Our first location choice is a field. My group and I chose this location as it is conventional to the indie genre, and creates a sense of mystery for the audience. A field is also a very natural setting, which is typical to see in the indie genre to create realism for the audience. The artist we are doing is Ed Sheeran, he tends to use a field or park in a few of his music videos. This will convey Ed Sheeran as a typical person as the music video will be filmed in a free, natural location. Allowing him to be seen as very relatable artist to the audience. As we aim to make the field location isolated, it will heighten the meaning of the song as a lonely/depressing one, as the setting will be in an unknown empty location. The audience will be able to relate to the setting as it will be in a field, which is typical to be seen in their day to day lives. Lastly, indie fans will hopefully enjoy our music video by my group and I following genre conventions.
This field could possibly be used for our opening scene. Where we will take long shots of the location, to establish the location. Tracking on the grass and then panning the camera in an upwards motion to the sky.
The problems we may face by using this location is not being able to make the location isolated, due to by passers. By passers could influence how fast we work and could slow down the filming process as it interrupts the recordings. However, we will try to solve this by filming at a earlier, quieter time. When the field is empty to avoid these distractions. Also, sometimes when filming in public spaces the local authority may need to be contacted, to ensure that the footage is safe.
Local authority
If you want to film on public land you will need permission from the appropriate local authority or council. They are responsible for public land, public buildings, roads and parking. The UK screen agencies can help you get in touch with the appropriate local authority contact.
http://www.britishfilmcommission.org.uk/crew-facilities/locations/filming-in-public
spaces/#sthash.S2bXmILW.dpuf
Health and safety has to be taken into account. In a field their can be a lot of rubbish or dangerous items. In order to avoid getting hurt by any of the dangers these items could pose. We would wear sensible clothing when filming, so we don't get hurt.
The weather is also something we have to take into consideration when filming in a field. If it rained it could ruin the quality of our footage and cause us to be distracted and not as focused. Possibly, causing us to be behind as we would have to reschedule. To avoid this we would research the weather forecast in order to be aware and not allow this to interfere with our production.
Our second location is a house. A house was chosen as it would allow us to relate it better to the song as the concept is about family, and its best to convey that family aspect in a house. A house is also conventional to the indie genre as locations are normally set in low-budget eerie locations. It will reflect Ed Sheeran as a very typical guy, as the location will look low-budget, not glamourous. Showing the audience that Ed Sheeran can relate to the experiences of his audience even if he is now wealthy. As stated earlier, the house was used to relate to the narrative as it discusses running away and that narrative would fit best if the main part of the music video was set in a house.
For this location, their will be mid shots of a dad laying on a bed, birds eye view shots of the dad on the bed, close up shots of his face and close ups of iconography on a bedside table. More shots will be used of the artist himself, mainly mid shots to convey to the audience that he is the main character.
A house could have limitations such as, distractions. The house would have to be one of our houses which will have our family in the house. So this could disrupt how far we could go with the music video as we wouldn't want to the disturb the actual residents. It would be great if we could maybe use the house when the residents are not home, to avoid these distractions/limitations.
The dad character that we will be using in our music video will be someone that we do not know personally. So we will make sure that we have supervision from a parent or an adult when producing the music video and carry out auditions to see the actor in person before we decide to film, to minimise the risks of our health and safety.
The weather will not affect this location, as it is indoors.
Our third location is a beach/riverside in London. We have chosen this location as it has nice scenery, which will look good on camera, also it will give us access to many attractions. Which will ensure that the music video is more action packed and creates ecstasy, as we will have a better variety of shots to choose from when we carry out the fast editing. This location will show our artist as a lover of natural settings and an explorer. As the artist is shown to run away to a beach in the video. This would convey the artist as daring and a risk taker, allowing the audience to see Ed as bold and make him their role model because he was portray as brave in the music video. The location also relates to the song narrative as it discusses running away and this would be the runaway location. For the audience this would enable them to feel more at peace and relaxed as the beach scenery would create a serene mood. A beach like location is very conventional as the location of an indie music video tends to be in a retro looking location. And a beach/river location in London would fit in with that alternative look which indie artists aim to provide to their audience.
At this location, their would be a range of shots. From close ups of the river/water moving with the waves. Long shots of a bridge nearby to the river/sea. And mid shots behind the artist showing the artist throw pebbles into the sea. These are just a few of the shot ideas that we aim to include in this location.
The limitations for this location would be background filming, but again we would try filming at an early time during the day where we would be less likely to be interrupted.
Health and safety would be being careful near the sea and not standing too close. We will be aware of one another by telling each other to move back, don't get too close etc.
The weather could also halt production. If it rained or thunder/lighting took place, it could interrupt the look we were going for with this beach/river location. Hopefully, this will not happen if we research weather forecasts before hand and schedule production on the days where rain/other bad weather will not occur.
The last location which would be filmed would be the train station journey. The train station would be used to display the journey between running away from home and going to the beach. It will reflect our artist as it is one of Ed Sheeran's memories 'His early childhood memories include listening to Van Morrison during his trips to London with his parents....Born in Hebden Bridge, raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he moved to London in 2008 to pursue a musical career. '. This shows that London is a place which Ed Sheeran loves, so it will reflect a part of Ed Sheeran's life and memories. It will also emphasise the song by showing Ed running away, which will develop the audience's understanding and cause them to sympathise with Ed/the character running away. The audience will also put themselves in Ed's position in this scene, by allowing them to wonder if they could be as brave as Ed. This also relates to indie genre conventions, as indie artists from London tend to show public transport and train stations to make the music video feel more naturalistic.
The shots in this location would be high angles of the character on the train. To display how young minded and youthful the boy is, as a high angle will make a character look more naive and small. There would also be close ups of the character to display facial expressions and emotions so the audience can sympathise with the character. There would also be close ups of the train station and map to identify the location to the audience. Also, when the train is going passed this would be filmed to make the video look more fast paced.
The limitations of a train station is that a train station whether day or night has many passengers and is very busy. So this could really disrupt our filming. However, to solve this we could go to a more isolated train station in Essex, where it is not that busy as compared to somewhere in Central London.
Train stations can be fairly dangerous if stood before the yellow line. But we will aim to notify all members to keep back, to reduce the risk of falling in the platform.
The weather would not be a problem as it is indoor.
Iconography
Alcohol will be used to give the audience a deeper understanding of the character that plays the father's alchohol problem. It will give the audience a visual interpretation, making the audience build a closer relationship with Ed Sheeran and accept his situation.
The alcohol bottles will be empty around the house, this will reflect this character, showing how he is empty and drinking all his sorrow's away.
I have chosen to use a suitcase to display that the character is running away. This will heighten the meaning of the lyrics as it states ''. This tells the audience that the artist is not happy in one place and that he is running away from his problems at home. This will cause the audience to sympathise with the artist as it shows that he's alone and doesn't feel like the family he has at home is whole. So he chooses to runaway with a love interest'run away, run away with you' the use of the repetition run away, exaggerates his pain and desperation to avoid the conflict at home. Furthermore, the love interest is a sign of hope, as he wants to start a new life with her without all the difficulties.
Health and safety has to be taken into account. In a field their can be a lot of rubbish or dangerous items. In order to avoid getting hurt by any of the dangers these items could pose. We would wear sensible clothing when filming, so we don't get hurt.
The weather is also something we have to take into consideration when filming in a field. If it rained it could ruin the quality of our footage and cause us to be distracted and not as focused. Possibly, causing us to be behind as we would have to reschedule. To avoid this we would research the weather forecast in order to be aware and not allow this to interfere with our production.
Our second location is a house. A house was chosen as it would allow us to relate it better to the song as the concept is about family, and its best to convey that family aspect in a house. A house is also conventional to the indie genre as locations are normally set in low-budget eerie locations. It will reflect Ed Sheeran as a very typical guy, as the location will look low-budget, not glamourous. Showing the audience that Ed Sheeran can relate to the experiences of his audience even if he is now wealthy. As stated earlier, the house was used to relate to the narrative as it discusses running away and that narrative would fit best if the main part of the music video was set in a house.
For this location, their will be mid shots of a dad laying on a bed, birds eye view shots of the dad on the bed, close up shots of his face and close ups of iconography on a bedside table. More shots will be used of the artist himself, mainly mid shots to convey to the audience that he is the main character.
A house could have limitations such as, distractions. The house would have to be one of our houses which will have our family in the house. So this could disrupt how far we could go with the music video as we wouldn't want to the disturb the actual residents. It would be great if we could maybe use the house when the residents are not home, to avoid these distractions/limitations.
The dad character that we will be using in our music video will be someone that we do not know personally. So we will make sure that we have supervision from a parent or an adult when producing the music video and carry out auditions to see the actor in person before we decide to film, to minimise the risks of our health and safety.
The weather will not affect this location, as it is indoors.
Our third location is a beach/riverside in London. We have chosen this location as it has nice scenery, which will look good on camera, also it will give us access to many attractions. Which will ensure that the music video is more action packed and creates ecstasy, as we will have a better variety of shots to choose from when we carry out the fast editing. This location will show our artist as a lover of natural settings and an explorer. As the artist is shown to run away to a beach in the video. This would convey the artist as daring and a risk taker, allowing the audience to see Ed as bold and make him their role model because he was portray as brave in the music video. The location also relates to the song narrative as it discusses running away and this would be the runaway location. For the audience this would enable them to feel more at peace and relaxed as the beach scenery would create a serene mood. A beach like location is very conventional as the location of an indie music video tends to be in a retro looking location. And a beach/river location in London would fit in with that alternative look which indie artists aim to provide to their audience.
At this location, their would be a range of shots. From close ups of the river/water moving with the waves. Long shots of a bridge nearby to the river/sea. And mid shots behind the artist showing the artist throw pebbles into the sea. These are just a few of the shot ideas that we aim to include in this location.
The limitations for this location would be background filming, but again we would try filming at an early time during the day where we would be less likely to be interrupted.
Health and safety would be being careful near the sea and not standing too close. We will be aware of one another by telling each other to move back, don't get too close etc.
The weather could also halt production. If it rained or thunder/lighting took place, it could interrupt the look we were going for with this beach/river location. Hopefully, this will not happen if we research weather forecasts before hand and schedule production on the days where rain/other bad weather will not occur.
The last location which would be filmed would be the train station journey. The train station would be used to display the journey between running away from home and going to the beach. It will reflect our artist as it is one of Ed Sheeran's memories 'His early childhood memories include listening to Van Morrison during his trips to London with his parents....Born in Hebden Bridge, raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he moved to London in 2008 to pursue a musical career. '. This shows that London is a place which Ed Sheeran loves, so it will reflect a part of Ed Sheeran's life and memories. It will also emphasise the song by showing Ed running away, which will develop the audience's understanding and cause them to sympathise with Ed/the character running away. The audience will also put themselves in Ed's position in this scene, by allowing them to wonder if they could be as brave as Ed. This also relates to indie genre conventions, as indie artists from London tend to show public transport and train stations to make the music video feel more naturalistic.
The shots in this location would be high angles of the character on the train. To display how young minded and youthful the boy is, as a high angle will make a character look more naive and small. There would also be close ups of the character to display facial expressions and emotions so the audience can sympathise with the character. There would also be close ups of the train station and map to identify the location to the audience. Also, when the train is going passed this would be filmed to make the video look more fast paced.
The limitations of a train station is that a train station whether day or night has many passengers and is very busy. So this could really disrupt our filming. However, to solve this we could go to a more isolated train station in Essex, where it is not that busy as compared to somewhere in Central London.
Train stations can be fairly dangerous if stood before the yellow line. But we will aim to notify all members to keep back, to reduce the risk of falling in the platform.
The weather would not be a problem as it is indoor.
Iconography
My group and I have chosen a guitar as one of the props that will be used in the music video. A guitar is an instrument which Ed Sheeran plays in the majority of his songs, in our chosen song runaway, a string instrument can be heard. So it would be suitable to show a guitar in the music video. Furthermore, it is very conventional for a a guitar to be displayed in an indie music video. In the indie genre it is typical to see musical instruments, to inform the audience that it is the artist playing it. Which displays the artists musical talents and causes the audience to adore and respect the musician more. It tells the audience that the artist has other talents.
Alcohol will be used to give the audience a deeper understanding of the character that plays the father's alchohol problem. It will give the audience a visual interpretation, making the audience build a closer relationship with Ed Sheeran and accept his situation.
The alcohol bottles will be empty around the house, this will reflect this character, showing how he is empty and drinking all his sorrow's away.
I have chosen to use a suitcase to display that the character is running away. This will heighten the meaning of the lyrics as it states ''. This tells the audience that the artist is not happy in one place and that he is running away from his problems at home. This will cause the audience to sympathise with the artist as it shows that he's alone and doesn't feel like the family he has at home is whole. So he chooses to runaway with a love interest'run away, run away with you' the use of the repetition run away, exaggerates his pain and desperation to avoid the conflict at home. Furthermore, the love interest is a sign of hope, as he wants to start a new life with her without all the difficulties.
We have chosen a hat for iconography. In the lyrics a cap is mentioned it says 'and a flat cap turned back' This has made me include a cap for iconography. As it relates to the lyrics. A hat is not necessarily conventional to the indie genre but casual clothing is. So we will aim to make the main character/artist to look very laid back and not very self effacing.
Lastly, a bed and bedside table will be used, this would be identified in the scene where the character who is playing the father is located. The bedside table will show alcohol on it and the bed will look untidy and unclean not like the one in the picture. To convey that the father is unkempt and disorderly which will amplify how the father is not in his best state.
This post demonstrates proficient planning techniques. You have considered a variety of locations and iconography elements that you would like to include within your music video and have considered the conventions of indie music well.
ReplyDeleteHowever, you need to refer back to the lyrics of your song and style of a music video, to show further understanding of why you have selected to use certain locations.
You also need to just focus on the conventions of indie as you are creating a video within this genre and not for the original artist.