To gather a greater understanding of what indie clothing is, so that the digi pack will really show the conventions of the genre or in fact push the conventions. I therefore did some research on the clothing.
The definition of indie is independant. This means that indie covers a wide range of clothing as it is what individual people decide on what to wear and what their style is. Girls tend to wear dresses and big cardigans with ankle boots topped with leather or denim jackets. From that style to the other extreme, it could be the most outragious clothing and would still class as indie, therefore this genre is hard to define. All types of genres could be added together and it would overall be classed as indie. Alexa Chung is a great icon to see what is classed as indie.
Getting towards the end of our filming sessions, we have developed the materials used. We changed our orginal tripod with a more larger and stable one, therefore, the stabilitly of the camera is better and therefore allows panning and tracking if needed. The zooming quality is also better.
We filmed down a 'corridor' of leaves which acted as an arch way. With the sun setting we got the sun shining through the leaves, which gave a great effect for the varity of lighting within the scenes. Also adding props that is associated with Alice in Wonderland, gave a great effect making it clearer to the audience what our filming is all about. The props consisted of a pocket watch and a 'Drink Me' Bottle.
I felt that this filming session went extremly well. I think that its due to the fact that we have a greater understanding of the shots and angles that are requried for the different scenes and how the camera works.
Before the summer, as a group we analysised a music video - 'Where is the love' by the Black Eyed Peas. The music video gives off many conotations throughout the music video. The major one that is constant throughout is the question mark poster. This could be used to represent the meaning that everyone should care for everyone else. This meaning is also shpwn in the name of the song and in various lyrics throughout the song.
There are various religious connotations contained within the lyrics - 'Practice what you preach' in which everyone is looking up to the sky and the lighting is brighter. Another scene in the music video that has a religious connotations is Che Guevara is painted on a brick wall, this also has a symbolic appearance within the video.
Mise en scene:
The main mise en scene in the video is the poster with the question mark, this is because this prop carries the most importance and focus to show to the viewer. Another prop that is also featured heavily, is the black van that the band travel in around the town. The clothing that the members of the band are wearing are 'casual' clothing. The reason for this, is that it allows the audience to feel that they have things in common with the 'popstars'.
Camera:
With the most constant connation, the question mark begins the music video with a close up, the reasoning for this, is that it allows focus upon the poster, showing the viewer that this image is going to be heavily featured. There are many close ups on the posters, this is again due to focus on the important parts that the viewer can associate with the video. Low angle to show the spray paint of Che Guevara. The low angle is used to show the domination of how important the rebilous leader was.
Due to the narrative story line, there is a lot of tracking as it follows many of the charaters with the question mark posters.
Lighting:
The lighting within the music video is dim during the narrative sections, this is due to the important storyline that is trying to be enhanced to the audience. However, in the chorus, the lighting appears lighter. This is due to the fact that this is the part where the audience is more likely going to associate the lyrics with the song. Therefore, if the scene is lighter, there will be more focus on the parts that attracts the audience more.
When planning for the Digipack, I decided to take the scenes from the video and use them for the back and front of the Digipack. I took the dolls house scene, the tea party scene and the hall with the cards falling. I created two shots for each scene, so therefore we would have a choice for the final outcome. After speaking to the rest of the group, they felt that the right scene for the digi pack would be the cards falling. Ideas below:
I then created the back cover for the Digipack. With this, i still kept the main scenes as above so that the front and back both linked together. The ideas for the back cover are singular images that linked with the front cover.
This photo shows one of the props that we used to film a scene that is taken for the orginal from Alice in Wonderland.
I made the wallpaper below, as origanally, I was going to use this paper and create our own dolls house appearance. However, I felt this wouldn't have give the same effect as actually using a dolls house in itself.
This was the tree that I was orginally going to use for one of the first scenes. However, speaking to sean (the other member in my group) felt that this wouldnt be right on camera, as we needed a single tree by itself.
This is the tree that we used for the actual filming. This was a single old looking tree that we both felt would be the right prop for the music video.
To prevent the music video looking tacky, I have thought about the scenes that I created to make the theme of Alice and Wonderland. However, one of the scenes, I felt would not go to plan and therefore not give the same effect that I would hope it would. Taking this into consideration, I felt that replacing one of the scenes with another idea would in fact be better to show the theme that is trying to be protrayed without making it tacky.
The scene that I felt needed to be replaced was the 'corridor' sence. Orgnially, Alice was going to be filmed in a dark corridor with faceless people walking past. With this, I have decided to change this scene to Amelia walking through, what seems like, walking through a corridor of trees.
The reason why I chose this instead, is that due to the season, the leaves are yellows and red, which give colour to our video. Another reason is that, this provides movement from Amelia. As the actress will walk to and from the camera, allowing movement for the viewers.
Today, I viewed the surroundings of where I felt we could film this scene, which altogether is perfect for the overal image of the scence.
Today, sean and I filmed the scene that begins the music video, where the actress is singing by a large tree. The reason why I chose this as one of our scenes, is due to the symbolic approach to Alice and Wonderland with the iconic rabbit down the rabbit hole.
We gathered many shots of different angles to make the scene more intresting for the viewer. During filming, we mainly left the camera rolling whilest we got different positions for Amelia (actress) and different angles of the cameras. This way it was easier to cut out the unwanted scenes.
Overall, looking back on the filming today, I am not so sure that I decided upon the right scene to portray the Alice and Wonderland theme. However, checking the footage tomorrow, I will then make a final descion to see wether the scene will fit into the video and still make the theme convincing.
