Initial ideas for my video

0:0 to o:6 - coins falling from slot machine in conjunction with the coin sound at the start of the song.
As beat drops, shot of one single coin fades into face of main character in shock.
camera pans around her head to an over the shoulder shot of her room completely messed up - props involve, bottles, clothes, random objects.
Flash/fade out - indicates flash back
"we need a taxi" - main character trying to get a taxi.
"you're hungover and im broke" - girl gives up and drops bag on the floor in time with the beat.
she sits down rustling through her bag to see that she cant find her keys or i.d. - she stands up panicking.
"spare me your freaking dirty looks" - someone bashes into her and gives her a dirty look- close up shot of the dirty look to get across emotion.
She rushes back to the club to find her stuff and as the song goes into the chorus shes now on the dance floor dancing with loads of strangers.
Back to verse. "why are these lights so bright?" point of view shot, audience is looking through her hands trying to block the light, at this point she notices the ring on her finger.
She gets out of bed dazed and trips over someone lying on her floor dressed as Elvis to coincide with the line "dressed up like Elvis".
She turns and says the lines "why am i wearing your class ring?" to her boyfriend.
A closeup shot of her hand the morning after runs into a close up shot of her hand the night before, taking us back to another flash back. This time she is happy with being married, it portrays the effect of Vegas, and how shes drunk and having a good time.
The characters are in a phone box for "dont call your mother" and they engage in a kiss as the beat drops.
The location changes to picadilly cirus where there are big, bright lights in the background. A stranger takes a picture of the group, they're happy, drunk, dancing around. "dont be a baby", the main character is trying to convince her boyfriend to get in the fountain, he doesnt, they throw the coin in the fountain instead. (make a wish).
Coin lands in the water when the beat drops for "you got me into this". music stops, coin drops into water with the original sound, music continues. This stop in the music indicates a change has occured. Audience havnt yet realised the significance of this. The characters luck then goes bad.
A number of different shots show bad things happening to them. A character walks into a lamp post, someone trips over and gets heel stuck in drain etc.
"get some cash out", they try but an over the shoulder shot shows theres no cash in the account.
"remember what you told me, told me, told me" main character looks into boyfriends eyes, close up of his face. shes singing the words to him. As the chorus comes in he throws her hand of his face and they both walk away seperately.
Camera is focused on wall, and boyfriend walks into shot, similar shots of them show theyre both feeling down. Theyre acting in sync, both slide down wall, punch air. This shows their connection to the audience. The video finishes with the picture they took near the fountain, or them bumping into eachother by accident.

filming schedule

Friday 20th November

We are going to film the main story-line of the video in the west end. Carnaby street is the perfect place to film one particular scene as the characters are walking a long walk towards each-other and the idea is that they don't see each-other until the last minute. Carnaby street is busy enough to do this on friday night and create the same kind of atmosphere as Vegas. We will also film at picaddily circus as the huge lights are perfect for a representation of Vegas. There is a scene in the video where the main character flicks a coin into a fountain, we will also film this scene on friday, at the fountain in leicester square, this location is perfect as surrounding the fountain are lots of different tall buildings, that are lit up at night.


Sunday 22nd November

We are going to film the bedroom scene, which features mainly at the beginning of the video this day. It has to be early morning, as the scene is them waking up after the night before. We only need a bedroom for this scene, so will use one of our friends.

Propps Theories of narrative: Functions

Propps theory is a form of structuralism which is a view that all media is inevitably in the form of certain fixed structures. These structures are often culturally derived and form expectations in the mind of an audience. Propps theory can be applied to generic structures in western culture, such as popular film genres. I decided to apply Propps functions theory to the very popular and modern film Twilight. Here are the functions and how they apply to the movie:

1. Absentation: A member of the family leaves the security of the home for some reason. This may be the hero of another family member that the hero may need to rescue.
Bella’s mum has left the home environment to live elsewhere to avoid conflicts with Bella’s father. Bella leaves the home and her father to attend school.

2. Interdiction: An interdiction is addressed to the hero (don’t go there, don’t do this) The hero is warned against some action. A warning to the hero is also a warning to the reader about the dangers of life. Will the hero heed the warning? Would the reader?
Edward (the vampire) is warned to stay away from Bella by his family as she is human and could cause problems for Edward and his family.

