Within my project I'd like a reoccurring theme to appear throughout my website design, poster and final product. I feel this would give my short film a unique recognizable aesthetic that stays consistent throughout. Most films and media productions in general have their own aesthetic that stays present throughout, I'll go through a few to get an idea on how to achieve this myself.
Throughout both of these images, not only have the producers decided to use the same pink and green colour scheme, they have also used the same art style/filter on them. A lot of horror films have quite obscure styles and conventions so when I'm creating my own poster and website, I'll keep it in mind to have a certain filter or art style that is present.
The fonts and typography used are also consistent throughout although there is a few fonts. The actors' names in the poster are written in a font that I feel fits the theme of the film a lot more, whereas the title of the film itself is in all caps and bold colours. Using multiple fonts to convey different things is an aspect I will also take into account.
The first thing I noticed is the dark and gloomy atmosphere of not only the setting, but the typography and tone in general. This is obviously going to be common in a horror film, but it's an element that needs to be added. If I were to record in daylight in a seemingly safe area, it wouldn't have the same effect as recording at night in a woods. The basis of every horror film is the tone, and this is set usually by the setting and lighting of each scene. The setting of a horror almost becomes a character in itself, setting the mood for everything that happens.
Another thing I'll go over is the enigma associated with the antagonist in the short film. The main character is shown on camera a lot, almost every shot is the female with close ups, medium and long shots making her relatable and easy to follow as a character. The antagonist, however is very rarely shown and its' presence is only clear due to the fact that the main character is afraid and there are small hints that there is something wrong. This is shown in specific scenes like the doors of her car locking by themselves. This doesn't overtly show the antagonist, but makes the audience aware that he is there and is a threat to the character. I think this is what makes a horror film scary. Not disturbing or scary imagery or music, but the atmosphere these things create. In my own production I will aim to create a scary atmosphere along with a ridiculous or silly plot line, hopefully creating humour.
One more thing I noticed is the use of audio throughout the scene. There is a lot of ambient sounds like things you would regularly hear in a city, perhaps giving the character some sort of security. This is mixed with an ambient, scary background noise that makes the audience feel nervous for the character as if there is obviously something wrong in the scene. This, mixed with the occasional shot with the frightening antagonist makes for quite a spooky atmosphere. Like the area she's in should be safe but isn't. A lot of horror directors actually aim to do this. Taking a seemingly safe and secure place and associating it with horror makes people nervous.
All of these elements are very useful to me as I'll be able to use them in an unconventional way with an unconventional story hopefully making my own short film scary as well as humorous.
This is a very good short film to analyse as it has the same sort of effects and themes that I am going for in my film. It does a great job of making a parody of the conventions in the horror genre, some of which I was planning on using.
The consistent type of scare used throughout is the main character looking at different places and the same mop being there, mixed with a creepy audio cue. This same sort of thing is used across the horror genre as a way to make something seem paranormal and strange. This is emphasised by the fact that the main character never really mentions it to his friends until later in the video, which would be a good idea to do straight away.
The premise of the video is similar to mine and is executed quite well. The "villain" or antagonist is virtually harmless yet it seriously scares the main character for whatever reason, which can also be considered a parody on the horror genre.
Lots of different villains in the horror genre are usually harmless like the classic Chucky or the saw doll. The use of audio through the video is very interesting and I can use some of the same techniques in mine. The overly creepy and mysterious ambient sound throughout the video makes for a spooky atmosphere with is contrapuntal considering the obviously harmless situation our main character is in.
I will do something similar, with a very scary atmosphere like a normal horror would have, mixed with a completely harmless enemy.
The colour grading throughout is very dark and brownish, with some extremely artistic and over-the-top shots making the essence of the film very serious and dark. This is a technique used by Edgar Wright in a lot of his films, with very well done and artistic lighting and editing mixed with a comedic premise, it adds comedy to the films in an ironic way.
The theory of post-modernism states that every piece of media created in modern day takes inspiration directly or indirectly from something. I feel like this relates to my project heavily, as even though I haven't used a concept directly related to something, I have took a lot of inspiration from the Imagine Dragons: Radioactive music video.
The video itself shows stuffed animals fighting in a surreal cock fighting ring and it seems the producers have used special effects or CGI to give the illusion of realistic movement. My production will be done practically, and the stuffed animals will be used in very different contexts but the inspiration for the video will still be from the Imagine Dragons production.
I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the theory as my project is evidence that the theory may hold some merit. I would argue that although my video will be quite unique and there aren't many that have a similar premise, the idea still spawned from watching other videos and gaining inspiration. I believe this is also the case for many other people on the course, and big productions in Hollywood.
As I'm going to start planning my music video soon, I've worked with people in class to find the important aspects of shooting, and the things that need to be considered before going out to actually shoot. If I were to create a script and storyboard without any consideration of planning the actual shoot, it might not turn out how I would like or expect.
I have conducted a test to see how my idea using chroma keying and multiple layers to make puppets move works. In the video I used a green screen cover, as opposed to a green morph suit like I planned. When I am creating my main video in the future I will be using a green morph suit as there will be no creases or irregular colours in it like there were in this video. That being said, it still worked as planned and the effect turn out quite well. The puppet appears to be moving by itself, and I am confident it will work in my music video.
I have taken a look at Altman's theory of syntactic/semantic approach (1984) and have explored and analysed it in terms of my own media text. I feel it will heavily relate to my short film as I can approach it in different ways. Getting my genre across clearly to the audience is important and I will use both semantics and syntax to do this.
I will need to take into account my target audience as well as the theory itself as they might take in media information differently to other audiences.
This means that both the specific contents of my video, and how I brand the video/what I call it will add to what genre it is placed in. The rest is down to the audience to decide what genre it is placed in, as not only one person can decide.
I may aim to put my video into an horror comedy genre, but end up creating something more suited to an abstract sub genre accidentally.
I have created a full audience profile using felt tips in various colours on a piece of paper. The person in the middle is the perfect member of my audience. Right down to the fashion, the hobbies and interests and the general facts like age, gender and class.
Something I haven't mentioned in the sheet is the socioeconomic group of the person.
They would be apart of the C2 socioeconomic group, meaning they have a job quite reliant on skill and talent. This suits because a lot of the audience will be in university or school, and will later get jobs concerning these things.
To identify my target audience I will first need to identify similar texts to mine and work out who the audience for these are.
Since my production is going to be somewhat of a parody on horror conventions, scary movie is a great film series to compare it to.
The film in itself is a very blatant parody on horror films and the audience that enjoys this film may be interested in mine.
Firstly, the film is rated R, so this instantly shows me that the target market for this film is over 18. Most films enjoyed by this wide demographic are usually also enjoyed by younger teenagers, which is especially true in true case due to the immature comedy.
Given that I expect my main character to be male, I will be mostly targeting a male demographic giving me an audience that enjoys both horror and comedy films from the ages of 16 to 24.
The basis for my project is going to stay similar to my initial idea involving the animation of a bear or puppet, but I feel it would work better as a short film. The narrative would involve a boy in his home who is terrorised by a stuffed animal using over the top and emphasised elements from existing horror films. The analysis on music videos I have done previously is still relevant to my work and has affected my decisions on the project so they will stay on the blog.
I want to have quite a few slow motion shots in my video, so I've done a test with the DSLR that I'll be using to get the best results. The camera only goes up to 50 FPS, so that is the highest I'll be able to use.
I've compared slowing down the 50fps shots with 25fps shots to see how much of a difference it makes. I've also added frame blending to some of the scenes.
After looking, I'd believe 50fps with frame blending looks by far the best. This is the setting I'll use when I am creating my actual video and need the slow motion scenes.
After looking at how to correctly film at night, I'm going to look at how to make a scene shot in the day look like it was shot at night.
Though the tutorial is for adobe after effects, the techniques used will still be relevant as a lot of the things can be done on all editing programmes.
First I would need to desaturate the picture, not completely but so most of the colour is gone. Then I would need to decrease the light in the scene, followed by adding a blueish colour corrector. Finally, there is a setting called extract on a few editing programmes in which certain colours can be taken out of a scene. I would do this to the sky to get rid of all of the whites or blues causing it to look like day, and replace it with a darker colour.
In one of my main scenes for my music video, I'd like it to be set at night near a campfire. This setting has connotations of family, fun and innocence and is perfect for somewhat of a "teddybears picnic" premise.
I used this site to research how to film in low lighting. I will also be creating another post researching how to give the impression of night when actually filming at day. I will then compare the two and decide which is the best option. As of now I can definitely see that changing a lighter scene into a night scene could rely on my technical skill as opposed to good use of lighting.
Since my video is going to have puppets or stuffed animals moving as if they are living things, I am going to do some research into the best methods of making this happen naturally, and match them up against each other.
Morph suit method
The first method is through the use of a green/blue morphsuit in an area without that colour. This would consist of moving the puppets from behind, getting them to do lifelike things in my preferred way that fit the narrative or their character.
I would then chroma key out the green in post production so it was a black figure moving the animals.
After that, I'd add another layer behind the main layer with the same setting, but with nobody moving inside it, so it filled in the black areas where the morphsuit was originally.
Risks
This is a quite simple method, but if the chroma key doesn't work perfectly, I can risk it looking amateur. This can happen if if the green suit ends up being a different colour due to lighting or shadows.
Pros
It is quite an easy method and doesn't take much technical skill in an editing programme.
Masking method
This would consist of a similar process to the morph suit method. I would first get a blank shot of the setting, and then film someone moving the animals around in a desired way. I would then mask out the animals and paste them on top of the blank shot.
Risks
If I cannot mask out the animals professionally I can risk it looking quite low quality.
Pros
If I am good enough at masking to get a good result, I am not relying on the programmes automatic chroma key features and rather my own skill.
After getting inspiration from multiple places, I have had some idea for my music video. The work with stuffed animals in the "Imagine Dragons - Radioactive" video has inspired me to use hand puppets in my video. With the use of a green glove/bodysuit and a greenscreen, I will be able to give the puppet life-like mannerisms and movements, as well as advance a small narrative idea I have.
