Comparing our work to Real Media Products

Looking back at our film we wanted to constantly relate back to the original video to compare it with our products. We wanted to make sure we have correctly interpreted the song, as well as showcasing certain parts with certain beats of the song, so that the song and the video can reach it's full potential. As our story line is similar to the original, it allows us to use the official video as a base to work around. 

One scene we decided to make similar was the bathroom scene, when the taps are running to fill up the bath:





We then focused on Alice looking at herself in the mirror which is very similar to the part in the official video where the main actress is tired of her look, and decides to cut her hair:





We used a similar shot of Alice getting into the bath, as this happens in the original video, however we filmed it from a different angle to the original:





We then wanted Alice to look anxious and frustrated whilst in the bath as we felt this was a good place to convey emotion, and this is again similar to the original video:






By doing this comparison it has allowed me to see what shots and angles I need to use to improve my video, and to make it relate to the original video.

Different Shots and Angles

We have made it a priority when filming to make sure that we have a wide variety of different shots and angles as this is a better way to present emotions in our film and make for a more interesting video. From previous filming we have done you can see that a shot we have used a lot throughout our filming stages is a 'birds eye view' shot. This shot can often look over the scene and Alice, and portrays that she is not in control of her life. 

We do however contrast to a 'worms eye' shot when Alice is taking pills. We have done this to show that here, Alice is in fact in power as she has taken control of her life and decided that she is going to end it by taking these pills. It is also a good shot to use to capture her reaction before, during, and after she has taken the pills as we can use a close up worms eye shot.

We have used a lot of other shots throughout our filming and some of these are close up and extreme close up shots. These were essential when capturing Alice's expressions and emotions as they were close enough to have a shot of her whole face, and was more effective as it was just focused on her emotion.

Lastly, another important shot which we used was an establishing shot. This introduces the audience to the scene and location in one shot and means that we are able to portray to the audience exactly where Alice is. These shots are effective at the start of a video.

14th filming - Re shooting the friend scene

During our last filming we realised when looking at the videos that the sun was a large problem as it meant you could see all of our shadows in the background and this looked extremely unprofessional. So we decided to reshoot this scene when it was a more cloudy day to ensure this problem didnt happen again. This reshoot also gave us a chance to shoot more close ups of Alice as it was not obvious to the audience in the previous filming of how Alice felt and what she was trying to convey

Firstly, we re-shot Alice waiting for Jessie to turn up. We liked the previous filming of it so; we did not change the angles we used.

As you can see, our second shooting was a lot more successful in terms of lighting. We kept the angles the same. 

Extreme close up:

Mid shot  (1):

Mid shot (2):

Next, we decided to re-shoot Jessie’s arrival at the scene. We already liked the follow shot we had from previous filming so we re-filmed point of view shots from both Jessie and Alice’s point of views.

Jessie’s point of view:

Alice’s point of view:

We also filmed Alice getting stressed from Jessie's point of view:  

We then used shots where we were behind the characters. This was again, the same as shots we have used previously:

As you can see, Alice's blazer is not on in the most recent filming. This is because in the new video she does not keep it on and therefore we had to have her without it in this scene to keep continuity. 

We filmed Jessie and Alice’s reaction shots once again (hoping to get an improvement on lighting).

Jessie's Reaction shot: 

Alice's reaction's shots are shown at the end of previous videos.  

Next, we decided to film some key close ups that we had missed out previously. First, we filmed Alice touching Jessie’s hand – an action of intimacy and bravery, and felt this was the best way for Alice to convey her feelings for Jessie.

From the front:

From the front (2):

Bird’s eye view/over the shoulder shot:

Lastly, we filmed Alice’s admittance of love to Jessie. We did this using close up shots so that the audience could clearly see what she is trying to say: 

13th Filming - Alice taking the Pills

One scene that it is important we get right is Alice's suicide (she tries to kill herself through pills). Shown on this post will be how we developed this idea. Our first attempt was not very successful as I believe we did not think the scene through.

