Book work!

Got quite a lot of anitation to do in my books and stuff! :O I've done a heap of research....one book is for contextual meanings and symbolism.....lots and lots of words....so i need to highlight all the important bits, one book with music video stills i love and costume designs (that kind of thing), and another is with storyboards and stills of the film and how i edited it. I still need to do quite a bit of work.... i need to do a rough plan of how i imagine i'm going to display my work on the board....im thinking the best or most rememberable stills big on the board, the cros of the puppet control hung up with the strings down to the floor with small stills on them of the puppet and puppeteer, a shelf to put my books on, a hanging thingy that i can clip other stills of the other characters on, memorable props shattered around: the hats, the gloves, the umbrella, the apple ( i have an idea to make a little tree type thing and put an apple under it - adam and eve reference) and if i think of anything else... Ohh i also have to do an evaluation of my work....which will be a tonn of funn! :P

All about the Extras....

Like on most Dvds these days, I too, have an extras feature on my dvd! :)

This includes:

A Train ride in New York! I recently visited New York and kept my camera glued to my hand! I initially thought I'd be able to get some great photos for a background for blue screening effects....but my plans changed into slit screen, so i didnt use those....however some good has come from the atttchment of camera to hand all week...some snazzy footage of New York Train Ride to Cony Island! :) I filmed it in black and white. It shows some typical buildings of New York and has a really nice feel to it because of the lighting and ways its going down into a tunnel. This is featured on the actual music video, being looped forwards to backwards - which has worked quite effectively. I thought it would be nice to have this clip as an extra and have some of the song in the background. Instead of the full track i simply took a section of the music and put it on repeat. this effect is really effective... reminds me of the repetitive pattern of a train on the track....thought it would be quite suitable really! :P

Hair! Hair! Hair! This was a little tester that i did on the stop motion jobby! :) For every frame there is, there is a different hair style! You have no idea how messy my hair was after all of this abuse.... but i think it was worth it! I made sure that for every shot my facial expression remained the same. This makes it look really interesting, as my eyes are focused and looking straight into the camera and my hair is manackly changing all the time. In a couple of frames i decided to shake my head as i took the shot, createing a blur to create some sort of contrast and break it up into sections. To make this look even more intersting, I eddeded the footage with the colour corrector tool and made the film have un-natural colours eg. blue lips. I added a section of the song....the end bit where it's going really fast - to fit with the speed of the footage.

Fast Phone! This has the same theme to Hair! Hair! Hair! It's got a similar look- edited with un-natural colours and filmed with stop motion. It shows the dialing of a phone, a phone conversation and hanging up the phone. This is then repeated for effect and disjointment. I wanted to experiment with the timings of a phone conversation, as I initially thought it would be a nice idea to combine stop motion with film, but decided against it as it didn't have the desired effect that would fit with the rest of the music video. The idea was that the movement of the mouth would look as though it is moving at incredible speed (in the video i simply used a clip with a phone and increased the speed) but with the stop motion it didn't flow as nicely as i imagined. this is accompanied with a verse of the song (almost looks as though i could be miming the words).

Wok! Work! Work! Same effects as above. This extra is a little experiment and joke really. It shows Bex on on our course working really hard on her work! Manicly working as much as she can! In reality i was just taking random shots whenever she moved into a different possition, creating quick and jerky working movments. Fun times!

Doll Dance! I got one of those little models that you use for drawings to get the right proportions of the human form, and painted it, with black and white paint - creating some form of costume for it. An idea that I had for its purpose was to be included in the music video as another version of the puppet character. The idea was that all shots of the puppet from a distance would be the model, and the close ups would be me. I decided against this after this test. To be honnest I got quite impatient with moving the model for each frame and doing it so carefully and in a manner that is gradual so that the movemnts are slick and smooth. I was quite clumsy and got my hand in a few of the shots. The movement of the model did not have the desired effect i wanted it to, and being aware of the time schedual I left this idea behind and focussed on filming. Its just a short clip of the model dancing... what was in my head at the time was the model is trying to waltz with an invisible doll....but i don't think it worked to well... ahhh well... learning from your mistakes an all... :P

Street Dancers! Another reason why im grateful of my camera! :) Street performers in New York dancing to a Michael Jackson song. They are all dancing in a line and one by one are going to the front to do individual breakdancing and freestyling. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself, as their way of dancing was really odd... bouncing around with their hats flying off in the wind. The guy in the sparkly jacket ended up doing a great Micheal Jackson impression with his dancing, moving his legs with little kicks and moon walking. I thougt I'd put this into the extras section as it shows different styles of performance and thought it would be brilliant first hand research! :D

Violin Man! Yet again another clip from lovely NY! :) As we were walking through the subway we heard some music...turned out to be the violin man!....so thought i'd steel a little bit of footage! I think that the song that he's playing is his own ( he had some CDs by his foot, so i presume they are!). His Violin is electric....he was trying to rock out with the violin! I thought he looked like a bit of an idiot really...but he seemed to be having fun! :P

Evaluation! It says it all really....a general overview of the music video....what I did...why I did it...what I liked....how did I do it....that genral kind of thing (realised how different my voice sounds though your ears... very strange!) Anyhow... the plan for the evaluation was, like the music video, to use split screen... having the puppeteer character intereview the puppet character.....but, due to technicahl difficulties, this didn't go quite to plan. Instead I have a genral "so tell us about the music video..." from the puppeteer and then all of the information about the video is provided by the puppet character. The different cuts are faded into each other and all footage is in black and white - the lighting where I filmed was not very good and made it obvious where I changed the cuts, so putting it into black and white helps this quite nicey.

