Preliminary Task 1 – All About Me Video
What is an “all about me” video?
“All about me” videos are often used as tools of introduction in online media spaces, usually directly addressing the viewer in a more casual tone. In my video, I aimed to provide general information about myself in relation to media studies whilst poking fun at a caricature of my consumption habits and “boring” personality. The use of self-referential humour was an attempt to connect to the theme of Post-Modernism, a topic we would learn about later in the year.
Preliminary Task 2 – Music Video
Before producing a music video as my second preliminary task, I set 3 goals I should work towards:
– Practice producing a short form narrative
– Implement a range of technical codes at a higher level than my AS coursework
– Embed symbolism and intertextual references to convey meaning
Planning
First, I annotated a printed copy of the lyrics, roughly noting story beats, establishing the general premise and adding further detail to certain scenes, characters and their actions.
My initial idea was to portray a non-committal character, not only running away from many relationships but himself. I wanted to include sticky notes as a motif, to represent the character’s many distant and impersonal “goodbyes” whilst symbolising a resentment of self. Throughout the film, the protagonist reminisces his first love.
I aimed to utilise colour to create separation between the two characters, contrasting the use of match cuts to reflect their mutual yearning. It was mainly to denote differences in time but carried connotations of emotional distance.
I was inspired by the official music video of A-ha’s “Take on Me” directed by Steve Barron, specifically the incorporation of hand-drawn animation with live action footage and the imagery of characters existing in opposing worlds. I was also influenced by a fan-made music video of Lemon Demon’s “Touch Tone Telephone” directed by Chris Spargo, mainly its theatrical and narrative aspects and its stylised use of colour. The motif of sticky notes was inspired by the music video of Ace of Heart’s “Silver Lining”.
Afterwards, I drafted a storyboard on paper, mapping out the narrative into different shots, keeping lighting, camera angles and character positioning in mind. Because I was unsure of the exact location I would be using at the beginning of storyboarding, the placement of some appliances and hallways were inconsistent. Although, I don’t think the plot’s cohesion was greatly affected. I wanted to utilise cross cutting and match cuts to create a greater parallel between the two characters.
For the purpose of illustrating general timing and creating a clearer idea of the music video, I also edited a rough cut “animatic” of sorts for personal reference.
Production
I chose to film at school, using the common room as the main location. Initially, I wanted to film at a friend’s house but due to differing time schedules, it was difficult to coordinate. At first, I struggled to articulate exactly what I wanted the actors to do. Because the storyboard was so embedded in my mind, I was overly presumptive that one viewing of the animatic could convey the entire concept, forgetting how unfamiliar it would be to an outside party. I was lucky that the actors and I were all friends, making filming relatively easy and comfortable. Some aspects of the film were cut during filming due to time constraints and other technological difficulties (e.g. the montage of many women reading their respective notes to represent the protagonist’s many past lovers, tracking running shots, and animating on physical notepads).
The editing process was daunting but fulfilling. Most of the footage was similar to the storyboard but sometimes I had to try make what I had fit certain scenes that I wanted (i.e. the footage for the last scene was more difficult to shoot than I anticipated leading to different results). Timing cuts with the music was quite important. However, at points I had accidentally used the ripple edit tool without realising, affecting the timing of the clips behind. It was slightly frustrating until I realised the cause of my mistakes. For the animated sequence, I used reference footage for rotoscoping. I stylised the character to be covered in sticky notes with pieces flying off, creating movement and representing the character’s rumination. The process took longer than I expected.
I enjoyed seeing the project come together.
Preliminary Task 2 Final
Preliminary Task 3 – Script Exercise
Before the production of my final short film, I wanted to practice writing dialogue. The concept was to depict a boardroom meeting, with the incompetence and workplace tensions exaggerated for comedic effect. Although the idea was never filmed, I intended to utilise a series of whip pans with the camera centred in the middle of the boardroom table. Edited together, the clips would appear as a single shot, panning to each co-worker’s perspective as they argued and reacted to each other. Despite this short never coming to fruition, the theme of work carried through to R.E.M.ployed, leaning more towards a coming-of-age drama rather than explicit comedy.
I was initially inspired by American Psycho (2000) for the main idea of the boardroom and Whiplash (2014) and Dinner (2016) for the short’s camera techniques. However the style of dialogue and the ensemble nature of the characters were more similar to Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013) and Community (2009).
