One evening, when I was out on my longboard, I was cruising near some gorgeous, lit buildings in my city, and wondered whether I could manage to shoot a clip on my iPhone, and make it look as smooth as possible. It turned out to look beautiful, as if I've used a stabiliser, except the few seconds I took to give my longboard more speed. Then, during the same night, I was near a building under construction, and I thought the wooden protection it had would look quite interesting, and it was another chance to practice the movement. Whether or not I will use my longboard to do this tracking movement in this particular project, it was a great idea to try and good practice.
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I watched a video some time ago on Youtube about how the famous David Fincher qoute unqoute 'highjacks our eyes' by his synchronous, smooth movements which follow the characters perfectly, and even the slightest movement is mimicked by the camera. This, as mentioned by the narrator of that video, helps the audience engage on another level with the characters and start to understand how each of their movements represent a slight change in emotion. I was so intrigued by this technique, that I decided to try it myself, with a twist. I asked Francesca, one of my actors, to pretend she's falling down, while I recorded her with my phone in slow motion. As the footage was way too slow, I added a x4 speed in Final Cut Pro, after which I was surprisingly satisfied with how it looked. The reason why I did this was to see whether it looks good and try it before shooting Aletta, in the following shots after she breaks the plates. Picking a location is a crucial part in the success of a music video. It instantly creates a mood for the video, and through the use of props and proper body language, it complements the message of the song. For my first shooting I will chose my room, specifically one of my walls, as it's black and I for a clean, minimalist yet dark look. At first, I wanted to shoot her with the light from a camera obscura sculpting her figure, but after I sealed my windows and cut a small hole in the middle of them, as I saw in Youtube videos, my camera didn't pick up enough light to film, therefore the image was all black. Trying this beforehand was a great idea, as it would've been uncomfortable to have my actor ready to shoot and not being able to. What I did do, having worked that much to seal my windows and glass door, I asked my mom to take a few portraits with my iPhone, because I saw that it managed to capture some light and make the image look very grainy, but reasonable enough to distinguish me and the upside-down houses of the neighbours. I also filmed the a part of the process with my phone, on time-lapse mode. For my second location, I will shoot at my friend's apartment, for the fact that he has strong neon lights with more colors, and even green, the color I will need for my video. I will empty his walls of pictures and the area of a sofa in order to have a simple space to put the chair on which Victor, one of the actors, will sit on. Moving on to the bath scene, my home will provid yet again a good place to shoot at. I will remove any distracting items around the bathtub, add fresh cut flowers and plant milk to the bath, instead of just plain water. The forest near my house will acte as my forth location, as the fog, empty trees and winter season creating an eerie mood, matching the music. During some scenes I will also add myself as a character, putting the camera on a tripod and filming. Finally, for the scene where Aletta breaks the plates, the place called 'Poligon' in the outskirts of my city came to my mind. Not only it is abandoned and full of junk and graffiti (again, helping the audience understand my take on the song more), but it will be a location to break plates at without distracting citizens.
