We went back to Hilly Fields today to gather some more shots of Little Red Riding Hood. We managed to get shots for about a third of the duration of our song, reaching roughly around 1 minute.
Although we have not finished filming in this location, we have progressed quite quickly and we hope to finish shooting here on our next filming day.
Here are a couple of shots we gathered today:
front view
back view
We have been using two Nikon DSLR camera's to film, which makes it easier to gather a wide range of shots very quickly. In the pictures above me, Rhianne and Hannah were positioned behind the trees, out of each others frames, but we managed to get the same shot at different angles. This has proved to be really useful as we have a variety of angles to choose from when it comes to editing.
We have also been playing with depth of field in our shots. Using a shallow depth of field creates the illusion that Little Red Riding Hood is being watched; showing the perspective of the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood in neighbouring shots, further reflects their similarities. Hopefully this gives the audience a hint towards the climax of our narrative story.
We have also made the decision to use a plain black glove, as we thought that our wolf hand looked too unsophisticated. We have been thinking about other ways to show that the figure in black is the Big Bad Wolf, such as including a howl before the music starts or making the black hooded figure move in a wolf like way.
Here is a quick video put together, from behind the scenes:
Aurora's 'Running With the Wolves' was thankfully shown to us in class by some of
our peers in media. The wide establishing shot, showing the artist in the distance is really effective in creating the idea that her surroundings are enveloping her. The dimensions show her to be small and insignificant in the world around her, suggesting that she is vulnerable or unprotected. This links to our music video, where our protagonist is being stalked in the woods by a seemingly dangerous character; perhaps using a similar wide shot would reflect the idea that she is powerless in her situation.
The single take of a pan around the artist looks very effective here, as it creates the idea of gradual steadiness and reflects the artists/protagonists gain of potential. Using long takes and increasing the shot duration to emphasize certain aspects of our video could prove to be beneficial in creating star image.
The first shot of the predator in the video is out of focus, suggesting obscurity and uncertainty. We would like to mimic this, as our Big Bad Wolfis revealed to be Tayla herself - using depth of field in this way would create a similar effect, therefore the end of the video showing Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf to be the same person will be all the more shocking for our audience.
The creative directors have also made use of a forest location (similar to ours) whereby the natural light dappled onto the the artist while she is singing, makes her appear as a pure and ethereal being. The use of lighting really compliments the aim/message of the video which is 'giving you freedom and making you forget about your human self and all things we humans keep around us in the modern society'. This might be something to think about when the revelation scene at the end occurs.
Finally, the climax at the end of the video happens when the music stops; this is something we have discussed doing as it places a final emphasis on the message/ moral story of the video. In this case, it is the freedom being reached and people reconnecting with nature. In ours it will be to stop being afraid of the future, or rather embracing your womanhood.
The colour
palette, use of setting, framing and varying depth of field heavily
correlate with what we have in mind for our music video. The name of the
song itself also links to our fairytale theme. Here is the full video, in which the smooth editing can be appreciated more clearly:
Today our group went back to Hilly Fields Park to start gathering the forest shots for our music video.
Filming did not take that long, and we got some of the fundamental shots we need in this location.
We managed to collect the establishing shot(s) and some really good shots of Little Red Riding Hood running through the forest. However, we did not manage to gather all of the necessary shots as the sun set earlier than expected and we strayed from the storyboards when we were collecting shots.
'I, I must confess'
POV shot of brambles
We definitely need to re-film, sticking to the order of the shots on our storyboards to make the filming process more simple.
We have also decided to use floodlights when we film next, to help control the change of lighting in the scene. Using these might help our video look more professional, accentuating the characters in the scene and therefore emphasizing star image. Here are some still shots we captured whilst filming which show the change in lighting, the latter of which, looks much more dark and mysterious:
This movie is of course extremely relevant to the narrative thread running through our music video.
The first point of inspiration from this film is the use of colour - Red Riding Hood's cape starkly contrasts with the white, snowy surroundings. This creates the illusion that she is an important distinctive character. The colour red having connotations with passion and danger is also suggestive of her vulnerability as a young woman. This is something we would really like to achieve in our own video, to highlight our protagonists femininity whilst she is on the brink of womanhood.
