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FMP Reflection

Overall I’m happy with the video to a moderate extent.

In terms of the strength of the narrative and wether it communicates this idea of finding common ground in music, I think it is successful. However I feel like i could have pushed the boundaries further by filming some more interesting scenes...some of the scenarios are a bit mundane, for example the scene of the woman dancing past the doorway. The scenes that worked the best were the ones that involved movement, like the skateboarder or the part where the protagonist jumps back on the bed. The video could’ve had more energy if there was more action in it.

The art directions worked really nicely for the red bedroom. My favourite shots were the ones which showed the protagonist putting on the radio...the intense red is really captivating. I’m a bit disappointed with the set up of the blue bedroom - the LED lights create an awful flicker on camera which i couldn't edit out, It meant that when it came to edit, i couldn't use a lot of the blue bedroom shots due to the flickering lights. I feel like the set could’ve done without the plant and the bedside table too, which clutter the shot a bit. 

I am happy with the filming. I got some nice shots from using the budget stabiliser i bought off amazon, however I was a bit lazy in some shots where I didn't bother using the stabiliser or tripod and the footage turned out really shaky.

I’m not very happy with the colour grading of the video. I feel like all the clips are really inconsistent and it really bothers me when I look back at it. The skin tones are all massively different in each shot...I really need to learn how to colour grade professionally, at the moment it looks like a clumsy attempt at improving the colours.

I’m left feeling a bit dissatisfied after making this video. It needed more and it falls short of being the epic lip syncing video that I imagined it to be. There’s definitely room for improvement, and its down to me to really crack down on my organisation and make things happen.

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FMP video

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FMP PDF

Im really happy with my pdf, I love the stills of the radio from the video. 

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Cameos

The other little short scenes in the film were more or less unplanned. I didn't story the board meticulously for these parts as there was no ridged structure for the film, I just directed the actors to lip sync certain lines in certain environments and then found a place for them in the edit. The only meticulously planned part of the film was the opening sequence.

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Set Design

There are two main sets in the narrative that will be used for the opening sequence. The opening sequence consists of the female protagonist and the male protagonist getting up and going through their morning routine. Therefore, I will be using two different bedrooms and and two different bathrooms.

The two characters have signature colours: male character = red, and female character = blue. Therefore the set design will be based on the signature colour of that character.

For Rosies Bedroom, I bought blue duvet covers and bedsheets and I printed out around 200 sheets of paper (which were different shades of blue) to stick on the wall. I was inspired by a painting I saw of the tiles of a swimming pool, each tile had a different shade of blue, so i thought it’d look nice on the wall.

I bought some blue LED lights to give some blue lighting when it came to filming.

For Alans bedroom, the signature colour is red. Printing cost a lot of money for the blue bedroom, so this time I bought big A1 sheets of red and orange tracing paper (which turned out to be quite expensive anyway) and some burgundy bedsheets to compliment the walls.

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Casting

I managed to find my tow main protagonists:

Male protagonist is Alan:

and my female protagonist Rosie:

These are both friends of mine. Alan is a professional actor and Rosie is not. Due to time constraints and funds I wasn't able to scout for actors through agencies. However, the fact that I am familiar with both people will hopefully make the filming process run smoothly.

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Art direction Book Research

The art direction in the film is really important as it will dictate the mood of each scenario. As shown on my treatment, I want the colors to be bold and bright to reflect the positive energy from all the characters who lip sync in the video.

 After browsing the library for a good reference bank of images, I came across a great big A3 sized book named Recreation. Recreation is a book by the fine art photography Mitch Epstein who was among the first to make significant use of colour in photography. The book contains hundreds of photographs taken of Americans at leisure between 1973-1988.

 This is the blurb of the book:

Seeing the film needs to be punchy and filled with bold colors, I thought these photographs where a really good reference for art direction. It has also inspired some possible environments or scenarios I can use for different scenes.

Here are a few photographs that caught my eye:

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The treatment

So I've refined my concept down a bit, so that there is more meaning to the video than just lip syncing. 

NEW AND REFINED CONCEPT

The video campaign intends to show the ‘common ground’ we find with other people when we listen to music. Music strips self from context - it’s an oulet where race, wealth and social status are irrelavent. The audience will be taken on a journey through different environemnts, where its dwellers lip sync to the same song, showing a ‘love’ that we all have in common.

FEEDBACK

I got approval with the concept, The only thing which isn’t working is the song choice. I was thinking of using ‘aint no mountain high enough’ by marvin gaye and Tammi Terrell, but it may come across as a bit too ‘yogurt add’ - a bit of a cheesy vibe. My backup song was ‘I want to break free’ by Queen, this seems to be a better choice because the song is a bit more current and its the kind of tune that everyone sings along to when it comes on the radio. Also it’ll be easy to lip sync too, which will make my life easier when it comes to directing.

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cad buries lip syncing advert

ofcourse my favourite example of lip sync. The casting works really well in this ad – the guy just seems like an average man, with a kind face, working in a boring office job. Then the music comes on and it completely uplifts him and he’s completely in time with the tune. Another think that I find interesting with this advert is the choice of song, such an unlikely tune to put on – its not what you would consider a ‘cool’ tune, its just quite modest but quietly amusing.

