyptic world and these are the only 2 characters in the film. We don't know what happened to the mother or where the fog came from. The impact this has on the audience is that may find it harder to relate to the characters as the reason for their motives aren't always clear but I think Skyborn still gets it across very well and we can understand why they do what they do. For instance you don't need any backstory to get across how much the Dad loves his Son in this film. I would only use a maximum of 3 main characters in this film who would get most of the screen time but not give any of their background and just show them as who they are now. The story would centre around these characters and any interaction with another character would be brief.

Twist

Short films usually contain an unexpected turn of events which breaks up the normal day which begins the film

In this film we see that a man finds out he has a terminal illness which forces him out of his normal mundane day to day life which is the twist of the film.Why short films do this is because firstly a twist sets up a story really well and like this film him finding out he has cancer creates an realistic reason for him to go as crazy as he did which was more entertaining than his normal life. .The effect this has on the audience is that it keeps them interested and is the hook that makes them follow the film throughout. I would use a twist early on in my film to set up the story that will follow for instance I will have someone find a million pounds in the street.

Abstract Creativity

Ideas, themes and ideology in short film are often abstract, even controversial.

https://vimeo.com/37463920 (full film)

The Park is a film which deals with abuse and homosexuality two very controversial topics in today's society. It also creates a twist in that one of the boys is being abused by their mother not their father which is what is stereotypically seen in film. One of the boys who brags about the amount of girls he gets is actually homosexual but is trying to hide that fact about him. Short films tend to do this a lot more than feature length films as films that deal with controversial topics don't get a large audience and so won't get the money back that it cost to make, however short films are generally cheaper so can deal with controversy without worrying about money .Dealing with controversial topics in films impact the audience in many different ways. The creator may have chosen to make the film so controversial as to sway people's opinions about certain topics like abuse or homosexuality. I would use this in my film and a controversial topic I might feature is abortion and have a girl who becomes pregnant when she is teenager face the choice of aborting it or not.

Niche

Short films often tell stories with little to no mainstream appeal, lacking traditional film sellability.

Spirit Stones is a film that looks at and explorers Aboriginal Culture which is not that apparent globally and only has a small society in Australia, so to most people this film would not appeal to them especially when we don't fully understand the ritual that is taking place and what the people are saying. Like with a controversial film and niche one would exist as a short film and not a feature length film as money is not as much of an issue and so not getting it back is not as problematic. The impact a niche film like this is that it could bore them as they do not understand what is going on and they don't relate to it or it could teach them about it like the Aboriginal culture. I could use a Niche style of making my film about a relatively unknown character from history that would not hold much appeal as not many people would know about it.

Emotional

Some short films usually convey a very clear singular strong emotion to the audience

This film you wanna get pizza has one constant emotion running through and that is being high and the typical conventions of it as 'having the muchies' as the entire film is about the dilemma of ordering a pizza. Short films normally only get across one emotion like this and have it as a main drive to the story as it allows the audience to relate to the characters quicker and understand their motives if they can see what emotion they are feeling easily. The impact this has on the audience is that it makes the film more enjoyable for them and easier to follow as if in a 5 minute film there was many emotions it would be too complicated for the audience. If I was to make a short film the focus I might choose to focus on is happy as I think in order to do a sad emotion in a film is hard enough and it being limited to 5 minutes make its harder whereas happiness and putting the audience in a better mood is much easier. I could do this by making a film about someone finding a million pounds in the streets.

Sound

Some shport films often have very little dialogue and a lot use voice overs to convey the story quicker. Music is a large part of most short films as it helps establish the mood in a way dialogue can't

This film has no dialogue and the story is told by the characters actions and facial expressions. The repetition we see everyday means that when the repetition is broken we know something is wrong like when we think the kid has died but then in reality we see that he just got better and is out of hospital. Having no dialogue is a short film is used because sometimes dialogue can take too long to explain what is happening in the film and just seeing it happen is a much quicker and better way. Sometimes however the story is just set up so that it works better without dialogue and I think the bond made between these two characters is much stronger because they don't talk. The impact this has on the audience is that they feel more involved in the film as they have to carefully watch it to understand what the characters are feeling.  A short film I could produce where there is no dialogue is where two people working in a office only communicate by exchanging post it notes to each other and are love interests to each other.

Shot by Shot Thrift Shop Remake

Mashup Task

The Task

For this preliminary task our class was each given a section of Thrift Shop and were asked to design a music video for it using a different style of music video each for example one group did a Homage to Charlie Chaplin. The style my group chose was a shot by shot recreation of the first 45 seconds of the music video.

The Process

This task was my first time using Final Cut to edit a video together. Firstly we had to import all our footage into the clip bank.

Then we had to choose the clips we wanted and we placed them on the timeline and using the razor and select tool choose how long we wanted to clip to be choosing where the clip starts and ends and placed it on the timeline where we wanted.

Cutting at the right time is a lot more important with music videos than any other type of media text. You have to pay close attention to the music as you have to 'cut to the beat'. This is where you choose one particular element of the music for example the drums and you cut every time at specific times matching the beat. 

Many music videos adjust the filter of the visuals which can add another level of depth to it, so if the music video is depressing they would dampen the colours to match this. Thrift shop is a music video with high key lighting and colours and so we attempted to recreate this in production and post production as best we could. However this was difficult as we had to use natural lighting and so what we were given is what we had to roll with. In post production we tried to change the filters but as a team decided that it looked better with what we had already recorded.