Again, the colour red symbolizes her loss of chastity and the 'permanent stain' cast upon her after sexual encounters - this could be explored in our music video using similar symbolism, to show her maturation.
Here are two still shots from the trailer which we also have on our storyboards, accentuating the depth of the forest. The second shot below is handheld, which could be used as a POV for either character in our music video.
'if the morning light don't steal our souls'
*instrumental parts*
This still shot shows the dark lighting, with deep blue undertones seeping through the trees.The atmosphere created here is something we would like to simulate when it comes to filming, perhaps using natural light before the sun sets or artificial light, manipulated in the editing process.
Here is the trailer for Red Riding Hood, where the unsettling mood created becomes much more evident:
Today, Mac 5 went on a location scout (in colloquial media terms, a 'recce') at Hilly Fields Park, which is situated in Enfield. Although we did not gather any actual footage today, we felt that the trip was extremely useful - we managed to find the exact spots in the forest that we would like to use and we have worked out how we would combat any lighting issues.
Our original plan was to film early in the morning while everything is still bright, but after surveying the site today, we decided that the location would create our desired atmosphere best, on the brink of darkness. We have therefore planned to film on Sunday afternoon just before the sun sets, when the weather is not forecasted to rain.
Here is a compilation of the vlogs and photos we took on location today:
Today we had a look at the costumes we need for our Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf characters. We all kept our eyes peeled in stores and online for the perfect cape/ wolf hand.
We decided to order the cape below, from Amazon as it was the most cost-friendly option, eligible for prime/ free next day delivery. As for the wolf hand, we found that many of the options we saw online
looked too unrealistic/ explicit and those that did look good were very
expensive:
Me and Rhianne therefore decided to take to the streets to search for our wolf hand; we visited several high street shops (hoping to see some left-over Halloween stock) but no where seemed to have our wolf hand! We then made a trip to our local fancy dress store, Trimbles, where we found these gloves:
We really liked the design of the gloves above, as they are not too unrealistic, and the long nails give them a feminine edge which subtly implies the moral of our music video. However, we didn't like the look of the fur. Despite the fact that glove was very cheaply made, it was selling for £9.75! Here is a rainy vlog we made on our costume search:
We decided that we could achieve the desired effect we wanted, if we did some DIY. We brought fake nails from Superdrug and decided to use our own old gloves to create the wolf hand we wanted. This way, we had full control of how we wanted it to look. Here is a photo taken during the glove-making process:
Hopefully we should be all set to test all of the props and costumes out in our recce tomorrow!
This dangerously trippy, seizure-inducing music video provides us with perfect editing inspiration.
As we have decided to frame Tayla in a circle with a black background, we need a layer behind the circle.
Some of the original footage of the concert in the 'Paris' video was edited in a kaleidoscopic fashion, creating a powerful circle of reflected images. We feel that this could be done with some shots of the trees in our video, to provide a visually interesting background for the border shots.
The video also incorporates images of big cats, in mirror-like shots. The Big Bad Wolf will not be presented explicitly in our video, so using a similar shot, we may be able to include an image of a wolf to introduce the concept/ narrative running through our video more clearly. Symbolism is also created nicely against a dark background in this video, which is something we would like to mimic.
The dark colour palette used is very effective in this video; with certain focal points of shots being illuminated with coloured filters, a deeply energetic atmosphere is created while the dark elements are retained. We feel that this reflects our song choice perfectly, as the atmosphere of the video is frightening but the song itself isn't entirely downbeat or heavy. The mirrored effect of the girls on the left could be represented in our own video, as the conflicting thoughts of our protagonist, where Little Red Riding Hood would be in the foreground and the Big Bad Wolf would be in the background.
Finally, the use of layering in the video is done perfectly, where the background on the left is skewed into a rotating pattern on the right. Using a similar transition could help to make the change of location in our video look less abrupt and possibly make our shots flow smoother.
Here is the full video, where the full range of shots are arranged using very fast paced editing:
