Possible actors

When casting for our music video Ellie and I agreed that learning from our mistakes when creating our Thriller Opening last year, that the most important thing to consider when casting actors is whether or not they will be dedicated and have the time to be asked back if a filming session doesn't have the outcome that Ellie and I desire and they need to be called back to re-film. This proved difficult last year. Taking this into consideration the actors that we asked to audition all fit under a category that means they are able to re-film if called a=upon to do so and also have the desired physical looks we need and planned to have from the beginning of the year. 

Lizzie:

Sam:

Micky:

Seb:

Luke:

Ellie:

Lucy:

Purchasing props for the video

After the vast amount of research Ellie and I conducted into psychedelic music videos and what goes into making them look so professional and successful with their target audiences. I looked online to see where I could purchase some of the researched props including: neon face paint, a black light, bottles of paint, white face paint, needles for ink shots, smoke grenades and powder paint. I purchased these items as to enhance the final outcome of our video as the type of shots and content we wanted to show through in our video would only be possible with the addition of certain props such as the neon face paint, black light, a needle (ink), water balloons, smoke grenades and powder paint. What inspired us to look to grips such as these is Tame Impala videos as they use brightly coloured props to enhance their music videos then add to the video at a later date with special effects and advanced editing techniques which when filmed I will aim to replicate. The neon face paint shots for example will look far more eye-catching when edited to make the background of the shots appear darker and the levels and tone on the shots adjusted to brighten and contrast against the darker aspects within the frame. As mentioned i conducted a vast amount of research into the props I purchased, including how to use them most effectivly and how to enhance them once at the stage of editing. Through watching many YouTube videos of people using neon far paint it was brought to my attention that I would need a black light to allow the face paint to show once the lights were off. Also through watching a video about ink moving through water I was given the idea to use a needle to inject the ink into the water as when using a pep-pet the ink would disperse into the water to quickly and the tank would have to be emptied and refilled with clean water over and over again. 

Further narrative planning

Luke and Ellie narrative: This will be the only narrative present in our video. The narrative follows Luke who's character represents the paranoid side of the 'Love/Paranoia' themed narrative and Ellie who represents the loving half of the narrative. The shots will follow Luke and Ellie and they walk through opposing ends of Rochester to meet in vines. We have chosen vines as the filming locations it is ethically pleasing and the weather in November is very bleak, filming outside in this park like area we will be able to use the dark and somewhat dull shots to contrast against the rest of the shots we plan to use which will be extremely bright and colourful as to relate back to the psychedelic genre. As this is the only narrative in the video we have decided that shots from this filming session will be shown at the beginning, middle and end of the video and at various points throughout. This takes inspiration from almost any music video with a narrative ever produced as the music video shows the main focus of the video at the beginning of the video so the audience is aware of the focus, then throughout they are reminded of this as other shots are mixed in to almost distract from the main theme and then the video is ended with a shot of the focus. Luke will be wearing dark costume as to juxtaposition between his clothing and Ellie's as we have planned for Ellie to wear a bright yellow coat. This also links to what the individuals represent in the video as Luke's representation of paranoia is considered negative and so he is wearing dark colours. Ellie representing the other side of this (love) is seen to be wearing bright colours as this emotion is largely considered to be positive. The beginning shots will follow the individuals walking in the direction of each other (they are unaware of this). The middle shots will show the couple meeting in vines and looking at each other as Ellie lip syncs a line from the song which relates strongly to what the couple represent "If only i could read your mind". In between this extensively planned shots there will be various segments to remind the audience of the couple as the abstract shots play. Finally the end at the end the video the couple meet looking over the river and reach for each others hands resting on railing as the song fades out. 

Seb with neon face paint: Something that Ellie and I aim to use to help our video stand out from the crowd is the use of neon face paint and black light in our work. For this we aim to use Seb as he himself takes art based like subjects and we hope that he will not only work well with us but perhaps improve the outcome of the face painting before shooting takes place. Ellie and I have researched a variety of filming with neon face paint, I found when researching that we would also need to purchase a blacklight for the face paint to glow. What will hopefully perfect the shots we take of Seb will be the editing as I will be able to allow the face paint to contrast greatly to the black background which I can make as dark as possible and bring out the lightest tones in the face paint. 

Micky with coloured smoke grenades: Using a wooded area as our location and a coloured smoke grenades Ellie and i hope to achieve bold and abstract shots of Micky holding the grenade and moving around it. We will have Micky dressed in all white so the colour of the smoke will stand out. We thought of having Micky dressed in all black but then realised he would blend in with the background of the wooded area we film in due to the time of year. We also aim to use Seb to lip sync some lines of the song we have chosen to stand out such as "Are you sure it was nothing, cause it made me feel like dying". By applying neon face paint to Seb's lips the lip syncing will be unique a and work well with the genre. 

Micky with powder paint: We will again have Micky dressed in all white as to allow the powder paint to show as it will on Micky's skin. We aim to either use a white background or a brick wall. The white background may be too similar to that of other shots we aim to film and therefore the brick wall may be the best choice for us to make. Using a range of brightly coloured face paint means that when adjusted and edited the colours will appear even more iridescent. To add to this Micky's dark features especially his hair will help to contrast against the brightest colours we aim to use such as green and yellow. These shots should also nicely tie in with the other abstract shots as well as the couples narrative as these shots will clearly show Micky acting, whereas Seb's shots only focus on his face and more on lip syncing.

Ink shots: Something that will remain consistent from that of the old video is the filming of ink moving through water. We took inspiration from some of Tame Impala's music videos which show similar arty and abstract shots that are edited and manipulated in a way that allows the ink to move with the beats of the song. The bright colours also work well with our chosen genre. We can film the ink either floating on the top of the water or moving through it. I conducted some research and found that before putting the ink into the water, if you mix it with cream it keeps it shape in the water for longer, this is something that professional photographers do and that was also recommended to me by an photography teacher at my school. 

Mannequin and body part paint shots: This idea came about rather spontaneously, I was looking through the props Ellie and I had in our schools art department, props commonly used for photography. I came across some mannequin parts, two porcelain white arms that reminded me of something Tame Impala used in their 'The Less I Know The Better' music video. In the Tame Impala video they show an inviable still woman and as paint of various colours begins to pour on her body she is made visible. Ellie and I will aim to accomplish something similar to this using brightly coloured paint and the mannequin arms against a white background. We may also decide to further elevate our work by using one of our actors, perhaps Ellie to have their face and hair covered in paint.

Paint balloon shots: Ellie and I aim to use coloured paint mixed with water to fill up water balloons with various colours and then throw them against either a white or black background. This when edited can be slowed down or even reversed. We have decided that filming shots like this will work well with the beat drops of our song. It is also an inventive and unique idea that we research quite heavily before deciding on. 

Changing the narrative and song choice of our video

As discussed in previous blog posts as Ellie and myself began to film more and more for our music video we realised the difficulty we would have with certain individuals who we hoped at the time would be able to act in our video. Over the period of time we spent planning our music video, certain individuals cast due to personal circumstances were unable to continue acting in our media production. We were then faced with a difficult decision of rearranging actors and holding a recasting session. At this point in time, we aimed to keep the idea of various couples in the narrative and follow a range of story lines. However, after the recasting session we held it was made clear that the certain individuals who either could not continue filming or felt they weren't comfortable in the role, would make it almost impossible to keep the couples storyline successful. Ellie and myself therefore made the hard decision of changing the entire narrative of our video. We felt that at the stage we were in the process of filming and creating our music video that we would rather change the narrative now, no matter the extra level of work rather than come to the end of the year with a finished music video we did not think successful. What is unfortunate about this situation however, is the success of the shots we filmed of Lizzie and Sam, Ellie and myself thought we could perhaps include them in the new narrative. This is due to how both the actors and the characters they played in the video relating back to todays ever-changing society and how individuals such as Sam (being transgender) would raise awareness of this brushed aside topic that is rarely translated into everyday life and in things such as music videos. Music videos often stereotype gender and put male and female actors into very specific roles and boxes. By using Sam we aimed to show that music videos can break out of this segregator type loop. But we feel that they worked so well with the old song choice and narrative and did not fit at all with what we planned to film over the coming weeks. So regrettably, we decided to leave Lizzie and Sam's narrative out of the final cut of our video. We then looked at pairing our new narrative with our chosen song of 'Let It Happen' by Tame Impala. It was clear when we set out to do this that this song was much better suited to the old binary opposite narrative than the new narrative which sticks much more closely in relation to the psychedelic genre. We aim to continue to useful and ink moving through water in some shots and to also use abstract props that I hope will enhance the video and actors performance. Props such as coloured smoke grenades, powder paint and neon face paint. All these ideas have sprung from extensive research into the psychedelic genre and how to translate the genre to the audience when filming a music video. 

Taking this into consideration the song we have decided to use for our music video is still a song by the band Tame Impala off of their same album 'Currents' which was released in 2015. We have chosen to use this song 'Love/Paranoia'. The song fits into our planned narrative very effectively with the sound of manipulated vocals and swirling ambience. The song truly is psychedelic and Ellie and I aim to use the various build up of instruments and beat drops to our advantage and pair certain shots with these to show how we have looked at both narrative and song choice and worked with them together. This is something we found hard to achieve when working with 'Let It Happen' and our old narrative. After analysing the tempo, logistics, melody and some of the outstanding lyrics within 'Let it Happen' we then attempted to link this to some ideas we had relating the narrative of our music video. The song will work extremely well with abstract shots of various lengths and colour schemes. The song escalates in volume and speed and returns to slow quiet beats at various point throughout the song and this is something Ellie and I can work with to achieve a professional and precise final outcome. 

A rough outline of things we aim to include, that will be discussed to a greater extent in later blog posts would be: The miss-en-scene of our four chosen actors Luke, Ellie, Seb and Micky and their acting roles. The continuation of the filming of abstract elements such as ink, paint and neon black light shots. 

Re-casting

Over the period of time we spent planning our music video, certain individuals cast due to personal circumstances are unable to continue acting in our media production. Therefore, we were faced with a difficult decision of rearranging actors and holding a recasting session. There is only one couple that remains the same as when we first began casting, Lizzie and Sam. Individuals such as Ellis, Lucy and Micky have been placed into a couple (they were originally cast to act separately and individually) and individuals such as Ellie and Reg have been taken out of a couple where the other actor could not continue and placed together, awaiting a storyline. Seb has been recast after looking back at the auditions held at the beginning of production in search of a new actor, we came to the overall conclusion that Seb would best suit the role and storyline we have paired with him and Lucy.

New couple arrangements:

• Ellis and Micky,
• Lizzie and Sam,
• Lucy and Seb,
• Ellie and Reg.

Filming-Lizzie and Sam

Keeping to our production schedule we shot Lizzie and Sam's couple narrative of strong vs. weak on the 14th of October. The preparation behind this day of filming was organised and intense allowing no room for error. This was effective as upon arrival at the filming location we were able to spend the day focusing on the quality of the shots and angles we were filming, not spending unnecessary time with the equipment (we had already fully charged and prepared equipment before the filming date). We used two good quality cameras and two tripods to allow us to shoot a range of angles at the same time allowing the match on match with shots showing both characters to be as accurate and on point as possible. Overall the outcome of the filming session was positive, this is mainly down to team work and having great actors to work with (drama students) that listened to direction from Ellie and I and gave it their all. To add to this we checked the focus on all the shots that we took on the cameras before leaving an aspect of the scene and moving on to the next. When uploading the media to a iMac we were able to see the full detail of the shots and begin the editing process.

On-going behind the scene photos and videos-Lizzie and Sam