3. Violation of interdiction: the interdiction is violated; the hero ignores the interdiction and goes ahead. At some point the villain enters the story as a consequence of this decision.
Edward ignores his family and goes ahead with his relationship with Bella. James (villain (bad vampire) enters the story and craves Bella just because she is Edwards.


4. Reconnaissance: the villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance. The villain makes an attempt at seeking information, for example seeking searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. The introduction of the villain adds tension to the story especially when they’re found close to the family home.
James goes to Bella’s home and seeks information about Bella, something that will make her want to go to him.

5. Delivery: the villain gains information about the victim. The villains seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information about the hero or victim. The is a down point in the story as the pendulum of luck now swings towards the villain, creating fear and anticipation that the villain will overcome the hero and the story will end in tragedy.
James had acquired information about Bella’s mother and a video of her, which he knows will have an effect on Bella.

6. Trickery: the villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victims belongings (trickery). The villain presses further, often using the information gained in seeking to deceive the hero or victim in some way, perhaps appearing in disguise.
James calls Bella and uses the video he obtained of her mother to deceive Bella into thinking he has her mother as a hostage.

7. Complicity: the victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy. The trickery of the villain works and the hero or victim naively acts in a way that helps the villain in some way.
Bella is fooled by this, and rushes to where the villain is in the hope of saving her mother.

8. Villainy and lack: there are two parts to this stage, either or both of which may appear in the story. In the first stage the villain causes some kind of harm. In the second stage a sense of lack is identified, for example in the hero’s family, whereby something is identified as lost or becomes desirable.
James harms Bella by biting her hand.

9. Mediation: misfortune or lack is made known (hero is dispatched/hears call for help). The hero discovers the act of villainy perhaps finding their family or lover devastated or caught up in a state of anguish and woe. This creates a defining moment in the story as we wonder what will happen now.
Edward learns of James having Bella and goes to seek her out.

10. Beginning counter action: seeker agrees to or decides upon counter action. The hero decided to act in a way that will resolve the situation for example rescuing those that are captured.
Edward decides he has to fight, and win against James.
(At this point, twilight skips some of the stages and resumes again)


18. Villain is defeated.
Edward kills James.

19. Initial misfortune is resolved (spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed)
Edward sucks out the poison in Bella after the bite.

This is my very first draft of my storyboard. It is a very general storyboard to just kick start the process of planning the video and give us rough guidelines on what were aiming for. Alot more detail on shots, costumes, characters and location will be added once we start to design our video further and progress more with our ideas.

Video analysis: Christina Aguilera Candyman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4kR8OQCrlQ














The video begins with several men dressed in 1940's soldiers and sailors uniforms. This lets the audience know what time the video is set in as soon as the video starts. The next shot is a close up of Christina also dressed in a 1940' s women's sailor hat and her hair is pinned back in the style that women wore their hair in them days. It then goes back to a shot of the men dancing and looking towards the stage and then the shot changes to behind the men, and the camera slowly moves forward through the crowd which is when the audience get to see the whole stage and a long shot of Christina's three characters. At this point the audience see that Christina has brunette, blonde and red hair and that she is playing three characters. This is a reference to 1940's band The Andrews Sisters and really captures that time period well. The camera pans across the characters in a medium shot so that the viewers can see the live band and outfits of all the characters. Christina's dancing is carefully choreographed so that all three Christina's dancing is exactly the same and in time with each-other and the takes could be spliced together. There continues to be a number of shots of Christina and the soldiers alternately to give the feel of a real show, and to give the audience a feel of what its like to be there. The scene changes to a 1940’s type dance off and the first shot of the dancers is between a females legs, creating a frame for the dancers and giving the video a tongue in cheek feel. Christina is watching people dance in a pink dress and with her hair down, this separates her from the characters she was playing earlier and with this and the shots alternating between “the Andrews Sisters” and this new character, it creates the image that Christina is dancing to the band playing and they are not the same character. There is a medium shot of a waitress holding a tray of drink and who is slightly slowed down so the audience can see her happy expression and get the joyful feel of the video even though they are based in World War 2. All the dancer are dressed in 1940’s clothing and with their hair done up neatly, and all jitterbugging to go with the times. Mis en scene involves a jukebox by the dance floor, and the drink Campari, created in the 60’s on the waitress’s tray. Christina eventually begins to dance and there is a long shot of her dancing, and a close-up shot of her feet to show off her moves to the audience. There’s also a long shot of the pair dancing but with their heads cut off so that the viewer is focused only on the dancing. At 1.11 there is a series of alternate shots all lasting under one second each that are all put together so the shot changes in sync with the beat of the song. In each shot there are different bright colours in the background so they clash and catch the viewer’s attention, the colour scheme is based on Technicolor films, with lots of bright and contrasting colours. This also goes with the happy, joyful mood that the video is portraying to viewers.
