Our first idea was to have Alice take the pills out of the drawer and then open the packet and take them, however we felt that this was not effective, as shown in the videos below: 

Bird's eye view:

Behind shot:

Close up:

Side view:

Pills at the sink:

After looking at the videos we shot, we realised that our videos were not good enough. Firstly, Alice shows no hesitations in taking the pills. We needed to change this. From looking at videos we deicded that taking the pills at the drawer was ineffective, an instead we feel she should take them at the sink where the mirror is. This is because it can allow more hesitation and she can contemplate her last actions by looking at the pills by the sink, and herself in the mirror. Our re-shoot videos are shown below:

Close up of the pills:

Leaning over the sink birds eye:

Leaning over the sink birds eye (2):

Worms eye view of taking the pills:

Bird's eye view of taking the pills:

Worms eye view of her looking at the Pills:

Close up worms eye of her looking at the pills:

We also filmed her picking up the cup and filling it up. This is so we could maintain continuity if we needed it as she would not be able to swallow a large amount of pills without water:

Tracking shot:

Slow close up:

12th filming - New Video, Classroom Scene, Reshooting

We decided to re-shoot the classroom scene however this time we were not having a whole classroom full of other students we were simply having a teacher telling off Alice and Alice's reaction to this. To set the scene we had to have Alice looking uninterested and bored in the classroom as she does not listen to the teacher, struggling with her work.

We decided to make Alice play with her work whilst looking around and not listen to the teacher.

Mid-shot with paper:

Side shot:

Mid-shot without paper:

We also decided to do close up reaction shots of Alice when she ins being told off by her teacher to get perspectives of both characters.

Close up of Alice's reaction to Mrs McKenna:

Extreme close up of Alice's reaction:

We feel we have successfully captured Alice's expression in these videos and we have portrayed how Alice is embarassed and disappointed with her bad work, which can be linked to why she goes to the bathroom and her emotions there.

We then decided to shoot Mrs McKenna from a couple of different ways. We ensured to use a worms eye view to promote her dominance over Alice.

11th Set of Filming - New Video, Shots in the Mirror

To correspond with our story board, it is essential that we get Alice's reaction shots in the bathroom mirror as they take up a lot of our video. We decided to change where she took the pills as in shooting before she took them by the drawers, however there was not enough focus on her taking the pills and it was portrayed as not very important in the scene. In this shooting we changed it to the mirror and this ensured more hesitancy when shooting the scene.

Firstly, we decided to try different lighting in order to see which was best. We tried using the main lights, the lamp lights and natural lighting too, this is shown below:

Bathroom lights

No lighting

Main light

As you can see, the natural lighting is the most effective due to the lamps being too bright and the main lights not being very successful. We did not want the clips to be too bright as we wanted the audience to feel hopelessness for Alice. 

As well as her reaction in the mirror, we wanted to film her body language. We did this by having her lean over the sink to show she is thinking about the actions she is going to take, and portraying her frustration and how she has given up, this is why she is leaning and using something to support her. This was filmed in many aspects:

Close up of the hand then worms eye view:

Worms eye view:

The use of worms eye view is very important here. Through most of the video, we film her in a birds eye shot view. This is because we are trying to promote life having power over Alice. However, here, the use of the worms eye shot is to show that Alice has power over the pills she is taking. This is effective as the audience will be able to see that Alice could be in serious danger.

We also wanted to film a shot where Alice puts on some make-up and then realises she does not like the way she looks so she takes it off very aggressively. By doing this it shows that Alice is not comfortable with the way she looks and has issues with her self-image. This again creates the emotion of unhappiness and discontent: 

Close up:

In the mirror to the right:

In the mirror to the left:

Taking all of her make up off:

As you can see, the video above is from a birds eye view and at a rather sharp camera angle. From my feedback, I realized that this was too much of a sharp shot and therefore, this needed to be re-shooted. These re-shoots are shown below:

Close up:

Close up (2):

In the mirror from the right:

10th Set of Filming - New Video, Bathroom Scene

When reshooting the bathroom scene we realised we did not need to reshoot all angles and movement, but just where Alice is in the bathroom, as well as doing filming of Alice actually trying to commit suicide. Most of these shots were close up shots so that we could mainly focus on alice's emotions and reactions before her final actions.

