When I brainstormed my ideas, I decided to create a narrative piece of media. I wanted to incorporate performance within my music video, however I wanted the music video to somewhat tell a story. Working on my own meant that I could let my creative imagination run wild, I had a plethora of ideas to choose from and I wanted to use little bits from everything that inspired me to create my final music video. However when trying to film, edit and bring the images in my head to life on screen I found a few of my ideas may have been slightly too ambitious. The difficulties I had with my project included not having enough models and actors to feature in my music video, this meant I had to re-plan the idea of my music video. To re-iterate I originally wanted the video to be mostly narrative and a small section of performance. When I started filming the performance based pieces of work, I realised how much I enjoyed the different range of varied shots, after a few takes I was able to motivate my actor so that he would be enthusiastic about his role. Given that I was enjoying the way the lip-syncing shots were panning out I decided to make the music video a more even split between narrative and performance.
The theme of my music video being: a Voodoo mistress setting love traps for her lover, as can be interpreted within the lyrics of the song.
I used a mid-shot here to set the scene, The 'Voodoo Mistress' is standing upright with her face covered (as she will be within all of the shots) I purposely wanted the background to be dim however I placed my model directly under the light therefore emphasising her being the main focus of the shot. Being her there is a white sheet pinned up so that there is a plain background. I wanted the focus to be completely on the model and the white background enables all the colours within The 'Voodoo Mistress' costume to come out. Looking back on my work I would have ironed or steamed the sheet to enable there were no wrinkles in the shot, however I quite enjoy the effect that it gave me because it makes the shots feel organic and real. If I wanted to go for a different coloured background I could have chosen to use the green screen, this would have allowed me to change the background and setting if I had desired that effect. For the setting I chose not to venture out too much, this was because I was working on my own, a complication with working alone would include the fact that I wouldn't have a group of people working with me (if I was working in a group there would automatically be different actors) and because I only had a limited amount of actors I didn't want to have to rely on anyone to go somewhere inaccessible. With that being said, For the shots of my male actor 'Sam' I chose a plain light grey wall, this would ensure I could create clean shots and wouldn't add any distraction to my music video. As well as the clean background not taking away from the shots I used this as a tool to emphasise the Voodoo Mistress' costume. She wears extravagant reds and golds and has a sequin and black mask which covers her face. I have layered her clothing and put on a red head dress which adds to the authenticity of my character. As in previous blog posts I have included her costume ideas. I feel I have done well to stick to these ideas and themes and her clothing is very reminiscent of that of a witchcraft practiser/voodoo mistress. In certain shots I have included a fluffy fur coat which adds to the luxurious characteristics I was trying to portray within her character.
For Sam's 'costume' I went with a very smart casual look, he is also wearing lots of layers. The purpose behind piecing casual/smart clothing together was because I didn't want his costume to take away from the message within the song. Sam has a vital role of singing the words of the song therefore I wanted nothing to distract from this.
I used a range of props within my work a few of these included: candles, stones, crystals, shell, glass, books, a small table, an apple, a flower, dancing African sculptures. These were all used to set the Mise-en-scene, I wanted to add depth to my scenes by including props which could be seen in a real voodoo house, therefore I layered shells into a glass and used crystals to create a scene which would look as if the mistress is conducting some sort of spell.
I used a range of different shots within my work, not only the lip-syncing shots but my Voodoo Mistress also. I used long shots, close ups, mid shots and extreme close ups to capture the tone of the scene and portray emotion. The close ups and mid-shots were especially important for my singer: Sam, as I wanted these shots to be as clear and coherent as possible. The close ups enables the audience to see his lips moving to the beat and lyrics of the music. This proved to be difficult to film as the tripod I was using didn't go high enough into the air, therefore I had to hold the camera upright and steady to ensure my hands weren't shakey and to create the right visual effect. The singer is looking into the camera which is a convention of music videos, it creates the notion of 'looking' and engages the audience within the music video. I took a wide range of shots, not all did I use for my final product. I was using final cut pro and briefly Imovie to edit my work. I had to cut and delete the scenes which I didn't like to ensure the final music video was exactly how I wanted it. When cutting my work a lot and moving each shot to the correct scene I found I had to use the render feature a lot this often took a lot of time especially at the start when all the work had to be freshly rendered. As well as cutting and deleting work I changed the opacity, colour and saturation of a few of my shots as you can see in the image directly below. Within final cut pro there are a lot of features which enable you to change and customise your different range of shots, I found this extremely helpful and the saturation effect especially helped me with my theme of witchery and voodoo.
Not only editing the lip- syncing but recording these shots were harder than I had originally anticipated, firstly as a director of my music video I had to inspire and motivate my actor to enthusiastically sing within the shots. I originally had a few different shots of him lip-syncing however there wasn't much movement in his lips which made the meshing of his lips and the song very difficult. Secondly the editing, I first tried to edit the lip - syncing on Imovie, however I found the software wasn't complex enough for me to connect and align the sound just perfectly. I then exported the clips to final cut pro which allowed me to zoom into the sound waves and place the shots exactly in the spaces I was trying to fill. When adding other scenes I found this would slightly alter the fluidity of the lip-syncing so I just had to go back and tweak the shots until they were aligned correctly again.
A few of my scenes had been repeated, for example in some shots I used the same scene however I sped certain parts up, added colour or saturation, put the scene in reverse. This enabled me to fill out my video and ensured there was continuity throughout the music video. One negative to this would be I could have had a few more shots of different things this would ensure I have a variety of ideas and could make the music video look more thought out.
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