When I embarked on this momentous undertaking, I had three music videos that I used as my primary sources of inspiration. That being: Marry the Night by Lady GaGa for its slow paced storyline and cinematic wide pans and use of fire.
Then there was Alright by Kendrick Lamar for its incorporation of black and white video, politically charged lyrics and death-defying stunts all in one masterpiece of a music video.
And lastly, Let It Go by James Bay for its somber pans and focus pulls, toppled with the understated fact that everything around him was burning to the ground, making for a timeless work of art.
I tried very hard to emulate each of the best aspects of these music videos and I'm quite happy with the results. My pacing wasn't quite as quick as Lady GaGa's but thats because I wasn't able to make it as long as I wanted it to be, so I had to speed things up a lot.
And although I didn't go for a black and white video like Kendrick Lamar's, it was still monochrome which gave it a similar feel. So I was happy with it as it did it's job and adding dark moods to the music video.
I was able to incorporate some somber, slow tracking shots (like the burning picture frame) just like in James Bay's music video which I really really liked and thought it added a lot of cinematic quality to it and some overall great visuals.
One issue I had with filming in the public, were the members of the public. Occasionally I had to deal with nosey and inquisitive members of the public strolling along into shot, and asking what's going on. Although I'm usually very happy to help with situations like this, on some of the shoots we had very limited time to film and really counted afford to entertain any bi-standers. For example in the screenshot above, you can see two pedestrians that walk up behind the Rob and Sophia and end up remaining in shot for quite a while. So I had to stop recording and patiently wait for them to leave. There's not much I could of done to prevent this other than blocking off the street, but that would of been a bit drastic for the level of production I was working with. In future, I'll just try to be more patient and make sure we're not pressed for time to film everything.
One problem I faced when filming the 'burning picture' scenes is that it was so windy that night! Every time I propped the picture frame up, it would just fall right back down. I reckoned that if I the flip out stand that was attached to the back of the frame could flip out more, it would give it enough support to withstand the wind. But I bought that frame for just .99p and in trying to pull out the stand, I ripped the whole thing off! So now I have a frame with no stand at all on a very winy night. So Josh Watts, my pyrotechitian, searched around the garden for a brick and finallly found one. The only thing is that it was still attached to our wall. But that didn't stop Josh! No, he broke two bricks off the actual wall to prop up the frame. In all fairness though, it worked really well! I was able to wedge the frame onto the bricks so it was very very stable, it wasn't going anywhere! Because of this we were able to film the scene without the worry of wind blowing away our props.
That scene is at 2:17 in the music video embedded down below.
- £300 for use of the Komedia - £10 for programs - £75 on refreshments (sparkling apple juice, finger foods, etc) - £15 on cutlery, cups, etc - £100 on printed DVD copies with full packaging
"This video is really great, when you first told me about your plans for it I thought it was wildly ambitious but you’ve executed it so well. I also can’t believe how good the quality is considering a lot of it was shot in the dark - there is no noise! There’s some shots which are absolutely stunning. I’d suggest in future considering the pacing of shots as it seems like some of them are sped up or slowed down to fit the edit but really that’s just being picky. Also I wonder if the letter boxing is a bit extreme but at the same time I understand that this is an artistic choice. I love the fire effects and the embers at the end!" - Tom Arthur
I was greatly inspired by Adele's 'Hello' music video (directed by Xavier Dolan) as regards it's colour grading. It uses a grade sort of like a sepia, but with an earthy green tint. That was the effect I wanted to emulate too, but just a bit warmer. I chose to make it warmer as this music video heavily centres around the theme of fire thus I thought it would be appropriate for it to be warmer. I think it worked well and made the music video feel moodier and emotional, which was my main aspiration for this music video. It also helped on a technical level as a lot of the night time scenes were tinted in an awful deep orange glow from the street lights above. This made the video look ugly and amateur. So colour correcting and grading it this way really helped save the footage.
These four walls contain the night. Grey hanging heavy on my dying light. Sensible drinking fools us to believing that we're not in a box, sober. Hold tight, I'll drive.
