Coursework: Preliminary exercise 2022

One of my characters will be the performer and the second character will be the athlete. I will use the opening 40 seconds of the song for this preliminary exercise (up until the start of the first verse). I will film the singing/lip-syncing from multiple angles in a dark gym with only a little light on my performer. Alongside this, I will film my athlete training - running, lifting weights etc. There will lots of close-ups on both of their faces. [117 words]

 Statement of intent: 100 words explaining what you plan to make.

i plan to make a   30-45 second  music video for the song Happier Then Ever by Billie Eilish but my artist will be called Emily Hazel. The story is of an abusive and controlling relationship where the women is getting verbally and physical abused.

One of my characters is  gonna be the abuser which is the husband and the other is the wife that is the victim. i will use 40 seconds of the middle of the music video for this preliminary exercise. I will film the 2 characters from the living room to show  the narrative of my music video. Alongside this i will film my actor(abuser) from the car and the wife ignoring him. There will be multiple medium /long shots.

Treatment: 

In my music video i will have a few locations such as the car(where the abuser will be spamming  his wife and acts controlling and mad ) , the kitchen ( where they get into a physical and verbal argument and youll see the girl crying and getting spammed.), outside of the house(the man will be banging on the door). It will start of the man controlling the women spamming her in the car while she is ignoring him while shes at the kitchen. He then will start to bang on the door while shes crying and the mother will be spamming. Then it will escalate to the an and  women fighting where it will get more physical. Then the flashbacks of the  women and man  being happy and laughing will be played then it will come back to the kitchen again where she will fall back and then ill record the women falling back down in the swimming pool indicating shes tired and is drowning from the pain shes going through. The music will start out slow and calm and then it will get to an upbeat chaotic part of the song which will go along with whats currently going on.

Casting:

My uncle( the abuser)

My sister(the victim)

My mum(victims worried mum)

Location:

House,Kitchen

Car

Shot List: 

A medium shot of when the husband spams the wife

A close sup shot of the phone ringing

A medium shot of the man in the car acting mad

A medium shot of the women in the bed ignoring her husbands calls

A pan shot of the women throwing the phone

A medium shot going into a long shot of the man leaving his car

A medium/long shot of the man banging on the door and entering the house

A long shot of the man screaming at the women throwing her phone

A long shot of the husband and wife arguing

An over the shoulder shot of when the man slaps her

Preliminary exercise feedback and learner response

1) Teachers Feedback:

• This clearly communicates a narrative that fits the feel of the song. You’ve got some good shots and the audience is positioned to sympathise with the female character really effectively.
• I can’t decide if I like the Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever being on the car stereo in the first shot – on the one hand it’s clever but on the other it draws attention to the actual artist rather than the artist you have created!
• The branding is strong and I think it works over the reflective car windscreen shot (it works a bit like a white screen which is effective).
• I really like the timing of the cut from the phone being chucked down and the car door opening – it’s really effective and communicates a link between the two cleverly.
• The use of slow motion in the editing is very effective for the action you are communicating – it’s difficult to make that realistic and convincing so I think putting it in slow motion is the best way of doing it.
• The challenge now is working out how to develop this into the full two-minute coursework – will you continue this narrative? Will you add a performance element?

 2)  WWW: 

Different camera shots and angles throughout the video.

The slow motion makes the narrative fit in with the song.

The audience is seeing shots of the women and feeling empathetic for her as it communicates the narrative and is effectively used with the song.

EBI:

I didn't notice the fact that I had added the original Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish on the car stereo which could draw attention on the actual artist.

3) I have learnt to carry on using effective camera shots  to display my narrative.