final video and analysis

Storyline
The plot line of the video is that the main character wakes up in the morning with her friends in the bed beside her, she's confused, and then gradually starts to remember the night before. At this point the video goes into flashback from the night before of when the character was trying to get a taxi. She wins money on the Vegas slot machines and is happy, messing about with her friends by the fountain and everything is seemingly good. They take a picture which brings her back to the present, and while shielding her eyes from the light, she notices a ring on her ring finger. This sets off another flashback and she remembers that the night before she was happy about the ring. Then as they're drunkenly taking a picture the main character throws a coin into the fountain and this is when the story-line takes a turn for the worst, and her luck goes back. She gets her heel stuck in the drain, and argues with her boyfriend. The reverse of the coins in the slot machine is them losing their money in the whirlwind of Vegas, and the main character goes to a club to drown her sorrows. They are both upset and angry, and at the end bump into each-other. The boyfriend shows her a picture from earlier and they walk off hand in hand. The last shot is of the main character opening her eyes, and is back in the present. The idea is to portray the ups and downs of Vegas and the experience it can bring and is a representation of life itself. It tells the tale of the song itself, and is more of a story than obvoiusly being a music video. We wanted the audience to go throught the emotions with the characters and felt that shots of the artist singing would take the reality away from it.



Analysis
The video begins with a tilt shot of the fruit machine, this is because it is a popular association with gambling, and thus Vegas, and gives the audience an immediate idea of what the video is about. It also coincides with how the song starts and the coins dropping from the machine, once the viewer has seen the video once, they will know immediately what it is as they see the slot machine. The first person they see is our artist, they know she is the main character already and are focused entirely on her and are immediately drawn in to the video and storyline when she mimes “you gotta help me out”. She’s looking straight into the camera and it’s as if she is asking the audience to help her out therefore engaging them. The camera then pans around her to see her staring ahead almost in disbelief and also gets a bit if the scene around her in. The next shot is a medium shot of her in the bed and is cut so she turns her head in sync with the music. The medium shot helps establish the scene, and gives the audience an idea of where she is and what’s happened. As she looks back towards the camera, a fade out indicates a flashback, and she is now remembering the night before. She’s on a busy, lit up street, with lots of lights in the background and tries to get a taxi as the lyrics say “we need a taxi”, the medium shot enables the audience to see her facial expressions, and know that they’re in an argument. The shot then changes and the audience get to see the other character in an over the shoulder shot of her boyfriend, and clearly the argument is escalating. She storms off and barges in-between a couple as the lyrics say “spare me your freaking dirty looks”. At this point a close-up of the fruit machine shows she’s won, and a change of location sees her in her hotel room celebrating and change in lighting from dark to very bright reflects her emotions. To separate this scene a little, there is a reverse clip of a pack of cards, which again is a representation of gambling and Vegas. The cards are going from the floor into her hands as an indication of the control she has and how things have gone right for her. A spinning shot and a reverse spinning shot in with another shot of cards all in quick succession, all give the idea of the whirlwind of Vegas and the extent of the money she’s won. As the chorus kicks in the scene changes and the reverse shot of two characters jumping on the fountain acts as a build up for the beat to drop, and when it does they land on the floor. The location is glamorous, by a huge fountain lit up and exciting. All the characters are happy, and the main character and her boyfriend are laughing and joking and getting on well because of the money, this indicates a huge change in mood, and can be seen as the quiet before the storm, or the build up to the disequilibrium. The camera spin is an indication of the crazy, fun times they’re having and the blur of it, and all the lights work well and signify the Vegas nightlife. Then as the line of the song changes and says “get up” the shot changes to the two girls dancing and the main characters head flings back in sync with the song. As they have a picture together the camera flashes and the flash brings our artist back to the present, and she is therefore back in the bedroom shielding her eyes from the light, which is a good link. She notices her ring on her finger as she sings “did we get hitched last night?” A long shot establishes the scene again and as she’s moving her hand up to her face she begins to remember the night before again. A close-up of her hand shows the audience the ring, and they don’t know which time period she’s in until she brings it up to her face and the camera follows it to see her and her boyfriend happy about it in the moment. She puts the phone down as the lyrics say “don’t call your mother” but nothing can dampen the mood as they walk of happily together. The camera shoots them from inside the phone box to separate the shots and gives the audience a different angle. They walk towards their friends and as the chorus comes in the shot changes to in front of them, and they all walk off laughing together. The view is now blurred and indicates the mood of the characters, they’re all drunk and the main character is trying but failing to take a picture. The shot un-blurs as she hands it to someone with a clearer state of mind and the camera quickly zooms in to indicate the picture being taken and something drastic happening, and also goes with the beat of the song dropping. A close-up of a hand flicking a coin puts all the audience’s attention on it and another close up of the coin shows it landing in the fountain. The flash then indicates something happening but the viewer doesn’t quite know what at this point. This is when all their luck goes bad, and begins when the main character gets her shoe stuck in the drain, they begin to argue again, and this is highlighted when they walk either side of the camera and the other couple walk by hand in hand. As they walk up the stairs the main characters boyfriend falls over while the other couple are dancing and happily together. The next shot is of the main character Ricole looking down at her boyfriend and miming to the lyrics “don’t be a baby remember what you told me” In slow motion to go with the slowing of the song and the calming of her emotions. As the song calms down, so do they, and Ricole is trying to make peace and little details like their being a sign that reads “hope” in-between them are to give hope to the audience that all is well. The scene cuts away as she finishes each line, back to when they were happy and is her remembering those times and trying to get him to. However all is not well, and a long shot shows him push away her hand to the beat and them walk in their separate directions. Over the shoulder shots of Ricole arguing again portray her angry emotions and a low angle shot of the other couple standing together indicate their happiness and therefore superiority over the other relationship. The reverse shot of the money indicates them losing it all, and their luck also when the cars move inwards and close. A shot of the happy couple show a huge contrast as Ricole walks into a club on her own to drown her sorrows. The street is full of people, lights and even fire, all things associated with glamour and Vegas, and the hope sign can be seen above the flames, but now she is alone. She is now walking through the club, and everyone else is only just seen in the dark, but she is lit up, the spotlight is on her to indicate how alone she feels but also to put all the attention on her. Clips of them kicking cans, and punching walls show how upset, angry but also in sync with each other they both are, and him walking away from the hope sign show how they’ve both gone their separate ways. At this point the audience is curious as to if they will be together again. Then the camera is on a corner of a street and suddenly the two characters walk into the shot. They both look down and upset and bump into each other. A medium shot helps put the attention on only them and eventually they walk off into the distance. They reunite with their friends and are walking towards a street lit up and with “love” and “hope” signs high above them, as the song comes to an end, Ricole opens her eyes and the video fades out.


