Clothing - Indie Folk Genre

My feedback suggested that my characters clothing didn't particularly fit in with the style of genre and song I have chosen. Changing the actresses clothing to iconically connote the indie-folk genre will allow my music video to make more sense within the genre and also improve the overall look of it.

Laura Marling - 

 

http://withfriendship.com/images/h/36818/i-think-i-can-do-it.jpg

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/4685603/Laura+Marling+LM14914.jpg

Ellie Goulding -

 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150343719551642&set=pu.135027136641&type=1&permPage=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150349300626642&set=pu.135027136641&type=1&permPage=1

http://milkyteakid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/lissie2.jpg

To gain a better understanding of the clothing my character should wear I researched other female indie-folk artists. The pictures above denote that the artists dress in quite a naturalistic manner but somewhat unique, this suggests to me I should choose a style of clothing that iconically represents the indie-folk genre. For example, the artists seem to take a fairly 'mainstream' outfit, but make it original through accessories and other pieces of clothing such as the khaki coats which both are wearing. 

Feedback

Having gained some feedback on approximately 2 minutes worth of my music video it has helped me a lot. I now have new goals to aim for to help in the completion of the task.

Feedback:

- Good, well paced editing 

- Good choice of shots at the beginning. e.g. spider

- Change actresses attire to suit the genre of the music video

- Include more shots of the artist face at the beginning as the audience isn't able to make much connection with her

Shots & Editing - Add/Change: 

- Lip syncing, MS/CU with intercutting of nature shots

- Make sure buildings can't be seen in the shots

- CU of more iconic leaves/trees 

- Lengthen shots when a note's being held

- More shots relating to the lyrics

- Make sure there is and end to the journey - reaching home?

These shot's will be included along with those from my personal evaluation of my music video which I have included on another post (What am I going to do next?). Despite swaying towards not using lip syncing, the feedback I gained suggested that without lip syncing it's difficult for the audience to engage and connect with the character, and by lip syncing the important parts of the song briefly will allow this connection to be achieved. 

What am I going to do next?

Having edited 2 minutes worth of footage for the remainder of the music video I've thought of some new shots to add in which I think would particularly fit in with the rest of the footage.

What shots do I want to add?
- More LS of Emily running
- Close ups of Emily throwing leaves in the air
- Tilt as the leaves fall
- Replace some shots of flowers with brighter and more iconic flowers
- Close up of a dandelion being blown

Whilst these are my personal thoughts on what to add, I'm going to get feedback off my teacher and others to improve my product and gain another point of view.

As well as focusing on what shots to add into my music video I'm going to begin gathering a range of still shots which can be used for my magazine advert and digipak design.
This guideline should hopefully help me move along swiftly and draw the filming to a close leaving me time to focus on the ancillary tasks, as at the moment I have prioritised the music video over the other tasks.

Lip Syncing

At the moment I have decided not to use lip syncing in my music video, as I feel it isn't a particular convention of the Indie-Folk music genre and I personally don't feel it will fit in well with the style of my video. These are all examples of Indie Folk music videos which do not use lip syncing, this suggests that those videos which are narrative based are less likely to use lip syncing as it disturbs the storyline and detracts the audiences attention.

Filming & Editing 16/11

Coming up to the completion of my animatic I decided to avoid filming for a couple of weeks, as I was already seeing faults in my animatic and felt it would be more productive to spend time adjusting my ideas instead of wasting time filming shots I'm unlikely to use. Having gained an understanding of what I need to add, I decided to get a range of shots of Emily in different locations, to vary the locations in my music video and I feel this worked quite well. However, I do think that some of my planning is possibly too vague, as I seem to find myself questioning what to do next - to overcome this problem I'm going to create new decisions based around my edited footage. Nature and location appear to be the most significant themes within the video and I feel that my footage denotes this idea of nature and connotes the loneliness and isolation the character is feeling. As well as this, when editing the mac was quite slow causing some shorts to appear much slower than they should have, however it made me realise that some of the shots actually look better when put in slow motion, as they connote a calming tone in places, contrasting to the upbeat tone that's recognised in different parts of the song. I also felt that the slow motion reinforced the idea of nature and the indie style which is iconically connoted through my actresses clothing.

Animatic

Evaluation of my Animatic:

Having created roughly 2 minutes of my animatic, I feel that this has taught me a lot. At first I felt that constant shots of the actress walking would connote her loneliness well, however now I feel that it becomes tedious and boring. To avoid the boringness I'm going to add more location shots, as I feel this will interest the audience more as they're seeing a variety of locations and shots. Also, referring to my previous post (Significance of Locations) I think that this will allow the theme of isolation to be connoted much more clearly. As well as this, I think that my editing and choice of shots from 0:39 - 1:08 needs to be improved as this is the first point in the song where the pace changes from slow to fast. I felt much more comfortable when editing the shots for the beginning of the song as it's much slower paced, meaning less transitions were needed. However, as the music speeds up it's expected for the pace of the editing to quicken as well to keep the panicky tone. To improve this I want to add much more aggressive shots, possibly connoted through the actresses facial expressions, behaviour and a change of location. Another aspect I'm thinking of changing is the colour, I'm debating whether to have the fast paced section of the song in black & white, to iconically connote anger, isolation, upset etc. Whilst I'm changing a vast amount of my music video, I think that it was essential for me to complete this task as it has taught me what works and what doesn't work - it's very beneficial at this stage in my planning, as it means that my filming sessions should run much more smoothly as I have knowledge of the aspects to include and avoid. 

My Digipak and Magazine Advert Ideas

From my research (Indie Folk Digipak Artwork) and (More Digipak Research) I learned that image and originality is an extremely important aspect of the Indie Folk Genre; whilst the genre uses similar conventions for music videos, digipaks and magazine adverts, each convention is used in a unique way creating an original style.

This image from my location shots has inspired my idea for the digipak. To connote the isolation and loneliness I want to have an image similar to this one but in a more rural and wooded area. I would like the majority of the image to be black & white, but the bench to be in colour as I think it would connote the contrast in tone throughout the song - the way it changes from fast paced and aggressive, to slow and calm. I've researched ways to do 'Colour Replacement' (Photoshop Color Replacement Tool) and I also have a friend who does digital art and has offered to help me with the effect.

For my magazine advert I'm going to have an image of the actress, possibly in black and white again in a rural and wooded area. I want to reiterate the lyrics of the song through the image and I feel a dull black and white effect will connote the emotions well. I'm not sure whether I want a front or back view of the artist so I'm going to gather a range of images before choosing the final image for the magazine advert. I think a back view could connote her isolation, as the audience can't see her face, whereas a front view could connote the emotions through facial expressions.

Significance of Locations

As the song appears to focus on disappearance of friendships and relationships, I want to connote this theme through my product. I feel that many music videos focus on the use of actresses actions and behaviour to connote this type of theme and it's become a convention of sad/melancholy music videos. I would like to steer away from this convention and subvert it; thus instead of using the cameras portrayal of actresses I want to use locations. Instead of having an actress upset or sad, I think an interesting idea would be to use the contrast between location. Having an actress in a location could mean anything, however having a shot of the location empty and isolated combined with the lyrics of the song and could connote loneliness.

- Using fades could connote the isolation, for example I could have the actress sitting on a bench, then fade this shot into a shot of the bench empty.
- The fade transition creates a sense of mystery, heightening the emotions of the song
- Empty locations further connote the emotions and means that I have a range of different shots
- Subverting the conventions could make my music video more interesting and new to an its target audience (Contexual Aspects of Music Video)

 
 

More Digipak Research



 These Indie Folk album covers particularly caught my attention as I felt that whilst they all belong to the same genre, they each have their own individual style. Contrasting to my other research post (Indie Folk Digipak Artwork) this suggests that the digipak doesn't need to conform to any specific conventions as a whole, as each artist designs their artwork around their own opinions and preferences. As the song I have chosen appears to be about friendships/relationships fading away, I'm beginning to sway towards an idea where the artwork represents this.

Indie Folk Digipak Artwork

I decided to research some artwork specifically for the Indie Folk genre as I feel that my research on digipak has some gaps. Colour appears to be an important aspect of the artwork, somewhat more important than the text. This is making me consider to have a powerful image on my digipak, rather than fancy & engaging texts - the audiences of the Indie Folk genre appear to be more engrossed by the image of either the artist, or something that could appear meaningless, yet is very significant to the album and songs. I'm now going to decide whether I conform the conventions of an Indie Folk digipak, or I subvert them, and possibly decide to use a simplistic image combined with a powerful style of text.

Progression & New Ideas

Having edited roughly 24 seconds worth, I felt that a lot of my filming consisted of similar shots of the actress walking. It became apparent that it would be beneficial to rethink my shot list and add a larger range of angles, distances and locations to enhance the audiences interest and the overall quality of the production.

These are a few of the shots I am considering including in my production:

• Actress setting on a bench - slightly angled front shot & behind shot
• MS/LS of the bench empty
• Actress sitting on a bridge - angled shot through trees
• HA of actresses feet through bridge
• MS/LS of empty bridge - various angles?
• ELS of actress walking down a long road, fade into an empty road
• Stream - CU of actress touching the water
• Dark lighting - actress opening gate, CU of hand, POV looking at door & opening, slamming door behind
• Actress walking down dark alley - fast pace editing: CU's of face, feet, hands, LS behind, LS in front - climax of the song
• Bedroom location - Actress sat at window seat, MS looking out 
• POV of actresses view out of window
• CU of piano

By combining conventions of both narrative and conceptual based videos I'm hoping I will be able to create and connote the tones in which the artist suggests through her lyrics.
Referring to my research post (What is a Music Video?) I want to use the lyrics and the moving image to create a high quality music video.

"The music video is composed by adding images to music."

"Lyrics and images interact creating meaning."