Updates

We have now finished our filming and are moving on to editing our video. We plan to do this in the next two weeks, hopefully finishing by the 5th March. We may not have filmed all the shots we want in our video and so we may need to re-film some shots or think of additional scenes.


We have looked over our footage and I think overall our filming went very well. Our actors worked out very well as they felt comfortable acting with each other and understood what we wanted in our video.


As we were filming we have adapted our ideas depending on the locations, actors and our audience. For example Luke, who played the clown, had a lot of good ideas about what he could do to perform onstage, and we added these in. When filming scenes between the other two characters we decided that a scene involving them messing around in the toilet didn't suit their characters or the tone of the video, and so cut it. 


Whilst filming we focussed on the emotions and the relationship problems of our characters, as these are the aspects of our narrative that our audience will identify with. They are stories that the target audience is interested in, similar to shows such as Hollyoaks and Skins.

Audience Theory

David Morley theorises that audiences read media texts actively and so can react in different ways to what you present - either Preferred, Negotiated or Oppositional.

• A preferred reading of our video would be that the audience see's the clown as honourable, and side with him. They disagree with the woman cheating on her boyfriend, as well as her valuing money above anything else. They should have a negative view of the rich man also, as he uses money to buy the woman's affections and encourages the affair.
• Negotiated reading's take into account the above points, but people have their own personal reading. They may expand the narrative by imagining things which they have witnessed in their own life. People may also recognise that the video presents a limited view of the situation, from mainly the clowns perspective.
• Viewers may oppose completely the idea's presented in our video. They could think that the clown should have found a 'real' job to support his relationship, and that the woman left him for legitimate reasons. They may also think the video is so limited and biased that it portrays the characters too negatively.

The people who would take an oppositional view could have been in the woman or rich man's place themselves and therefore might agree with their choices. People outside of our artistic target audience may think the clown is deluded pursuing this career, and they might not value his persistence.

I think that most people who watch our video will follow our preferred reading, though we need to ensure they do. We will do this by focussing on the emotions of the clown, showing how badly he is affected. The rich man will be dressed in black and will represent people our audience think are dull and conformist. The woman is dressed provocatively, which our female demographic will see as untrustworthy.

Filming Photographs

More Filming Updates

On Monday 6th we were unable to film any more of our video, as one of our actors couldn't make it into town due to the weather. We have postponed filming that section of the video until after the half term holidays.


We plan to film the rest of Luke's scenes as the clown on Friday 10th. These will take place in the Auditorium of the Ludlow Assembly Rooms, we have permission to film whenever the room is free.

Filming Update

Our main actor Luke was unavailable to film on Thursday and so we re-scheduled to Friday morning. We managed to film all the backstage and external scenes with Luke. We will then shoot his on stage scenes on Thursday 9th. During this time we will also have our photo-shoot for print work, as Luke will be in costume and in a suitable location.


Our next shoot is Monday 6th, when we expect to film all the scenes with Joe and Rosie. We have again made a call sheet of necessary shots and props etc.

Narrative Theorys

This week I have looked at several Narrative Theorys, thinking about how we use these in our music video.

Levi Strauss Theory

Strauss says that in every kind of media text there will be some use of binary opposites. These are two things which are comletely opposite to one another and so create conflict. The audience should be aware of who they are supporting within your narrative. We will be using several of these binary oppositions in our video:

• Rich and Poor - This is the main reason for conflict in our video, as the woman wants money and so chooses a richer man over her current boyfriend.
• The main character is betrayed because of the womans greed, and so we also see Good and Bad - The clown who is trying to make the relationship work and the woman, who cheats and lies.

We use these opposites to clearly show whose side the audience is on and who they are empathising with. The audience sides with the poor performer, as he is the underdog and is more honest. They also represent the ideology of the video, that it is important to be faithful and honest in relationships. The opposites are very clear in our video because we crosscut between shots of the clown, whose struggle we empathise with, and the other couple being unfaithful.

Todorov's Theory

Todorov states that there are five stages to each media text, these stages are included in our narrative.

• Original Equilibrium/Normality - This stage is included in our narrative, though you don't actually see it in the video, the audience assumes the relationship was at once stable.
• Disruption - This is the conflict in the video between the clown and his girlfriend, and her being unfaithful.
• Recognition - The clown recognises that he is being cheated on, during his performance.
• Attempt to Restore the Equilibrium - This is one part of the theory that isn't included in our video, as the clown has no chance to try and repair the relationship.
• New Equilibrium - This new state is also not really seen in our video, though the audience can deduce that the couple split up.

Music videos are very short and so the narrative we use has to be quite clear to the audience. Our video also has to engage the audience, the most interesting part of our narrative is the disruption, and so we will focus on this part in our video. Our story follows  Todorov's traditional structure and so we don't need to include the very beginning and end, as the audience can work those parts out for themselves.

Planning the Creation of Our Video

We have created another calendar to organise when we are shooting sections of our video, and when he hope to be editing by. These dates may change, depending on how much we film on each day, as we might end up behind or ahead of schedule. We have also given ourselves deadlines for certain posts, as there are somethings, such as risk assessment, that have to be finished and posted on our blogs before we can start filming. These calendars have been very useful and keep us on track, if we follow our plan we will be able to finish our video in time to move on to print work etc.




We have also planned out our first filming session, on Thursday 2nd February. 


Actors needed: Rosie and Luke

Props/Costumes needed: 

• Rosie and Luke's costumes, 
• props for the clown and facepaint
• Ring and Box

Shots of Luke and Rosie (clown and girlfriend):

• Backstage shot of talking and hugging
• Putting on the makeup in the mirror 
• Point of view shot from the clown and from the audience
• Action shots of clown (Spinning plates, diablo, bunting)
• Clown dropping everything
• Scrabbling around to pick everything up
• Sad audience with some people leaving
• Happy face when the clown throws the bunting up
• As bunting comes down the clowns face is sad
• Crying shots gradually getting worse
• Backstage shot of the mirror and ring shot
• Separate shot of Rosie and Luke walking by the river

Equipment:

• Video Camera
• Tripod and Gorilla-pod
• Laptop - with song and storyboard

Costumes