First filming session- 15/01/14- Evaluation Part 1 (micro)

My main aim of filming today was to sort the beginning of my music video, he sliting wrist scene and the drugs scenes.


0:01-0:28 seconds

Darlin', darlin', doesn't have a problem

Lyin' to herself 'cause her liquor's top shelf

It's alarmin', honestly, how charming she can be

Fooling everyone, tellin' 'em she's having fun

0:33-0:38 
i'm dyin', I'm dyin'

1:38-1:45 seconnds
Lookin' for fun, gettin' high for free
I'm dyin', I'm dyin'"


(3:59-4:02)
Problem, lying to herself 'cause her liquor's

These are the shots from my story board I began filming today..

PUT STORY BOARD IMAGES

Props

• Ibuprofen (placebo drugs)- To make the audience believe that it is actually a dangerous drug as we can see it with out own eyes and that is how we expect the drug to look like.
• Sweetener grains (fake mephedrone)- To make the audience believe that it is actually a dangerous drug as we can see it with out own eyes and that is how we expect the drug to look like.
• Credit card- The credit card symbolizes wealth of the character which goes into more detail on the point below.
• £20 note- This prop was used to snort up the mephedrone. The fact it is a 20 pound note is to prove that she is not money deprived or living in poverty. It is again to get my original message that anyone could be living like this not just the people that fit into our stereotype.
• Bottle of liqueur (disarano)- Drinking a spirit straight can be very dangerous about the body. This shows she doesn't care about herself. Drinking straight spirit can be seen as an extreme, again this could hold a message of how extreme her life is behind closed doors. Making a statement.
• Empty bath bubble bottle- To place ibuprofen in to make the drugs look more realistic found in an unlabelled bottle. The audience don't know what she is taking so we assume it is illegal.
• Black nail varnish- Black connotes death and depression. It holds negative connotations over all.
• Red checkered shirt- Lazy baggy shirt.Again showing to us she isn't dressed for anyone to see us. people usually refer to clothing like this as there 'lazy clothes' that we wouldn't actually leave the house in. Proving we are not meant to see this side of her.
• Smudged makeup- not impressing any one at this time proves to us that we aren't meant to see her living in this negative life of her doing drugs etc.
• Messy plain hair- not impressing any one at this time proves to us that we aren't meant to see her living in this negative life of her doing drugs etc.
• Perfume bottles- To represent that she does care about herself and is a luxury women by wanting to smell nice and buying expensive perfumes, however it contrasts with the action in the scene.Showing both her 2 sided lifes in one scene.

Smudged makeup- However the smudge makeup could counteract mulveys theory because although there isn't a lot of clothing on the actress she doesn't look in a very attractive state in her face so men would not see her as a sex object. I chose to make her makeup smudged because again it makes her look lazy and her pretty side is broken and messy behind doors. The smudged makeup is to symbol how messy her life is. Also when people do drugs it can make them sweat more so it can show her makeup  was smudged for this reason making it more realistic.
The plain hair- I chose to go with this because it shows the actress is not really bothered with the way she looks behind doors AKA a different person to who she is to everyone else.Again helping me show the contrasts later on throughout the video.

Mise En Scene

I chose the black nail varnish because of the negative connotations it holds. The song is meant to be about a girl who seems happy to everyone else but behind closed doors shes not, shes broken. The black connotes depression which shows this theme in my video. It will also be later contrasted in a few of the upcoming scenes with a different nail varnish to represent her when shes happy. You will also see in a later shot of the same previous shot but with the different nail varnish. Helping us contrast between the two. Showing her living 2 life's.

Costume

My costume was in mind of my previous post on stereotypes of drug users.

Mans Shirt- I chose a shirt as the top half of the costume because in other music videos of the same genre a lot of the actresses are wearing shirts. This is to represent her feeling quite lazy by not being bothered to get changed. The mans shirt is also to represent a lover she once had and the only thing she has of him now is this because he’s left her. I have also chosen this costume because it links with Mulveys ‘male gaze’. This is because just wearing a shirt shows minimalistic clothing which attracts males. Also with a bra that is underneath that is slightly visible, underwear is seen as sexy and provocative.  Here are some images that prove this point that shows mulveys theory. Also the story line that is happening when she is wearing this costume is showing the girl as weak and lonely which we could also argue this display of women is how men think they should be perceived, independent on a man.



Post Production
As you can see i tried to cut the shots corresponding to when the music plays giving it more of an affect and helping them link together. Using final cut pro it gave me effects to play around with i used several on my music video. To give it the blurry black and white effect i used '50's TV', in the stylize section of effects i picked 'aged film' this makes it look like it has been done with an old video camera. The last effect i chose to use was frame to again make it look like it has been filmed on a video camera. The reason i chose these was because they corresponding with my storyline and was a typical convention of Lana Del Rey videos. They are often in black and white and filmed with old fashion cameras because it represents her genre. Her genre is what we would expect to see back in 50's. The slow motion effect was used on one of my shots when i was pouring my pills out into my head. The reason i did this was to make it more dramatic.

What I would rethink about?
If i was shooting this scene again i'd think to get more ibuprofen to fill up the full tub instead of half, this way by making it more realistic. Same with the disarano. If i could i would also get some lighting from college to make it a bit darker to help set the scene and show depression. There was also the point where i had unscrewed the disarano but had a few second where there was a pause at the end. When I filmed the knife spinning it would of been better if the object was central in the shot however it was hard as it kept moving when i span it.