Costumes, Props and Actors

This post has been improved by:
- redoing most of it

Actors
Ronnie Cornell(Me)
Rosie Burns



In the music video, to emphasize the free atmosphere as the main character is escaping her reality, we are going to be using a minimal amount of characters and actors in roder for there not to be anything tying the character down that may confuse the viewer. Also we want primary focus to be on the main character most of the time, as this will enable to viewer to be able to identify and sympathise for the character's situation.
Therefore we are only going to include two characters in our media production. Although there will be extras in some of the scenes in busy areas, however these extras will not e fully introduced to the viewer and are not compulsory to the storyline.

Rosie is to play the part of the main character in our production, the character in which the main focus will be following through the whole video. I feel this is a responsibility Rosie is appropriate for as she is a A level Drama Student as well as someone who has worked on our previous productions and therefore knows what is required of her!We are also having rosie because the tracked name(let this white dove sing) and lyrics are based around a girl/woman. Because the lyrics are based on a girl and we're using a female actor it relates to the conventions on the song.

Me and Poppy have decided that i am going to be the second character in our production. When i put my mind to it i am really quite good at acting. Because i am one of the porduction team i will always be present at the locations so we felt i'd fit the male character slot well.

As the artist we are using is 17 years old himself, we felt it would be most appropriate to use 17 year old actors in the video. This was because I think the artist will most appeal to a teenage audience and therefore the audience will most be able to identify to a 17 year old character in the video rather than someone in their mid-30s who might not be having the same life issues as them. The more the audience can relate to the characters the great impact it will have and memorable the video will be.


Props will also be minimalistic to emphasize the character’s freedom. We therefore initially did not want the character to be carrying a suitcase throughout the video as We thought it would ruin the effect of the 'nothing holding me down/back' image that the actor will be giving the audience. We also thought it would ruin some parts of the enigma at the end and make the video seem very predictable. However after second thought We realised that the video may come across as confusing to the audience otherwise and they might not realise she is getting away for good instead of making a simple trip to the train station! we felt brining in the suitcase will make the events more dramatic and final. So overall the suitcase is our main prop because that will be in it the most. We are planning to have close up shots of things happening suck as smoking and thowing a stone into the river. So we will be needing a cigarette and a stone but their will be a stone lying around and rosie smokes so acquiring the props won't be difficult.

The costumes/Clothes that the actors will be wearing will be reflecting the genre of the song. The genre of our artist is Indie/alternative/Acoustic so to reflect this our charactors will be wearing some sterotypical items of indie clothing such as:



Cardigans
Tight jeans
polo shirts( top buttens fastened)
checkered shirts
Pointy shoes/ Boat shoes
Sweaters
Vintage clothing

Let This White Dove Sing - Oscar Laurence

http://www.myspace.com/oscarlaurence

The location in which the final event will happen is going to be in a domestic setting so therefore we are going to simply shoot these scenes in one of the director's homes.





As we are going to be following the character in long shots, we are going to be following her walking through streets to her location. To do this, we are going to be arranging a route throughout the city that we think will include the best surroundings and locations.


Throughout the video we will only be using two characters. We are going to focus primarily on the first character and emphasise that character the most so the audience's full attention is on them. This character will be female. She will showing mostly innocent and run-down connotations. This is because as the song is called 'Let this White Dove Sing', this character is going to be acting as a metaphor for the white dove. As she is the character that wants to be set free and escape. The use of 'White' in the title connotes innocence, and therefore that’s why we are incorporating this into our character.

The second will be a male character. His role will be the love interest or partner of the female character and will be involved in the final climaxing event shots.

Lyric Sheet Annotation

Initial Planning

In our music video, we are going to adopt a more abstract and alternative concept of a music video. Instead of a straight forward narrative/storyline we are going to invert our footage so all our shots are backwards, including everything in them such as people walking or cars driving. As a result of this the viewer will initially be confused towards the start of the video, posing a lot of questions however as the video goes on and reaches the end, it is revealed to the viewer the reasons behind all the previous actions the character has taken throughout the video.
The reason we are using this ‘inverted’ idea is to create an enigma within our video to secure the viewers interest. The use of showing all the events in reversing order makes the viewers question “why, what, how and when” which will therefore encourage them to watch the whole video through.
The storyline will consist of following a female character over a 24 hour period. The use of a central character in the music video gives the viewer someone to focus on and identify to, helping them understand why she has taken her chosen actions in the video.
As the song is called ‘Let this white dove sing’ it connotes possibly ideas of waiting freedom, wanting to be set free to do something you are currently restricted. Therefore I want to emphasis this in the narration of the video, and the climaxing event at then end of the video will be of the character setting her free from some kind of situation.
Other lyrics such as “you take my breath away” and “When you’re with another man I can’t bare” suggests that the song is centred on a love interest or relationship situation, we I think would be good to involve in the final event in the video.
Some other lines in the lyrics have given us more ideas for the video, such as the words “This reality ain’t right” which appears in the building up towards the end of the song. The use of the word ‘reality’ has given us the idea to make the climaxing event in the video very disorientating, using shot sharp shots and abstract angles with the camera. As well as this, because we are inverting all our shots, in these final scenes we would like to use a lot of actions that will look very effective in reverse such as throwing objects and smashing cutlery.
By using effects like this to disorientate the viewer, it will build up more anticipation and confusion in the reader to make them more involved in the video.
We have the idea of using a lot of other shots that will look very effective in reverse to give the video more dimensions and detail. Shots such as clocks put in fast motion in reverse, as this will emphasise the time shift in the video; Similarly, we are going to film the sky above a city landscape at the times of around 5pm-8pm, in order to catch the sun going down. This will also be put in fast motion. I think this would look especially effective as it will capture the movement in clouds, the turning on of some city lights as well as the movement in the sun. This again will represent the time shift as well as acting as a metaphor for changing times, as the girl is going through a change in her life.
We are, however slightly going against the conventions of music videos. This is because we are not going to involve the artist in the video, neither performing or him being a character. This is because we want the viewer’s biggest focus to be on the narration and storyline instead of what the artists looks like.

Videos we have analysed for inspiration are the following:

Modest Mouse - Little Motel.
The main inspiration we got from this is the effectiveness of the inverting and reversing of the storyline. This Video captures the journey of a woman travelling from the hospital with her son to a motel. As the video goes on, the ending reveals a shocking revelation to the audience. I think that this method of impact at the end of the video is extremely effective in capturing the audience.
Another aspect of the video that we liked was the use of padding shots that really give the video more depth as well as effective detail in reverse. These are shots such as when the woman is drawing and writing, the backwards swinging of the keys, driving and traffic in backwards. This all really catch the audiences’s eye as its something out of the norm and looks very interesting.
Finally, similar to our video, it is following one female character which leads all the narration and is the viewer’s main focus. As a result of this, the viewer begins to sympathise and relate to the character.

Coldplay - The Scientist.
This is also a video that uses inverting to create enigmas within the video. The main thing I like about this video is how effectively the climaxing event is. The use of a car crash is pretty conventional and doesn’t hold a lot of imagination, however I think it works especially well afterwards when you see the running up shots of the crash and Chris Martin and the actress laughing and joking, as they have no idea what’s coming, I think this adds the most impact and emotional involvement for the viewer.

Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve
This video does not include any inversion however the whole video is just one big long shot following Richard Ashcroft, I like this idea as it just follows his short journey and how it affects the people he’s walking alongside. I like how they use a dolly camera to follow his pace when he’s walking as the viewer’s total focus is on him and it’s the kind of shot type I would like to use when following our female character in our video.