Before shooting, I did a little research consisting of watching music videos for songs that I like. The video for the song 'Over' from Honors was by far my most preeminent inspiration, which is easily seen in my work. I adore both the song and the visuals. This first screenshot shows the girl, captured from aside with the city neon illuminating her, which, in my opinion looked gorgeous. Moreover, it feels way more personal to the viewer, something I tried to do in some of my shots. The second screenshot captures something I did for my music video for Lana del Rey's 'Blue Velvet'. In this case, compared to my preliminary work, and for my future music video, the square vintage looking clips inserted in between the 16:9 ones, are shot with the same actresses; it's original content. I plan to do this for the scene with Aletta and Victor. Finally, the use of lighting is a big clue for my upcoming video. I loved the green, sickly looking light on the actress, so I plan to do the same for the scene mentioned above, with my two actors. It gives off the perfect mood of uneasiness. The actual music video for the song I chose, 'Sirens of the Caspian' gave me a few ideas regarding types of shots and editing. The very first thing we see is the artist calmly floating underwater. This inspired the bathtub scene with Francesca, but there will be flowers in the water, for a feminine touch. The second screenshot captures more shots overlapped, creating a spirit-like moving figure. I thought this is a good twist to add to the shots of Francesca dancing, and a chance to broaden my editing skills. The last screencapture is similar to what I'll shoot with Francesca during the same shooting. As opposed to Sevdaliza's video, where she is shot from aside then looks to the camera but doesn't fully turn, my actress will turn fully to the camera, as I get a little further away from her. I think this, again, engages the audience more as she will break the 4th wall and sort of 'looks at the viewers', not just dances to the music. These last screenshots were taken from a music video that doesn't look at all like my upcoming video. I love the song itself, but my ideas look very different to how this video is. On one hand, the whole video is shot in one location, and I'll shoot mine in 5 different ones, and the color editing and lighting is bright and faded, but mine will be darker and moodier. On the other hand, both videos will incorporate dancing, but the one for 'Busy Earnin'' has a whole group of dancers, with a more street style of dance, and Francesca will dance slower and in a more feminine, soft way. Knowing how my video will not look like also helps to have a better mental image of the final product, and aid me in knowing myself and my style better. Just as locations, props also pay an important role in delivering the message to the viewer. I chose my items with care, thinking of each one and how they would contribute to the whole atmosphere. Fairy lights Fairy lights were a great prop to these shots, because I thought the color palette and overall look was a little to plain for a conceptual music video, so I had these on handy and wrapped them around her. They gave of a slightly more magical look, flaunted her waist, and represented the way she dances with the natural element of light. Glitter Moreover, glitter was one of my first thoughts when thinking about symbols for the music video. I was already envisioning a girl either with glitter on her face and body, or smudging it on someone else. In this case, it represents her feminine sensuality and hypnotic-like abilities she has over the boy. (picture with victor with glitter) Flowers Flowers are a must when it comes to aligning one's self with nature, which is what Francesca is portraying when in the bathtub. They represent growth, beauty and tenderness, a perfect addition to the bath with milky water. (picture from above) Matches Going with the same theme of reconnecting with the elements of nature, matches represent the fire element, completing the quartet of water, earth (the flowers), and air (her breath). She watched the fire closely, as she illuminates her face, in the efforts to try to understand it and become it. (fire close to her face) Plates
Finally, plates pay a very important role in the symbolism of the music video, and was very happy when my mother offered to buy some second hand ones. They represent how the character feels inside, fragile, broken and incomplete. The slow motion then adds a more dramatic effect and goes well with the melodic part. Moreover, as for my actor's, and my safety, I will try to break one before actually shooting, to see how far away the bits fly away, and how fragile they are, to calibrate the strength with which Aletta will throw them down. Then, I will ask her to throw them farther away from her, and will have rubbing alcohol at me, if there were to any kind of injury, in addition to a garbage bag to pick up the broken bits in order not to step in them. As my music video doesn't have dialogue, and they generally don't have, I had to think about the appropriate characters to mold to the visuals of Sevdaliza's song, only though image rather than conversations and character development. I needed two girls, in order to portray the positive and negative of femininity, and one boy to be the one mesmerised by the girl. To play the positive side of femininity I chose Francesca, who played last year in my film opening too, as the hallucination. She helped me create the look I wanted, as she is a talented dancer and moves graciously, being able to show her femininity. As for her costumes, she will have three: the first one will be a black crop top and black leggings, not having anything distracting from her dancing (i.e. patterns of unique clothes), the second outfit will be a white long dress that she will wear in the bath, showing purity and simplicity, plus I always liked that 'wet clothed' look, as it gives off a vulnerable yet beautiful look. Her last outfit is not yet planned, because of the changing weather (the scene is outside), therefore I will adapt to the climate of the day of the shooting. For my second female character I chose Aletta. Her colored hair will play an important role in the representation of her character, as it's generally seen as quite rebellious to have odd colored hair, especially as a teenager. In addition, I believe she will be able to get in character with ease and express the emotions though body language successfully. Her three costumes will be as follows: a black dress and heels for the neon light scene, showing her as a powerful person, dominating her significant other, some old, dark looking clothes for the scene where she breaks the plates, in order for her attire to match her inner state, and the last outfit is in the same position as Francesca's last, it will depend on the weather. For the male character I chose Victor, as he is Aletta's boyfriend, and they will be more comfortable to play together, and their interaction will be more genuine compared to two strangers. His outfit will consist of a white tshirt (for the glitter that Aletta will put on it to be visible), and a pair of black pants. Finally, I thought I would also introduce myself in the video, as I haven't been both an actor and director at the same time and I want to see how I manage both jobs, and to add a bit of my character to the work.