Also taking slight inspiration from a clockwork orange, I will have a gang similar in aesthetic to the one displayed in the film. Throughout the video, they will terrorize families, and groups of friends of puppets/stuffed animals, with lots of artsy slow motion shots of them destroying property and walking around.
This idea opens a lot of doors for research and planning, as I can look intro puppetry, and how to give puppets personality and uniqueness without them speaking. For this I expect to use props, clothing and camera angles. I feel the abstract qualities of this idea will allow me to be creative with the filming process, while also keeping me on track with a set narrative.
The song I currently have in mind for the idea is Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes, but this could change.
This music video is slightly different to others that I'll be analysing in terms of genre. It has quite a low tempo and slow beat, but the video itself works very well in my opinion, and could go with a more upbeat, intimidating track.
The video is based around 4 basic characters, who are pretty much the same. They are absolutely encased in enigma, as they all have different coloured hoodies on, with blackened out faces. This clearly takes a lot of inspiration from the four horsemen of the apocalypse biblical reference. In my opinion, this is a very interesting concept, bringing in a very old and somewhat mythical phenomina into a modern setting. The saddening and quite slow vocals of the video fits well with this theme of mystery, and this is emphasised by the abundance of slow motion shots.
Due to Seven Nation Army being quite a low bass but up beat song, slow motion shots might fit in well at some points, so I can take inspiration from this video and use some similar shots.
The opening shot to the video is also quite interesting to me, and there are also a few of these similar shots throughout the video. These shots are probably in the video to put emphasis on the state of the setting. The dark grey colour grading as well as the stereotypical depressing, city shots makes for a very stylised and "boring" video.
The video starts with just a slight ambient background noise and a long shot of of an enigmatic character with their hood up. The colour grading is dark and slightly depressing, but it is set in quite a beautiful setting with leaves and trees. The shot quickly switches to a variation of an over-the-shoulder shot, and the song starts.
This is quite an artsy shot, and the dark colour grading is consistent throughout the introduction to the song.
This is setting up an enigma code for the audience, making them ask questions like "who is this person?" and "why is there underlying tones of sadness or fear?".
After showing the characters face, revealing her to be a female, the shot quickly changes to an insert on a clothed cage she is holding.
This is further setting up enigma throughout the video, intriguing the audience, making them want answers from the video. At this point, it is quite clear the video is going to be driven by narrative. I make note of this, as if I am going to create a narrative centric video, I need to make this clear from the get-go.
This continues until we get shots of some members of the band, flowers and close ups on the mysterious character's eyes. The shot then focuses in on a shed in the distance, as the song's beat drops.
Inside the shed there is a lot of hectic diegetic background noise of shouting, cheering and grunting. This fulfils the enigma of the dark and mysterious colour grading, as it's clear our character has been on her way to this location.
Inside the shed is a unique play on a chicken fighting concept. Without explaining thoroughly, the audience still understands the concept of people bringing in their trained "stuffed animals" to bet and win money. All of this happens within the first 30 seconds or so, showing how easily
The video spends quite a lot of time on this character, who is clearly some form of crime boss or leader in the shed. The stuffed animal winning/killing all of the others is represented as a very
intimidating and scary creature. And given the rich and powerful nature of the crime boss character, he is clearly the owner/trainer of this animal.
The way the band is incorporated within the video is also very unique and interesting. Whenever we get shots of them, the music usually cuts out into an ominous, mysterious ambience and they are represented as "fallen opponents" of the monster.
All of these elements will be helpful when I am crafting my music video. The abstract elements of the narrative along with the enigmatic colour grading and general plot points like the identity of a character are great aspects of the video, that fit well in the genre.
After searching around on Youtube for different song genres that I feel would best fit my preferred style of music video, I've found alternative rock/hip hop to be perfect. I'm going to further search the specific genre and deeply analyse multiple music videos to see what makes them successful, and what is conventionally consistent in the genre. After doing this, I'll decide whether or not I want my video to be adhere to conventions, or go against them.
Ocean man is more of an alternative song. This would allow for a very artsy and unique approach to a music video. The song is also about a specific person called "ocean man". The meaning of this is very subtle and allows a lot of innovation and interpretation, so I would be able to use that to my advantage.
This video is more so from the pop genre, with quite a slow rhythm but allows for longer more detailed shots than other videos I have looked at. If i were to use a song like this, I would probably make it less narrative driven, and more about a certain topic or person. I would probably also use some more artsy and abstract techniques within it.
This is a song from the rap genre, it is very upbeat and has a high tempo allowing for fast consecutive cuts which is a very good aspect of a song for me to use. The downside of this is the difficulty that comes with syncing up rap lyrics to someone singing in the video.
The song is about if someone was born with a name like "Jimmy "Recard", and goes in depth on how much better his life would be. This opens up a lot of doors for narrative aspects in a video, if i wanted to go the route of telling a story in the video.