We focused on Alice's phone ringing and her reaction to this, which leads her to put her head under the water which is insinuating she is trying to end her life.

Close up of Phone and Alice's reaction:

Focus on the phone (not ringing):

Focus on the phone (ringing). This video is not able to be used due to our actress laughing:

Mid shot:

Mid shot (birds eye view):

Side view, close up of the phone ringing:

All of these shots were successful and did exactly what we wanted which was to convey Alice's emotions, and the use of the close up and extreme close up shots worked well as we were able to focus on Alice turning to her phone when she is getting a phone call from Jessie, and how she looks upset and frustrated. I feel these shots can be used in our video.

9th Filming - New Video, Bathroom Scene

To carry on with filming we then decided to shoot the bathroom scene which will feature throughout the whole video as it is where Alice attempts to commit suicide. 

We decided to shoot her from all different angles when coming through the front door, these are shown in the video below:

From the front:

Follow shot:

The video above was not very successful as it did not have continuity as she went to the mirror before the taps which is not what we wanted.

This video however was more successful: 

The videos below show close up and extreme close up shots of Alice as she is taking her make up off. We felt these were the best shots to use as we could capture the whole action as well as capturing her upset and distressed emotion:

If we are able to create the right angle then these close up shots will be very effective to use.

We also did some shots in the reflection of the mirror, these are shown in the video above and below:

We also decided to take shots of Alice turning on the bath taps to keep continuity so it doesn't look like she is just getting into an already run bath, these are shown below:

We then filmed Alice getting into the bath and we only had one opportunity to do this as once Alice was in the bath her clothes and hair would be wet:

Her putting her head under the water: 

Birds eye view:

Side view: 

Problems we are facing: 

During our filming we have not actually filmed Alice attempting to commit suicide, and so this scene needs more work and to be developed further. We also need to re-shoot some parts as when looking back at filming we realised that Alice looks at the camera in parts and also laughs. When re-shooting we shall make sure that she does not look at the camera and hopefully she will be more familiar with the scene so that she doesn't laugh.

8th Set of Filming - New Video, Friend Scene

This scene is replacing a lot of the old filming we did and this is where Alice tells her friend she has feelings for her and she gets rejected by her friend

The first filming we did was Alice entering the location, as she has walked from school, and we did this from many different aspects:

Follow shot:

Pan Shot:

Worm shot:

We then filmed Alice waiting for Jessie whilst looking worried and agitated. For this shot we again filmed from many different perspectives

Extreme close up:

Side shot:

Front view:

We then filmed Jessie (her friend) entering the scene as she sees Alice on the bench and starts to walk over to her

We firstly used a follow shot (they were not that successful but can still be used in the editing process):

Long mid shots:

After this part of filming we decided to film it from Jessie's point of view to gain another different perspective. When we first started filming from this point of view Alice didn't realise quite how close the camera would be to her face and got 'camera shy' however after a few practice shots we produced some better footage

Bad footage:

Good Footage:

To reveal that Alice had feelings towards Jessie we initially decided that Alice should put her hand on Jessie's leg however when filming this, neither actress could keep composure and found it difficult not to laugh. We therefore decided to change it so that Alice would touch Jessie's hand instead as this was more intimate and can be linked to loving feelings towards someone, as well as making it easier for both actresses not to laugh

Leg touching shots (not successful):

Shown below are the new videos where Alice touches Jessie's hand instead 

Midshot:

Reaction from behind:

Jessie (close up reaction):

One major issue we had with this filming was the lighting. As it was outside it meant we had to use natural lighting, and during filming the sun kept coming in and out, which means when it comes to the editing stage it will be very difficult to put videos together as the lighting and shading will be completely different. It also meant that during filming you could see our shadows in the picture, which looks unprofessional, the following videos show the bad lighting:

Lighting

Throghout filming we also needed to make sure we had the correct lighting to highlight the actresses in a certain way that we wanted to and keep the tone of lighting to correlate towards the tone and emotion of the video. We realised that we wanted a lot of natural lighting as our video was created to realism and this meant that our scenes did not need to be tempered with unnatural lighting.