Burning to be individual: crisis of the lonely habitual, living the holy seventh continually... Chorus: I'm a flame in a glass cage, no game, waiting for the choke. Fingertips buzz electric with the itch to go go. I'm a flame, burning slow. Girls, skin and bone, dressed in white. Scorn our scarlet letters. Superiority in their humility, silent lies. Hurry home little girls and cry. Chorus: I'm a flame in a glass cage, no game, waiting for the choke. Fingertips buzz electric with the itch to go go. I'm a flame, burning slow. I'm gonna stretch my moral fibre until I break, until I crack. Watch me fight this losing battle, what else can I do? Can't you tell I'm dying here to feel your hand upon my back. Close your eyes to passing time as I waste away for you, waste away for you. For you... For you... Chorus: I'm a flame in a glass cage, no game, waiting for the choke. Fingertips buzz electric with the itch to go go. I'm a flame, burning slow.
What a blessing! I was just about to spend £54 on stock footage of a burn burning from Shutterstock but I decided to have another quick look, and I this miracle clip that I didn't find on my previous searches, of a car burning completely in HD for FREE! No Watermarks at all, all I need to do is credit the author, which I will gladly do in the end credits of my music video.
I would of preferred to have that wide side shot that my original clip had, but due to my major personal budget constraints, I really can't complain, this new footage is much better is so many other ways! For example, it's free, it's in HD, it's free, it documents the entire burning of the car (Some 10 minutes of footage!), oh, and it's free! Old
"I grant to the director or licensees or assignees the permission to can the above-mentioned video clips either separately or together, either wholly or in part, the perpetual and irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish video and/or photographs of me, or where I may be included for editorial trade, product advertising and such other fashion /business purpose in any manner and medium."
That was the letter I sent to Rob Kingdon, Sophia Watts, Will Farrant, Kim Farrant and Seb Antoney. They all signed it but are not able to hand it back before the time of the deadline for FMP submission.
All the locations were either filmed in public areas (Woods, etc) or in my house, thus did not require location permissions.
I was supposed to use an LED light with my fingers wiggling in front of it to simulate the warm glow of fire flickering onto Will Farrant's face. I was going to do this by using a 12v to 180v adapter and amp for a car's cigarette lighter socket.
But unfortunately, because of budget constraints I just couldn't afford one at the time. This was a major major set back and a difficult obstacle to overcome. So I had to think quickly as to how I would pull off the effect without it. At first I thought I could use the flash from my phone, but it's lighting was just too harsh. Then I thought I could use my phone and play a video of a roaring fire on full brightness, right next to his face. But even at full brightness, it just wasn't bright enough!
So in the end I had to add that effect in post. I did think by masking and keyframing a Strobe Light effect over his face, lowering its opacity right down and randomising the strobe intervals. And to an extent it worked, but I fear that my audience will just think it's a camera settings mistake, and that its just an unwanted flicker.
In future, I'll make sure I can actually afford everything on my budget, especially the most vital things.
You can see my attempt at fire flickering on Will's face in the music video embedded below at the 3:20 mark. I think it went reasonably well. When I conducted a focus group they were able able to tell that it's meant to be fire flickering on his face, so I'm happy with that!
I also needed to be able to film Rob whilst chasing after him. This is a very ambitious shot to achieve but thankfully, with the help of a steadycam, it was far more achievable. I did a few practice shots when I got to the location, after previously practicing in length the day before.
The steadycam wasn't going to give us those smooth and fluid shots by itself. So I had to make sure Rob was running and a speed that's fast enough to show that he is actually running. But slow enough that'll have a chance at following him worth the steadycam. To help sell this effect I also got rob to exaggerate his facial expressions and arm-swinging movements. I did this to really make him look like he was running as fast as he possibly could.
I also made sure to film as wide as possible so that there was the possibility to stabilising it in post without cropping out Rob from the frame. Which came in very handy as I needed to employ this method.
You can see the chase shot I captured as the opening scene in the music video embedded below. I think it went rather well, and although I dip down quite a bit sometimes, on the whole I was able to keep Rob in frame for most of the shot.
This unit helped me to start working on the initial pre production, and make a start at getting my ideas on paper.
I did a mind map which helped me to broaden my concept and think about all the different aspects of my film. From the song I was going to use, to how I would stylise it and what themes it would centre around.
I also wrote up a blog post on some of the music videos that I was inspired by. These included Marry The Night by Lady Gaga. Which was very influential to me as a short film music video. One of the first I ever saw, and it's so edgy! Then there was Alright by Kendrick Lamar that incorporated black and white video, politically charged lyrics and death-defying stunts all in one masterpiece of a music video. And lastly, Let It Go by James Bay who's somber pans and focus pulls, toppled with the understated fact that everything around him was burning to the ground, made for a timeless work of art.
I'd like to use the best bits of all these music videos to sculpt and mould my music video into something belonging in their league.
Whats also helped me is to make a pre production folder, in which I included all the screenshots, and concept photos that I'm using to inspire the mood and feel of my music video. Lots of fire, smoke, destruction, and Lana Del Rey. I will keep on adding content into this folder, and as I do so it will help focus my idea.
Next, I need to focus on doing more primary and secondary research into arsonist's, who they are and why they do what they do. And also on who my audience is, and what the want and expect from a music video.
I anticipated that my fog machine might be a problem. It being unusually cheap and all. So I made sure I had someone who knew a lot about machines to be there. However, I did not anticipate them not turning up!
And obviously, because the universe hates me for not turning the tap off when I'm brushing my teeth or something, it decides a fair punishment for me is to SCREW UP MY FOG MACHINE!
This is after testing it in length the day before a completely 'hot boxing' my living room. It was foggier than a Welsh winter's evening. But the very next day, when I was supposed to film the fog scenes of my music video, it just refused to produce anything! No fog came out! I was extremely enraged about that, but I was also annoyed that I wasted my my two cast member's time. That had come all the way to my house and for nothing.
So the next day I got my technician to have a look at it and praise the Lord, he was able to fix it! So I begged my actors to come back and film it before they went back to Devon. It wasn't really what I wanted, but it was marginably useable. So I was content.
What I have learnt from this:
I won't buy cheap equipment unless I know it will work. Other than that I will make the sacrifice and invest in better equipment. I will also make sure that my technician is available for the shooting day, and that the equipment is fully tested before hand to make sure it still works.
Practical One of the most important practical effects in the music video, will be illuminating the officers face with the warm flicker of fire. I plan on doing this by using a multicoloured LED light that I booked out from the college. I've done research into how I can achieve an 'flickering' fire effect, and it's actually really easy! It's free too, which is the best part. All I need to do is wiggle my fingers directly in front of the light and it'll perfectly simulate flickering fire! One issue I can see me encountering is being able to power up the light as it does not use batteries. For this scene we'll be filming in an abandoned shed in the middle of nowhere so it's important that I figure out a power source. My idea is to buy an 3-pin power adapter for a car. This will allow me to power up the 3-pin plug for the light, simply from the cars v9 socket . I have already sourced a 30 metre extension cable which is more than enough distance than I'll need and we can park the car right next to the shed. Another issue I may face is not being able to stabalise the 'chase' footage of Rob Kingdon. As stated in my blog post on setting up and testing the Steadycam, a great amount of my music video will comprise of shots of my protagonist running through the woods. I will be trying to style it after the running scenes in the music video 'Hunger of the Pine' by Alt-J.
These scenes will be difficult to achieve as I don't want to have the camera on a tripod, recording boring motionless shots of Rob running through the woods. I want to give it a sense of fast movement and make the audience feel as if he's being chased, and that they're the ones chasing him. One issue I can see myself facing is not being able to get stable-enough shots of him. Even though I will have use of the steadycam from college, which I know is balanced already, I still need to be able to run as smoothly as possible and steer it properly. A lot can go wrong. So to counter this I will practice running with it as many times before as need be, until I know I can achieve a stab-enough shot. I will also try run as slowly as possible and compensate the speed adjusts in post production to correct it. And I will make use of the stabilisation software in Adobe Premiere to help stabilise the footage in post. Lastly, I will shoot very wide-angle shots so that I have the option in post production to zoom into the footage during stabilisation, and still not crop out Rob as he runs in camera.
Theoretical A big problem that I hope I don't have to face, is not having confident actors. As I'm using complete beginners to star in these major rolls, it's very likely that they show signs of insecurity, which will make the characters personalities suffer. As my characters are meant to be very confident, outgoing individuals. To combat this I will really focus and care for my talent. Make them feel as comfortable as possible. Make them know that they can do as many take as they need to get it right. And constantly reassure them that they're doing great, and how much I deeply appreciate their help, which I do! Technical I might face an issue with my fog machine, as I got it on sale, have never used one before, and don't have great experiences with machines of this kind. The trouble has already started as I ordered the fog machine 10 days ago and only just got a message from paypal saying that my order had been cancel! Why it has been cancelled? I have no idea! I've been on the phone to them for 2 hours and have sent back and forth quite a few strongly worded emails. And have gotten no where. I won't ever be using them again and have since ordered it again, but on my executive producers account. But I have a friend that is a mechanic, and shall be using him to fix and control the fog machine, should there be an issues with it. Alway best to be prepared!
For my music video, I want it to be the most ambitious project I have ever attempted, to date. I will be trying something new (for me) and exciting in both a practical (In camera) and a composited aspect. Practical (In Camera) I want to recreate a dramatic scene in one of my favourite music videos. Summertime Sadness, by Lana Del Rey. In the scene, we see Lana Del Rey in an almost 'purgatory' atmosphere, where she seem to be completely surrounded by and immersed in, fog. I love the look and feel of this scene and think it will fit in perfectly in my music video. I found behind the scenes images of how it was done, besides the fog machine and lighting, what really sells the effect is the white backdrop she's standing in front of. This helps sells the 'infinite space of fog' effect. This is because it matches the colour of the fog, without it the space behind her would just be black, and you'll see that in the gaps in the fog coverage.
So for this scene I will get my actress to stand in front of the white wall in my living room and completely surround her in fog from a fog machine I bought for the music video. And hopefully I should be able to sell the effect! My only worry is that the fog machine won't work or won't produce enough fog to sell the effect. If it doesn't I'll have to layer more fog over it in post production. Composited I want to visually create an understated scene of a house in the distance on a dark night, with fire blazing out of one of the windows. Obviously, for financial, health and safety reasons, I can't burn a house down to the ground. So for this effect I'm going to film my rank of houses one night from a distance, and add fire effects on top of it in post. I have already purchased the fire effect files and the licensing to use them (On sale for £10). For the scene in crop into the video a bit, then using keyframing, make the scene slowly pan from the right to the left, while to window is on fire. My only worry is that it won't look real enough! So I've watched many many tutorial videos on how to sell the effect and will do everything I can to nail it. By adding little bits of detail, like darkening the walls and window frame around the fire, and shattering glass, and thick black smoke.
This section was a quite a difficult one. There's nothing I find harder than blogging when it comes to my FMP. But for obviously reason, I have to do it if I want to get a distinction, and I know I'll appreciate the significance and importance of it when I'm workin in the industry. I'm really not an 'essay' person, but I hope that changes! BUT THAT UNIT IS DONE NOW! Now I will be focusing on writing more essays in 4 other units. In this unit I was able to employ the use of a questionnaire, which was conducted online to candidates all over the world. I wrote up a critical analysis of various music videos (Anaconda by Nicki Minaj, Alright by Kendrick Lamar, Let It Go by James Bay, Hunger of the Pine by Alt-J & Marry The Night by Lady GaGa). These all helped mould my music video, as I was so inspired in different ways by each of them. I was inspired cinematically by Kendrick Lamar, pacing-wise by Lady GaGa, aesthetically by James Bay, dramatically by Alt-J and daringly by Nicki Minaj. What I'd like to do differently next time, is get more people to answer my questionnaire, as I think it'll give it a more diverse spectrum of answers. Which can only help me narrow down on specific aspects of how I will shoot, edit, and market my product.
I distributed my questionnaire to 20 individuals over three countries on different sides of the world. England, St. Lucia and China. I did this to give it a more diverse base of answers. The participants were aged 16-27 and all came from different walks of life. I distributed the questionnaire online, using Google Forms, and sent the link via email, facebook messenger and whatsapp. They all responded within a day and brought back very interesting results. Like the fact that the greater majority of them prefer dramatic music videos, which is great for me as my FMP is going to be a dramatic music video!
I wouldn't say research has changed my idea, rather it has enhanced it. My vision for the better half of a year now has been to make this music video centring on the themes of love, passion, death, suicide, domestic abuse and arson (Go big or go home). That has never changed. But as time went on and I delved deeper into my research I was able to mould my characters and plot into a more cohesive and harmonious concept.
For example my protagonist, Rob Kingdon, was originally meant to commit the act of arson to get a form of sexual gratification. But upon in depth research, I found that a very small percentage of arsonists are driven my a sexual desire, the greater majority do it because of anger and frustration. So that was one way in which research affected my idea.
A music video I found called Hunger of the Pine' by Alt-J was also a big inspiration for me.
It's a cinematic masterpiece and is oozing 'edge'. Which is what I wanted my music video to do. I studied the opening 'running scenes' to try understand how they filmed it. Then I tried to emulate it, as seen in this blog post. I also liked how he poured the jerry can of gasoline over his head in the end, I thought it was bold and daring. So I wanted my protagonist to do something similar, in his final act of arson.
A great amount of my music video will comprise of shots of my protagonist running through the woods, I was trying to style it after the running scenes in the music video 'Hunger of the Pine' by Alt-J.
These scenes are not by any means easy to achieve. In order to be able to get stable-enough footage of my chasing after him, I had to use a stabiliser. So I booked out the steadycam from the college and took it out on some test shots. But before I could do this I needed to make sure it was balanced to my camera. This took up the most time was I had a very heavy camera and their weren't enough weights to balance it! But in the end, with a lot of tinkering, Toby and I were able to sort it out and take it for a spin along the corridor!
This practice was invaluable was I was able to know what was need to balance it, and how to steer the steadycam to get the smoothest shots. So when it came to the production day, I was able to get those scenes very quickly and effortlessly.
For my recce I went to Vallis Road. This is a road with lots of narrow, old stone houses. Fitting for the aesthetic and character profiles.
It is a very quaint street in the small countryside town of Frome, Somerset. However, as night falls and the streetlights shine on the stone walls, it transforms it into a dark, eerie and dangerous old english town. Perfect for the look I’m going for. I will shoot video of the houses at dusk and then in After Effects I will add fire effects to visualise a flat burning down.
Pre Production, for me, is always the hardest part of the production. I find it incredibly difficult to just sit down, and put all my thoughts on paper. But after a long internal battle with myself, I was able to get all of it done. As it is the case every time, I found it invaluable to the production. I was able to give each member of the cast and crew a copy of a script and storyboard which they were able to study and prepare for the production days.
I didn't quite like the drawing on my storyboards, but I don't claim to be an artist! I think a five year old has a better chance at that than me... In future, I would like to have better drawn storyboards, as they were the main document used with the cast and crew. I would also like to get all the pre production work completed much earlier before the production day, to help minimise stress before filming.
We have now finished filming all the fundamental scenes of 'BURN' and the editing process is soon to start. The filming of this music video has not been without its trails and tribulations. I shall list and explain all the major issues. 1) Actors - My actors weren't professional, nor did thy have any form of acting experience. This made them were difficult to work with, merely because everything had to explained in much greater detail, and they easily became disinterested in working if they weren't occupied on set. Which is going to be inevitable on any set. Due to their lack of passion in the project they became very unreliable. On a number of occasions they cancelled last minute, simply because they couldn't be bothered to act. This caused me a great deal of stress and anxiety as something like that, especially on an already tight time budget, really throws the whole production in chaos. I've learnt from this though, and I won't be using person with no drive for acting for any of my productions again. It really isn't worth it. Not only is scheduling a headache, but the acting will more than likely be very poor. 2) Locations - I had a location set to film at, in the woods at Great Elm, Frome. But because of sudden scheduling chaos, we wouldn't have another chance to film in those woods again, till after the deadline. So I was frantically trying to find another suitable abandoned shed in the middle of the woods, and then we stumbled on the most perfect location ever, completely by fluke! It had everything we needed for the scene, and it was actually more ideal than our original location! So I've learnt to not give up hope when one location falls through, there's always going to be another suitable place to use, even if you need to tweak your script a little.
On the 16th of June we will host the End of Year Show at the acclaimed Komedia theatre in Bath. This will be an exciting opportunity for us to showcase our final major projects. Ideas for the showcase: 1) As there will be a lot of industry professionals there, we could all get business/contact cards done to give out on the night, to people that might be interested in working with/hiring us. This would be a great way to get some exposure. 2) We should play all the films in their entirety and then offer a DVD that the audience can purchase after the show, with all the films, and extended edits on them. Who Should Be Invited? 1) James Whetherly - He is a Grammy nominated music video director (And we will be showcasing quite a few music videos) plus he knows us all and has spoken to & helped us with our projects. 2) Codsteaks - They are an industry leading set production and design company based in Bristol, another one of the companies we visited this year. They are highly skilled and knowledgable and took a genuine interest to us. They even asked to be invited to see our finished products, so it only makes sense to invite them!