I will only appear in the last scene with the two girls, so as I mentioned above, I'm yet to find out what's most appropriate to wear. In order to ease my shoot and get a clearer idea on how my video will look like, I needed a script. I wasn't sure how a script for a music video would look like, as it's a very different type of video compared to a film opening or short film. I searched the internet for a template and I found this one, which I then personalised and added a few features to. Firstly, I analysed Sevdaliza's music video for the song, and fragmented it into seconds, after which I added lyrics to those intervals. The next thing that I wrote was the action happening in those intervals and the types of shots I thought would be the best. The last thing that I did was I categorised the song by intro, verse, chorus, pre-chorus and bridge, to again, get a clearer picture of the song's structure. This represents only a possibility how the music video could be, and acts more like a guideline, rather than a fixed rule. Sevdaliza is a not a mainstream artist yet not underground either. With about 150.000 followers on Instagram, she became better well known after her music video for 'Human', released in 2017. The director himself said that he wasn't expecting this much recognition for that video, but the stunning visuals and the creativity put into it shone through and attracted a wide audience, currently having almost 14 million views. Her latest album 'Ison' made it to nr. 1 in the iTunes charts, therefore her music continues to get more attention.
Considering that she was born in Iran, wrote and sang the song 'Bebin' in Farsi and uses different sounds and symbols from the Iranian culture, I can say that the natives from there appreciate her music even more than the international audience, due to sharing and understanding the cultural logic which the audience and song is part of too. In addition, this song was written referring to the US ban on immigrants from the Middle East, an issue which she is very passionate about. In her latest music video 'Shahmaran', she again focuses on racism and oppression of the African-American and middle eastern people. At the beginning of my chosen song, 'Sirens of the Caspian', she tells a legend in French, therefore I think the people that speak the language would be even more drawn to listen to the full song, compared to the ones that don't understand. As French is a very popular language, this song can appeal to a big part of the population. Furthermore, the age group that her music, respectively my music video appeals to, would probably be around 15-35. Her visuals include quite strange, animated visuals such as animal legs attached to her upper body in 'Human' and an odd animation of herself having a black chord going through her back in the music video for 'Marilyn Monroe'. This hyperreality brand is frequently seen in her work, even her profile picture on Instagram and her album covers. This peculiar mixture of the virtual with the real may not be pleasant for audiences who are too young as it can scare them and not get the actual message she's aiming to transmit, and the same goes for audiences of older generations, as they aren't that accustomed to the virtual world and would be attracted to more reality based visuals. As for my own work, the age group would be approximately the same, with the maximum age increasing to about 40. I'm including themes of the powerful feminine, thus kids and pre-teens would only focus on the physical, and wouldn't understand the actual sacredness and beauty beyond appearances of women. As for audiences older than 40 would maybe find some scenes too obscene or too abstract (such as the dancing scene). If we're referring to gender, I consider the female audiences to be more drawn to my music video due to the focus on the feminine energy and how it can come alive through different behaviours. Not only they can personally relate, but understand the differences between the negative and positive this energy can be manifested. When talking about audience, psychographics also come into play. If we look at the schema and the different categories of people, I would say my work would be most enjoyed by the 'explorer' type people, interested in self-identity and self development. The people who want to get a stronger message from a media product, rather than solely enjoying it aesthetically would probably like my music video, or the ones simply curious about more perspectives on what femininity means, and my personal take on it. Sevda Alizadeh or Sevdaliza is an Iranian-Dutch singer, producer and songwriter. Her style of music is quite unique, due to the genres it fits in, trip-hop and avant-pop and even experimental pop, her music being compared to the one of Portishead. Her art has themes of motherhood, identity and womanhood. I also took these themes and incorporated them in my work, which is to be seen later on. She enjoys writing descriptions on instagram explaining the meaning behind her art, which gives her a true sense of authenticity. An example would be this one, for her 2018 album 'The Calling'. She is also seen to interact on deeper level with her fans, asking them thought-provoking questions like the one seen below. This was one of the reasons I chose one of her songs, as she is more than a business or a public figure, a trend that seems to be quite prevalent among artists. Sevda, as she likes being called, posted a painting from 1800s, showing her encompassing interest in art, more than just music and writing. What I found intriguing was that her music video for Shahmaran was projected on a building in New York City, and this made me wonder: Would I like my music video to be presented to the public in this way? I would say no, as I want my work to be enjoyed alone or a significant other, in a more private or underground space. At last, I'd like to say that I'd be an unforgettable experience to see her live show. Nevertheless, she is an artist worth listening to, maybe just for her style if not the actual songs.