Inside
One location in which we needed to control the lighting was in the bathroom scene, which is our main location and where the most important part of the film happens.
The photo below shows the bathroom in it's natural lighting, which is where the main light and mirror lights are turned off, and the blinds are open but not pulled up. As you can see it looks rather dark and the only light is coming from the window. We could encounter a problem of it being too dark if there was no natural lighting coming from the window.

 

 



We then decided to control the lighting of the room and turn on the main room light to see if this effect was any better. By turning on the light we have allowed to make the whole room to become a lot brighter, however when doing this it gave a yellow tint to the room which is something we didn't want. This is because it made the mood and tone of the room a lot more optimistic. This lighting also leaves us vulnerable to shadows which could be a problem when filming as we cold capture our own shadows in the shot.

 

 

 

The other alternative form of lighting that we altered around with was the lamps located next to the mirror. This would again create a brighter setting, however we were still encountering the same problem of that it gave a yellow tint to the room and we did not want this to happen at all. Another problem which would also arise from turning on the lights by the mirror is that when Alice is looking at herself in the mirror it may light up her face too much. Also as she is moving towards the light parts of the room it could give the feeling that she is moving towards optimism and happiness which is not something that happens.

 



 

 

 

When tempering with the blinds we decided to open and close them to see the effect of the lighting of the room when we do this. When shutting them we realised that the room was much too dark as this was the only part of the room we were receiving light from.

 



 

 

 

Having the blinds open was much more effective however this would be an unpredictable way to acheive the right amount of lighting we wanted for the room as we would make sure that it is sunny outside so that light can shine in, which is not something we can control.

 



 

 

 

The photo below is shown we acheived perfectly the right amount of light for the room. We decided to pull the blinds up so that all of the window was showing. This would allow for a lot more natural lighting to shine through without some of it being blocked by the blinds. This means that even if it not that sunny outside it will not matter as enough sunlight is being allowed in that it will overcome this problem. This is essential to maintaning continuity as it means the lighting in this room will always be the same and therefore in the editing stages of our video we would not have to change the lighting of different shots.

 



 

 

 

 

Classroom Scene

For the classroom scene we will keep the main lights on and pull all of the blinds down. However, we will not have the same problem of using the main lighting in the classroom scene as we did in the bathroom scene.This is because the lights are spread out across the room and therefore the lighting will not be focused in one area. Again as our video focuses on realism, we felt that the lights needed to be on, as often a classroom is well lit, and although it is not natural lighting this is something we cannot help. Putting the blinds down also elimnates the problem of what the weather will be like and how this will effect the lighting of the room.

 

Outside Scenes

In our outside scenes, it was almost impossible to fully control the lighting as we cannot control the weather at all, and this became difficult as we found it hard to predict what the weather would be which hindered our filming process slightly. To overcome this problem, we have planned to try and get all of our outdoor scenes filmed on the same day so then the weather will be the same throughout and continuity will run through.

New Locations

We have kept some of the locations the same however changed a few just to make our filming art of our final media product easier and quicker to do, as we have made more accessible locations which are more convenient to get to. We also had to change some of the scenes as we have changed our story line slightly and therefore there are some different scenes compared to the original one.


Bathroom Scenes

 

 

The location of the bathroom is probably made up for our most important scene, as this is where the film ends and where Alice tries to commit suicide. From research we have realised that a lot of sad moments within music videos happen in a bathroom, especially in the bath. This is because you are alone and often by yourself when in the bathroom so it becomes a much more private place, and you can shut yourself out from the outside world when in the bathroom.

