Behind the scenes shots from shooting

Pitch

A teenage girl with a dreary and unfulfilling life turns to her 'brightly coloured' dreams for exhilarant adventures beyond her bleak reality.

Costume and Actor Choices

Actors: 
Our main character will be Lauren, who is in our media group and also acted in our music video as the main characters sister. She takes drama and partakes in productions outside of school. We chose her because she is in our group so knows the concept of the music video and is easily contactable for shooting. She also lives near all of us so travelling won't be a problem. 

Our supporting actress is Molly, who also goes to our school and is in Lauren's drama class. She is also an aspiring actress and take part in many productions as well. Her role in the music video will be Lauren's imaginary best friend while she is asleep and dreaming. Another reason we chose her is because she looks very similar to Lauren and they could pass for sisters. This reflects into our music video as Molly reflects Lauren 'other' self. Molly is more eccentric and happy and this happiness wears off on Lauren and makes her feel better.  



We will also use extra actors for the classroom and paint war scene, but we will use the people in our group and our friends because they are reliable and we can use them then and there rather than having actors which we would have to scout, but have no real effect on the final cut of the music video. 

Costumes:

Lauren, the main character will be wearing dull, grey pyjamas while in bed and in the beach dream. This connotes her boring reality still being incorporated within her dreams. Furthermore, they also show the audience that she is asleep and aware the audience that this part of her dreaming state. By wearing pyjamas it emphasises her vulnerability when she's asleep and innocence. 

Molly will be wearing a white shirt, black trousers and a pirate hat when we are filming the beach dream scene. This has intertextuality to the film Pirates of the Caribbean 




When she enters the vintage dream, Molly her imaginary best friend helps her become apart of the 1960's era with hair and make up. This reflects Lauren slowly drifting into a deeper sleep and becoming happier and more immersed within her dreams because she is further away from her reality which she finds boring and tiresome. Because the vintage car they will be driving around in is from the 60's we have decided to reflect the costume ideas and hair and make-up around the car. 
While researching I found that the beehive was the iconic hairstyle of the 60's with loose curls that framed the persons face. Other hairstyles included low ponytails and cropped hair but seeing as both of the actors we are using have long curly hair, the beehive seems the easiest option. We would straighten their hair then back-comb the top to make it more poofy and then do big curls at the bottom. A film that reflects the style we want to achieve is Emma Stone in the 2011 film 'The Help'. 

As for make up, heavy eyes is key, using mainly mascara on the bottom lashes and having strong eyebrows and winged eyeliner. Lauren will still be wearing her pyjamas but Molly will wear a polka dot dress as shown below which reflects the fashion of the 60's as well as Marilyn Monroe's style in that decade. 




Paint war

We will use two extra actors for this part of the dream to create 'war' scene. Molly and Lauren will be fighting Abbie and Marcus (two of our friends) who both have fair hair so it creates an opposite to the other team. By this point in the dream, Lauren is completely immersed and interpolated so she is wearing the same outfit as everyone and has her hair the same as Molly. It shows the audience that she is far away from her dismal reality and is happy inside. 
The costume for this dream was a plain white top and black jeans or leggings. We chose this outfit so when using the mid shots and close ups, the paint shows up on the white tops and black jeans to contrast the top and make it stand out on the camera more. 

Storyboards: Vintage car dream (Amy)

This storyboard was made by Amy in our group.

Storyboards: Paint War (Me)

Storyboards: Beach dream (Abbie)

Storyboards: Intro/ Beginning (Lauren)

Setting and Location Ideas (with Lighting choices)



Setting for music video media a2 from Emily Ore

Intertextual References: Influence of Music Videos (part 2)

2. Warriors-Coco and the Butterfields

(by a previous student)

Planning of music video: Chloe Wakefield Planning for Music Video

In this music video the main idea is behind the novel and film Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the 3 bears. I liked these ideas and I also liked her planning behind each story down to the location, costume and props. Furthermore, the ideas of fantasy using fairy tales could work well with our ideas and reflect the fantasy dream world the character lives in. This could be an idea for our video through the concept of fantasy being more exciting and different to reality. We could reflect this through using 

The reason I chose to use this music video was the concept of a fantasy that was more exciting and different to the normal reality. Through the use of exhilarating settings and locations with the use of wacky costumes and props (like shown in the music video, lollipops in bushes), our music video could incorporate these to reflect Chloe's but putting our own unique style on things. 

Intertextual References: Influence of Films

The science of sleep-2006-Michel Gondry

This film is about a distraught young man and how his vivid and intense dreams start to take over his real life through his hyperactive imagination. The qwerky-ness of this story caught my eye. In one scene they throw cotton wool into the ceiling and it stays there reflecting clouds. I like the idea that reality and dreams overlap and this convergence could be a perfect idea for our music video.

Waking Life-2001-Richard Linklater

This film is in animation but the concept of the film I liked. Through the narrative we are travelling through trying to discover if the world is or isn't reality. The main question being asked is "Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?" I like this confusion and by doing it subtly in our music video I feel like it would be effective.

Inception-2010-Christopher Nolan
This is one of my favourite films and the way Nolan explains and comes up with the technical side to dreams is enchanting. Although this film is more of a science fiction thriller, I like the complexity of the dreams. I feel like we could recreate this in a more simpler way by transporting the viewer into different 'levels' or locations of dreams that derive from the main characters imagination and move up and down the levels through camera movements.