Below I copied the lyrics from my song I will use, in addition to writing a little bit about what I think the lyrics wants to convey and the meaning I want to give it.
[Intro] "C’est l’histoire d’un homme qui tombe d’un immeuble de cinquante étages. Le mec, au fur et à mesure de sa chute se répète sans cesse pour se rassurer : jusqu’ici tout va bien, jusqu’ici tout va bien, jusqu’ici tout va bien Mais l'important n’est pas la chute, c’est l’atterrissage." This part in French says: “this is the story of a man who falls from a 50 story building. On his way down past each floor, he keeps telling himself "so far, so good, so far, so good”. But the fall doesn’t matter. The landing does.“ What I understand by this quote is the way many of us go through life, unaware of the fact that we're free-falling into a pit of negative emotions and we pretend that we're not going to crash one say, or we're simply unconscious of our ourselves. The way this applies to my music video is how the boy, being seduced by the girl, thinks that there is nothing wrong going on, and that the relationship of the two is based on love, while it's not, it's constructed on the need for power and manipulation. He keeps 'falling' but he doesn't realise what will soon come. The 'crash' is represented by the scene where the girl breaks plates and has something similar to a mental breakdown, reminding the audience that outer negativity comes from inner negativity. [Verse] A siren is circling 'round sailor boy Her silence is rippling after Before he kissed her to stay wide awake Forgived her, please stay away The first line of this verse made me think of the way women can manipulate the men around them, 'circling' around them and getting what they want. I will present this concept by one of my girl actors walking slowly around a boy, him mesmerised and paralysed by her beauty and power. Ss the lyrics say, 'Her silence is rippling', the girl doesn't talk as she doesn't need to, her energy works for her. Then, following the lyrics, the boy kisses the girl, to satisfy his unbearable urge. [Pre-Chorus] He knows, he knows, he knows He knows, he knows, he knows He knows, he knows, he knows He knows Now, here the boy sort of 'knows' that he is being manipulated by his partner, but the repetition emphasises the fact that he's trying to convince himself that he does know what is true and what is not, while at the same time not being fully confident in himself. [Chorus] I said "hey, hey Oh, what a ship we sail!" We kissed our death to will There's no one left to take, to take This part is sort of tricky to analyse, but what I think it means is the 'ship' that they 'sail' in the relationship that they're trying to work out through difficult times. I said "hey, hey We're born to recreate" Sinful creature then The symbol of recreation is a pre-eminent one when talking about femininity, as females have to power to figuratively and literally create life. The way I show this in my video is by the communion of the girl and boy, and at the bathtub scene, where the girl breathes life into the four elements of the world: water, air, fire, earth. [Bridge] Away, away, away, away, away Away, away, away, away, away Away, away, away, away, away Away, away... This part pays an important role in my video, as it represents the constant worries and thoughts that go on daily in our heads, as a broken record, playing the same song on an on. On this part, I will mostly introduce shots of the 'negative' side of the female energy, with a few shots of the positive side, as the bridge takes up a quite long time from the song and I don't want it to be exaggeratedly repetitive and tiring. [Chorus] I said "hey, hey Oh, what a ship we sail!" We kissed our death to will There's no one left to take, to take I said "hey, hey We're born to recreate" Sinful creature then Away, away, away, away, away, away... |
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