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Research: film references

Now that I'm committing to this idea of using lip sync, I’ve been scouring the internet for film references which may inspire a certain style.

here are a few that caught my eye:

I really like this advert because its really weird and totally random. It may not have such a strong link to my concept but I like the way that the character in it gets totally carried away with the music. The art direction in it is super nice too – the green dress in combination with the warm luxurious hallways works really well.

This is a really good example of a montage of different people in different environments listening to the same song. The lip sync video will essentially have the same sort of structure as this advert – the narrative will bounce back and forth between different people listening to the same song.

What I want to take from it is the energy in this video - enthusiasm is entertaining, lip-syncing with enthusiasm is even more entertaining.

Who knew Christopher Walken could dance?! I like the fact that this video portrays an unassuming character to break out and start dancing. It would work well in the lip sync video to have unusual people lip syncing to a song which they’re unlikely to listen to.

Another quite amusing lip sync scene from an unexpected source. What makes this an entertaining scene, is that fact that a young child lip syncs to a very mature song – something that you’d expect your grandparents to wack on at Christmas.

Another great example of great lip syncing. It’s not relevant to my video in the sense that the style is completely off message to my concept, but the lip syncing in it is brilliant. Really, really entertaining.

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Another Idea

I recently watched the Edgar wright film, Baby driver. I really enjoyed the film, and I thought the opening scene was really captivating. It shows the main character sat in the getaway car for a bank robbery, lip syncing to a song. It’s always really satisfying watching someone lip sync and move perfectly in time to music, I think that’s what made that opening sequence so entertaining to me.

 This is the the scene:

This film inspired a new idea for my FMP….a video that celebrates lip syncing. Lip syncing is really in at the moment too – rupaul’s drag race has a lip sync battle after every episode, and now there is a whole new series called lip sync battle on tv. People find lip syncing entertaining, its something we all do in the mirror at home.

 PROPOSAL

This is the mood film i put together to give a rough idea of what i mean:

FEEDBACK

Anna and Raven suggested that instead of using multiple songs I should use only one song and have multiple people lip syncing to it. The reason being, is that it would be difficult to edit multiple songs together without it sounding abrupt; it would also make more sense as having one variable instead of two (music and people) will give the video consistency and structure.

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FMP - Initial thoughts

I’m becoming increasingly interested in film. I’ve always liked the medium of film as its such a great way of telling a story effectively and beautifully and there’s so much stuff you can do with it. 16x9 was a very stressful project which I can’t say I enjoyed much, but because of that experience I wanted to prove to myself that I could do a better job at producing a film, and hence I made a video for my YCN.

 I want to do another video for my FMP….

 Seeing as my YCN video had quite a sincere message, I want to produce something which is more upbeat and happy. I want to be able to create a piece which the audience can come away feeling positive about it.

SWEARING

I was thinking about doing a video which glorifies swearing…Being a fan of dropping the occasional swear word where I can, I feel like there’s potential to introduce a bit of humour and light heartedness about what is seen as taboo.

 The video could consist of a montage of footage of different people swearing in varied situations. The orgasm scene in Amelie is a crude example of the kind of montage style I mean, click below to see what I mean:

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YCN PDF

I’m really happy with the presentation of my PDF. I love using full bleed images, and i’ve produced some nice stills from the film, so aesthetically I think it looks quite nice.

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The film

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YCN Reflection

Losing your hearing means that sound becomes nothing but a memory of the past, the video attempts to encapsulate the sense of nostalgia that is felt by those who suffer from deafness. The flashback introduces a young face into the narrative to make that link between younger generations and older generations; therefore, the video appeals to a wider audience. Overall I feel like the video communicates the message effectively – it’s not your typical guilt-trip charity ad but more of a narrative that the audience will readily warm to, and engage with.

The set design turned out pretty well. The warmth and messiness of the young persons set compared to the cold minimalistic set of the middle-aged man create a nice contrast. This aspect of the production really contributed to the communication of the message. The color grading managed to show a clearly divide between the warm and cold sets; however, I feel like I could’ve done a better job with the color grading as it feels quite basic and stereo-typical – the flashback looks like it has a sepia filter, in needs some finer tweaking.

In terms of the cinematography, I’m happy with how it turned out, however I need to learn more about how to set up the camera to achieve a certain aesthetic. There were various shots in the film where the lighting effected the shutter speed…also I had the camera on auto settings which was not a wise decision – there’s all sorts of fluctuations in exposure which you can notice in the edit. This also made the colour grading a bit of a nightmare as the lighting was really inconsistent.

The edit was tricky as there were all sorts of mirror shots that I had to match up, but overall I’m happy with the final thing. In hindsight, I think I could’ve found a better way to reveal the strapline at the end than that fade to white – im still not keen on that.

The sound design was really important for this project, and although on the whole it works in the edit, I think I could’ve worked a bit more on the atmospheric sounds in the opening sequence. I had to record the sound separately, which proved to be quite difficult. A few of the atmospheric sounds are quite obviously post recorded – I would’ve benefitted from having someone record the sounds on set whilst I filmed, instead of post-production recordings.

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Shotlist

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Set Design

initial sketches for set design:

detailed set and prop design (made on illustrator):