Wes Anderson and His style of Film-Making

Wes Anderson is my favourite director and I love his auteur ways of composing films. I have linked two videos below that reflect his ingenious and unique way of framing and filming. He uses the above shot birds eye view to put the spectator in the characters shoes and watch where their eyes and hands go. He also likes every shot to be perfectly be put together whether if that is with using the rule of thirds, centering characters or keeping everything down to the smallest props within a scene 

Another fascinating thing I love about Wes Anderson's work is to make every setting like a dolls house to the audience. In the clip below taken from The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou with him introducing his boat, the camera moves into the shoot through a zoom and out through a pull out and sideways and up and down in one fluid motion rather than cutting to different shots. For shooting indoors we won't be able to recreate this because we don't have a set and we are using a house with full falls without half walls. But when storyboarding and then while filming, we will try and reflect his style of cinematography as much as possible.

Intertextual References: Influence of Art

Monet Painting

This painting by Claude Monet of Madame Monet and his Son painted in 1875. The reason I chose this painting for influence for our music video was because I liked the way the artist uses bright colours with simple shadows and lighting to create the feeling of warmth on the summer day. As the title for our music video is 'Brightly Coloured Dream' I feel that we need to reflect Monet's warmth within our music video. 

Cromer Painting

One of our locations was to use Cromer beach and pier for the 'beach' themed dream. In this painting above, bright colours are used to bring warmth into the photos, but also The sky is bright blue. This is another thing I would want to create in our music video to reflect summer and happiness. In the photo below is a photo from the summer when I went to Bournemouth. This is roughly the idea I want to achieve with the film through the nice blue sky, the rolling waves and the dots of bright colours. 

Terry Draper

While looking for inspiration on the internet, I came across this local artist named Terry Draper who takes photos along the Norfolk coastline. Instead of looking at the colour in his work, I was drawn to the fascinating clouds. They bring a new dimension to his photos and again this is something I would like to recreate. However, it is now getting into Autumn so we are planning of filming in the next couple of weeks to get the best of the weather and before it turns cold. 

The artist says

 "Inside this photographer is a painter who cannot paint, and I try to use the camera with a painters eye, using natural lighting conditions to produce images in which there is something new to see each time they are looked at."

I feel like we will reflect this within our film because we want it to be eye-catching and exciting, reflecting the style and pace of the song we have chosen.

Intertextual References: Influence of Music Videos (part 1)

1. Her Morning Elegance-Oren Lavie

In this music video, stop motion is used to show the character moving in small quick edits. The film is shot in only 2 angles, but the predominant angle is a bird eye view looking down at the bed. This is used to make the stop motion editing more pleasing to the eye and not disjointed. By using the bed, it allows a white blank space to be changed into different worlds and be filled with life without having to change location. The bed is in the centre of the shot and draws the eye into the characters ballerina type movement. I liked this idea for our music video because it is simplistic but rewarding. One way we could incorporate it into our film would be to use it between the individual dream worlds. In this video the sea slowly moves up the bed as if the character is falling into the water. We could do a similar effect for our music video through the character lying down on a forest floor and the sand slowly moving up using stop motion until she is completely lying on sand, where we would cut to the character lying on the beach. It is a fluid movement to transport the viewer and character though the dreams. 

Lyrics:

Sun been down for days

A pretty flower in a vase

A slipper by the fireplace

A cello lying in its case

Soon she's down the stairs

Her morning elegance she wears

The sound of water makes her dream

Awoken by a cloud of steam

She pours a daydream in a cup

A spoon of sugar sweetens up 

And she fights for her life

As she puts on her coat

And she fights for her life on the train

She looks at the rain as it pours

And she fights for her life as she goes in a store 

With  thought she has caught by thread

She pays for the bread as she goes

Nobody Knows

Sun been down for days

A winter melody she plays

The thunder makes her contemplate

She hears a noise behind the gate

Perhaps a letter with a dove

Perhaps a stranger she could love

And she fights for her life

As she puts on her coat

And she fights for her life on the train

She looks at the rain as it pours

And she fights for her life as she goes in a store 

With  thought she has caught by thread

She pays for the bread as she goes

Nobody knows

Nobody knows

And she fights for her life

As she puts on her coat

And she fights for her life on the train

She looks at the rain as it pours

And she fights for her life as she goes in a store 

Where the people are cleverly strange

And counting the change as she goes

Nobody Knows

The music video is an example of illustration and amplification because some of the lyrics reflect what is happening on screen such as the first "she looks at the rain as it pours" and "a cello lying in its case, soon she's down the stairs". Furthermore, the notion of looking at women is raised as the main character is female and even when the other character appears (who is male) our attention is still on the women.

Extra Curricular: From Ruins to Rio

A short film made at the Norwich C4 pop up day run by Channel 4 in the summer of 2015. Our theme for our film was 'solidarity' while referencing the Rio Payalympics in 2016.

Our plot was that a young girl stuck in the life of crime turns her life around when she volunteers for the Rio Paralympics. She finds like minded people to socialise with and becomes a better person because of it.

In the end, we were the winning group and have been invited to the Channel 4 HQ in a couple of months to recieve awards and learn more about the industry from directors and professionals who work in film and TV.

Planning Music Video part 3

After reviewing other music videos and other influences, we decided that the space location wouldn't fit with the rest of our ideas with how we want the music video to look. Instead we are looking at other ideas and locations such as:

-Ballet/dance room: Can use the notion of looking with the mirrors. Have a dance routine between the two characters, using shadows, silhouettes and distorted light to reflect the dream


- Vintage style with a car ride with a chauffeur. Lauren's Granddad owns vintage 1960's cars and we could dress them up in 1960's style dresses with similar hair and make-up