Some stills of Protege Moi

The Video

Nearly there now! :) so...what has been done? I've played around with the rough cut loads.... to make the final cut! ok... the first thing that i've done to all the clips is upped the contrast, so that the colours are stong and vivid to the eye... easier to work with...flowing so that the different shots look alike. Seccondly I edited the clips with colour corrector. This enabled me to play arround with the shades and colours of the footage; being able to lighten up certain areas, control mid-tones dark tones blacks and saturation. I also experimented with the colours. The Lipstick Scene was filmed in colour, so I edited this by making the tones quite dark and emphasising the red tones, which works well as it fits in with the puppeteer character's top and the puppet's lips and nails. I've played around with the timing of things, putting certain clips on a loop...playing forwards for one bar of the music and then playing backwards for the next. This is quite effective in the opening sequence: the movement of the umbrella going clockwise and the anticlockwise. I have used a lot of split screen. Iv'e used a combination of vertical and horrizonal split screen. i have also used the screen to fit four versions of the same image by using split screen as well. This is really effective for when the gymnast is on display as it looks as though it could be several people performing a routine. I'm particually please by the split screen where the puppeteer is placed above the puppet. I have used the feathered edge effect on the split screen shots. This has enabled the footage to look as though it is overlapped through the middle, giving it a transparrent feel to it, so that not all images are lost. All the cuts have been edited to that it fits to the beat of the music and flows nicely. Now i have to go hunt down some tests, to the credits and interview for the extras!

Filming and Editing

Right then.........my filming is complete! (I think!) the majority of my filming is in black and white and colour select, red. I think this is going to work really well as the red will stand out considerably and give a dramatic mood and overtone for the music video. I have just begun to start a fist edit of the video. This rough cut will help be to enable me to make the final version more slick, so that i can experiment with a few different editing techniques or filters, and know which ones work well. I think i am going to put the contrast up so that the two different types of filming look more alike, and thus creating a visual style that is recogniseable for my work. I would like to experiment with time, such as backwards shots and looping sections. I am especially interested into making spilt screen sections and doubling sequences as an interesting narative device. The different scenes with the different characters will all be jumbled up somewhat. So far so good, just hope I have enough time! Eeeeek! :)

Outline Of Project

Okay...... plan is...... make a music video to song "Protege Moi" by Placebo. Play dress up in lots of different styles of costumes listed in the costume design blog previously.... act appropriately for the characters and the costumes. Use black and white filming and colour select (red) to make the appearance dark and moody to fit the song type. Experimentation with special effects such as blue screen and split screen. Every character will be performed by me, except when Sarah has kindly agreed to do a few backflips for me :) 

Story line Ideas

Puppet verses puppeteer:

Puppeteer is making puppet dance. Puppet feels like a trapped prisoner, unable to do what they want when they want. Puppet Longs for freedom and to escape. Puppet pulls hard at their strings. Puppeteer attempts to pull them back, but the strings break. Puppet runs away. Puppet ends up lost in the woods. Puppeteer is crying. Puppet is running and getting distressed. Puppeteer calls for the puppet to come home. Puppet falls to the ground and cries. Puppet returns home to his master and puts the strings back on. Puppeteer make the puppet dance.

Smoking Woman:

Woman stands outside. Her hair is blowing in the wind. It is Raining. She is holding an umbrella. she is twirling her umbrella around. She is wearing a stripy dress and long gloves. She picks up her cigarette in its long holder, lights it and smokes. She does not look into the camera. She has an emotionless expression. Her smoke is put into reverse.

Femme Fetalle:

Alluring and seductive character. Looking into the camera. Dressed in red with red lips. she id looking into the camera, smiling and laughing. Taunting the Characteer that cannot be seen/audience. she is sat on the floor and playing with her hair.

Mime:

Sad French mime. Blowing bubbles. moving around in slow motion. Tearful. dressed in black and white stripy top, berret, white trousers. The face is painted white with dark eyes and lips. as they cry the makeup gets smudged.

Gymnast:

The gymnast does a series of backflips. The movement is repeated several times in slow motion and reversed. 

Woman and Apple:

Woman Holding out her hand. Looks at the camera. She reaches into her pocket to get an apple. She attempts to give it to an onlooker/audience. Symbolism for temptation (Adam and Eve).