What could we have improved on?
The idea of the narrative for our video was that the couple and the trip they are on was full of harmony and happiness; they win the money and everything’s good, until they flick the coin in the fountain. However as we didn’t have enough footage of them being happy together and enjoying the trip we had to replace it with the left over footage we had of them arguing. From 20 seconds in the video is where we had to put this footage, and it confuses the storyline and makes it hard to understand. The audience don’t seem to get the idea of the coin bringing bad luck, as they were arguing before the fountain scene. We could have avoided this by planning our filming better, and therefore having enough footage to do what we had planned. I also think we should have made the coin in the fountain scene more obvious, I don’t think one flash was enough to make it clear what was happening. We could have added slow motion as it went into the water so as to focus the attention entirely on it. I also think that by incorporating more things going wrong, it would have been more obvious rather than only her shoe getting stuck and them arguing. But again we didn’t have enough footage and had it been planned better would have been more effective.
I think we could have used the portable light a bit more effectively as well. At 1.05 the way we have placed the light means a shadow is across our main characters face, and it doesn’t look great. Also with the fountain footage, sometimes it’s a little dark and using the light more effectively would have made it clearer.
Other than that i think our video was well thought out, and some of our filming and ideas worked really well. We thought about our locations and I think the ones we picked worked perfectly with what the video was about. The main thing we’ve learned for next time is that it’s important you get a lot of footage of every scene you film, as you notice things only when you see it on the computer that you didn’t realise when filming. We had a few problems with lip syncing being out of time and had we taken alot more footage could have edited it in easily.