A shot of Christina dancing is then cut into a different shot and scene, and as this picture shows is cleverly cut into two so that Christinas pink dress in the top half of the shot goes down into the bottom half of the pink strawberry milkshake she is drinking, so the dress and milkshake fit perfectly together as if they are one. This makes the shot look alot more tidy and it flows alot better. The camera then quickly zooms out form a close-up and fits perfectly with the trumpet noise in the song. Christina’s outfit of jeans and a red shirt with a headscarf is a reference to ww2 Rosie the Riveter inspired posters that were to encourage females to take on mainly male jobs and work in factories and such during the war. This all keeps with the ww2 theme. There is a long shot of Christina surrounded by females in a 19’s American style burger bar, and the shot is carefully places so that the booth style seats create a frame for Christina and the dancers. The colour scheme is very bright and contrasting and is in a pattern type form, with the checked floor, black, then turquoise, then black, checked wall, and turquoise ceiling, which creates a theme. The camera then quickly zooms out form a close-up and fits perfectly with the trumpet noise in the song. Christina’s outfit of jeans and a red shirt with a headscarf is a reference to ww2 Rosie the Riveter inspired posters that were to encourage females to take on mainly male jobs and work in factories and such during the war. This all keeps with the ww2 theme. There is a long shot of Christina surrounded by females in a 19’s American style burger bar, and the shot is carefully places so that the booth style seats create a frame for Christina and the dancers. The colour scheme is very bright and contrasting is in a pattern type form, with the checked floor, black, then turquoise, then black, checked wall, and turquoise ceiling. The camera slowly zooms in to a low angled shot of the dancers in reference to a female empowerment type stance, which is very relevant as Rosie the Riveter was a female icon in ww2. As the music begins to slow down slightly there is a close-up of the soldiers going down the steps of a plane, shouting the lyrics. They move down the steps in time with the beat of the song which flows along nicely. For the “candy man” whisper Christina is back in the shot but as the Andrew Sisters characters who all individually feature in the shot. The scene then changes to an airport which is obvious because of the planes in the background. There is another low angled shot of Christina walking towards the camera with her dancers either side. This is again a reference to female empowerment as she is the main focus and the men surrounding her are all lined up as if they are supporting her. The shots begin to change to each scene and there are numerous different angles that all change with the beat of the song. During the big note towards the end of the song, Christina is hoisted into the air as if reaching the crescendo and the video finished with a photo of Christina and the writing “xoxo candy” across is, as if referencing her screen siren alter ego, which was a big theme in 19’s music.

Focused Analysis: Location

This video is set in a street with a typical 1980's layout, with the flats close together, and the street being dirty and full of graffiti. This straight away sets the scene in a New York, lower east side type location. The whole video is set in the street, which tells the audience that these people spend their lives on the streets of Manhatton and gives them a "street" type image.

Focused Analysis - mis en scene

Mis En Scene efers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement; sets, lighting, props, actors and costumes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlrqaAjBwS4

This clip is taken from the film "The Hangover". As soon as the set changes to the bedroom the morning after, the main focus is the mis en scene. The camera pans around the room focusing on all the different props which show the reader the extent of what happened the night before. The audience immediately know that the scene has changed from the night on the roof to the morning after in the hotel room. It starts with the jacuzzi and the blow up doll, with the champagne bottle and glasses everywhere, and props range from chickens, to chairs hung up by bed sheets. These particular props get across to the viewer that it wasnt just a typical night out clubbing, these things are extra strange and crazy and are put there for this reason. There are shots of a burning sofa, a self made bowling alley with champagne bottles as pins, these shots lats for just under a minute, when the camera finally focuses on the first person which is a girl leaving the room. The shot of the girl immediately starts the mystery and starts the viewer thinking and wondering about what went on the night before. The camera finally pans along to one of the main characters lying on the floor with his glasses smashed. From the start of the movie this particular character had been portrayed as the most sensible one and he is purposely the first one the audience set eyes on. As he walks around the apartment, all the props in the background are disturbed in some way, nothing is untouched, this gives the audience a good interpretation of how crazy the night was.