 Meeting with friend scene

 

 

The two pictures above show the outside scene where Alice goes to meet her friend. This is a good scene to use for Alice to meet her friend as it is open which allows characters to enter and leave the scene easily. It also is secluded with no-one else around which means that although the scene is very public, the characters will feel as if they are in private.

 

 

We are still using the same location for the classroom scene.

New Storyboard and Timeline

Here I have made a new story board as we have slightly changed the story with different shots at different parts of every scene.

1) The first box shows a panorama shot of the bathroom which will move round slowly ending in Alice looking in the mirror at herself and looking very glum and sad

2) The second box will show a close up of Alice looking at herself in the mirror again with the same expression as before.

3) The scene will then fade into Alice sitting at a desk in class and we will use a mid shot to show her sitting at a desk

4) A worm eye shot will then be used of Miss Mckenna from Alice's perspective to show her telling off Alice about some classwork

5) The camera will then flip to Miss Mc Kenna's perspective with a birds eye view shot of Alice looking upset, angry and embarrassed about her work

6) There will then be a cross fade back in time to Alice in the mirror which will be a close up birds eye view shot which will show Alice taking off her make up in the mirror aggressively and looking extremely frustrated

7) The scene will then cut to the outdoor scene where Alice is meeting her friend outside school to talk to her. To start with there will be a birds eye perspective shot of Alice looking around waiting for her friend. We will then use a long shot from Alice's perspective as Jessie is walking towards her and sits on the bench.

8) It will then flip to a close up shot of Alice's reaction as Jessie sits down which will be a shot from Jessie's perspective

9) There will then be a behind shot of Alice and Jessie talking on the bench as Alice puts her head into her hands from how upset she is, and Jessie looks upset as to why she is upset

10) There will then be an extreme close up shot as Alice touches Jessie's hand and Jessie pulling away 

11) The camera will then move up to an extreme close up shot of Alice saying the words 'I love you' to Jessie

12) The camera will then flip to Jessie with a extreme close up reaction as she looks angry and confused from what Alice has said

13) Jessie will then stand up while Alice continues to sit down to show that Jessie is in power of the situation and Alice is not sure what to do

14) Jessie will then begin to walk off and a tracking shot will be used from behind to follow her away

15) It will then cut to a mid shot of Alice from in front to show Alice panicking and looking extremely upset as she sits on the bench alone

16) The video will then cut from the scene where she is sitting on the bench to Alice in the bathroom again

17) There will firstly be an close up birds eye view shot of Alice leaning over the sink looking extrmely agitated and upset

18) It will then cut to a behind shot of Alice as she is again leaning over the sink

19) There will then be an extreme close up of the pills that are on the side of the sink as Alice quickly goes to grab them

20) An over the shoulder shot will be used to show Alice holding the pills as she decides what to do

21) It will then flip to a birds eye view with her hand in focus as we can see her looking towards the pills in confusion

22) An extreme close up shot will then be used to show Alice shaking with the pills in her hand, as she quickly puts the pills in her mouth and takes some water

23) Another birds eye shot will be used to show Alice choking on the water and pills as she struggles to swallow them

24) A behind shot of her will then be used as she again stands up to look at herself in the mirror again, looking very solemn

25) A side close up shot of Alice will be used as she slowly turns round to look at the bath and walks over to run it

26) A behind shot of Alice as she leans over to turn on the taps will be used

27) As Alice gets into the bath with all her clothes on a front shot will be used to capture the whole bath and Alice at the same time

28) As she is sitting in the bath Alice will look around her and down at the bath and we will use an extreme close up shot to capture almost just her eyes

29) For the final shot a birds eye view shot will be used of Alice laying in the bath as she slowly puts her head under water in the bath and sinks under until she is no longer in the shot. The video will then end there as the music fades out to end it

Due to the change of our storym, we also needed to make a new timeline to fit the song and the lyrics as we are trying to portray a music video where the storyline correlates to the lyrics. Although the timelines are quite vague versions they will help us a vast amount in the filming and editing stage.

Rough timeline:

Timeline for minute one:

Timeline for minute two:

Timeline for minute three: