Health and Safety Issues

Fire Safety-
In one clip, we have filmed Eddie going through a breakdown in whcih he contemplates setting the house alight. In this scene he lights a match. To ensure our safety, we had water buckets and blankets on the side, that that if the match was dropped or there were any other complications, these could be dealt with immediately. It assured the safety of us and the actors we were using. Previous to filming this scene, we had already considered the safety aspect of this and discussed safe ways that we could do it without endangering ourselves. We felt that we were prepared for any possible accidents, and these could be quickly resolved with the contigency plans we had in place.

Fight Scenes
Other scenes that may cause concern in terms of health and safety would be the multiple fight scenes that we have filmed. However, as our actors are well experienced, they are able to carry out these fight scenes without any physical contact and make it look real. It also took some clever camerawork with contrived angles to make these scenes look realistic. Nobody was harmed in the filming of these scenes.

Photos and Videos from Filming

The first image is our new actor who replaced Louise.

The second image was taken during a fight scene. In it you can see Eddie making physical contact with Bethany, however the scene this was taken from was reshot as Eddies body blocked a lot of the action taking place. We decided that Eddie strike her from a different angle so that it could be picked up by the camera much better and this way we could see the full extent of the fight.

The third image was taken from a low angle after Eddie has just push Bethany to the floor. The image reflects Eddies power and authority, and compliments his villian status.

This video shows the reshoot of the fight scene. Here you can see Eddie striking Bethany from a different angle which allows the camera to capture all the action.

We shot many scenes similar to this where Bethany is being physically abused by her boyfriend.

Filming and Justifications of Choices

Today we went back to our first location where we had previously shot scenes with Louise and Eddie. This time we were back with Eddie but we had bought Bethany along to replace Louise. Filming went ahead really well and we managed to gather a lot of different scenes that we will be able to use. In our video we will be including a flashback which will be many different short clips all played out with a quick flash of light between each. For this to be effective we will need a lot of very short clips that will fill a substancial amount of time. Therefore we took to the understanding that we would need as much footage as possible so that we could gather together the best clips for our music video. We spent around 2 and a half hours filming and managed to get a large variet of different fight scenes.

We got the initial set up filmed so that we could establish the setting and lifestyle that the two characters live. We wanted to film these scenes from Bethany’s point of view as we felt this would reflect her vulnerability and we wanted the viewers to be sympathetic with her story. We showed Bethany’s story by showing her home life to begin with. We did not show Eddies work life and did not shoot many scenes of Eddie on his own as we did not want viewers to fully understand this character. By doing this Eddie became an enigmatic character and people would then associate him with a stereotypical abusive boyfriend.

On the day of filming we managed to an evolving argument that begins at the dinner table when Eddie is unsatisfied with his dinner. He throws it on the floor and begins to shout in her face. While filming these scenes I began to think ahead to how I would edit this to make it even more dramatic. I considered implementing a slow motion effect on these fight scenes. I felt that this would really show the anger that was being portrayed by Eddies character. The fight scenes were very violent. We had Eddie slapping Bethany and knocking her to the ground, we also had him pulling her hair and once again knocking her onto the floor, we felt that this action showed Eddies authority over her. He was always pictured above her and this suggests superiority. Even during his apology scenes, Eddie is looking down at Bethany and once again stating his authority. I would like to mention here that no one was injured during the filming of our video. We used clever camera work and good acting to produce scenes that appeared to be more physical than they were.

We then shot Eddies breakdown scenes where he feels some remorse for his actions. He is aware that he has taken things too far and contemplates ending it all when he lights a match. He is drinking alcohol heavily which suggests that he is an alcoholic. We also shot Eddie with a drink at the dinner table to create some consistency in his alcoholism. We shot this scene from the same angle so that viewers would focus on the content of the scene rather than the angles changing. This way, we were able to capture this scene from the same viewpoint and this intensified the footage as you became drawn in to the scene.

After this we began filming Bethany’s breakdown, where we see her looking dolorous and depressed. She is crying. To show this on camera as often tears go unseen through the camera lens, we smudged black makeup over her face and then dabbed this with water to create the effect that her makeup had run due to excessive tears. This scene linked in with Eddies apology so we took it from a high angle that looked down on Bethany to keep consistency in the camera angles.

Camera angles-
We shot a low angle shot of Eddie that looked up at him to reflect his power and authority over Bethany. We shot close ups of both of their faces as this was important if we were to fully show their true emotions. We needed these close ups to show the dramatic contrast of fear and anger between the two characters.

Props-
Alcohol (Red Wine) Eddie is supposed to be an alcoholic and so we wanted to choose an alcoholic drink that is stereotypical of this. Initially when we shot the scenes with Louise, we used Smirnoff Ice (an Alco pop) We soon realised that this would not be acceptable and would appear comical that a grown man known to be an excessive drinker would be drinking Smirnoff Ice, a low alcohol drink associated with underage teenage drinkers. We decided red wine is a strong and powerful drink that suggests more about his addiction than a can of beer would, as stereotypically many men enjoy a can of beer. Eddie is seen throughout the filming (specifically the fight scenes) with his bottle of alcohol. It puts the idea at mind that he can't let go of it. During Eddies anger and violent behaviour, he always has his bottle at his side and some might suggest that it is to blame for his violent ways.
Eddies suit was also something we took into consideration. We wanted him to be wearing something that someone in a high up position at work would wear. We felt a suit suggested power and authority at work and also pressure. The suit reflected his work position and his stressful job that causes him to drink and to become violent. So to speak "he takes his frustrations from work out on his wife" The suit was the only way we could reflect this as we did not want to film any shots of Eddie at work as this would take the attention away from Bethany’s vulnerability and people may begin to sympathise with Eddies character which was not what we wanted at all.

Filming Day 2

Today we came to my house to film my scenes. This day was much more successful. It was just the three group members present, and I played the character of Kelly. We shot scenes on the common very near by to my house and in my garden. We also shot some filler clips. These were clips of me looking into the camera looking sad and clips of me walking towards the camera. These clips will be used to fill the instrumental parts of the song where Kelly does not sing. We did not gather all of the essential filming, and therefore we will need to come back another day to do this.

After looking back over the footage we shot on this day, I found that a lot of what we did took place outside and therefore we need to do some more filming in doors.

This day was much more successful than the previous. I am happy with the progress we are making.

Filming Day 1

Today myself, my group and the actors got together to film the abusive boyfriend scenes. We only had two hours to get to Kerstins house; the location for filming and to film and get back to school, which left us with very little time. Our ideas were put accross to the actors who played the part. On the day everything was very rushed and the realisation that the task was not as simple as we'd anticipated soon dawned on all of us in the group.

The images below were taken on the day:


This is an image taken from the shooting of the dinner scene where we see the arguement erupt between the pair.

This is the result of the arguement. Louises character ends up on the floor after being pushed. As you can see in this image, Louise is laughing. This was not part of the script, and was one of the contributing factors to why much of the filming was useless.

This is Eddie during his breakdown, this is where we see him feeling the guilt for his recent actions against his girlfriend. Eddie turns to drink.

This is where we see Louises character become very emotional. In this image I was applying the make up. I used a lot of black eye make up and then smudged this with water to make it look as though she has been crying.

This is the end result of the make up.

After watching back over the footage, as I mentioned before, much of it was useless. The main actor (Louise) seemed very evasive and unbothered by her role and this was shown in her performance. It lacked passion and she often giggled through scenes, which for the part she is playing as an abused girlfriend, is unsatisfactory.

After recent deliberations with the group, we have decided to re-shoot these scenes with a different actress playing Louises part. We will now be using Bethany for this part. She is someone who has taken acting lessons for a very long time and we have confidence that she will take the role much more seriously.

Actors

This post will explain the actors who will be used in our music video.


I have already explained that there will be a separate storyline which portrays the life of an abused girlfriend and then kelly singing in other locations.


The characters will be; the abusive boyfriend, the abbused girlfriend and Kelly. We wanted to keep the actors to a minimum as we wanted viewers to focus on the story. We also felt this would reflect the chlostrophobic lifestyle that Louises character leads, as though there was no escape.

This is the character who plays the abusive boyfriend. He has a lot of acting experience, and in the past has taken on many roles for our varous other media products.


This is the character who plays the abused girlfriend. She also has some acting experience and played Britney Spears in our practice music video where she did a very good job. She is a very petite girl and we felt this would suit her character as a vulnerable scared woman.

This is me. I am playing the main character as Kelly Clarkson. We thought that I fitted the look of a "pop/rock" singer. We also thought that if someone from the group played this part it would be more convenient as I am always available during media lessons.

Costume Choices

These are some outfit choices I have pulled together after the recent discussion I had with Natasha. I ensured that each outfit had at least one dark item of clothing to go with it to keep the rock theme consistent. I have also included the boots and denim shorts look that Pixie Lott wore as myself and Natasha both agreed this was a good look.

For Louises character (the abused girlfriend) we wanted her to be wearing all black. This dark colouring would reflect her state of depression.

For Eddie's character we wanted him to be wearing a suit. He is supposed to be someone who has a good job that causes him stress and this could be why he turns to drink and abuses his grilfriend. We thought the suit would suggest he demands authority in his job.

This was the costume we decided to go with in the end, The boots and shorts still in place however we changed to this top as we felt this baggy crop top look was very much in fashion at the moment.

Planning- Representing Genre Through the Artist (Establishing "the look")

Today during our double Media lesson, we looked in close detail at how we would represent the genre through the artist. Unfortunately Kerstin was absent for these lessons so it was just myself and Natasha present. We needed to strongly consider the costume choices for the character playing Kelly (myself). First we needed to establish the genre of Kelly and we settled on "pop/rock" genre. We felt that Kelly closely links the boundaries of both and we would need to represent this in the way she dresses.

Using the internet, we researched previous music videos by Kelly as well as multiple images in order to gain a better understanding of her representation in music.

We noted many common features that we recognised;

In this image, the colour scheme leans toward her rock reputation, however the overall look of the image conflicts with this statement. The blonde hair and pretty face links closer to her pop side. This is very typical of Kelly as she often combines the two genres together well to create a clever mix. The heavy eye makeup is something that caught my eye. It comes across very dramatic and is a key feature for creating the pop/rock look.



Once again we see the dramatic eye makeup, still consistently very dark. Something interesting to note about both of these images is Kelly's posture and facial expression. This goes beyond the external costume and make up choices. She appears to have attitude in both images. Her posture recalls that of someone considered to be feisty and extrovert. This, I believe is Kelly contradicting her pop image in order to be taken seriously as an artist. This is something we will definitely need to consider when creating the music video as well as the digipak and advert. This type of artist does not reflect the cheesy side of the pop genre. Another recurring feature is the dark clothing, we see here again a dark colour scheme implemented in order to reflect the rock side to this artist.



This image definitely reflects the rock side to Kelly and shows little trace of any pop influence. This image reminds me of something that could have been created for My Chemical Romance (a very rock oriented band.) It is very dark and very dramatic and it is very rock because of this. Once again we see dark clothing and a very mournful look has been created here. It is not a happy image which can be said for all three of the images I have spoken of.


We then discussed a look that we felt we could create for myself as the character of Kelly. We researched some more current artists who we felt fitted this same genre.

This is an image of Pixie Lott. We felt that she was a current artist who also fitted the look of a rock and pop artist. We analysed many of her outift choices and felt that we should style myself around this image. One thing that we liked was the boots and denim shorts. Being creative, I feel I am able to find outfits at my home that could create a similar look to this. However I will need multiple outfits throughout the music video which each express this genre.