Creativity questions answered in relation to a music video created by me, my influences based on Indie Music

1. Creativity Questions How other forms of media and creative work informed our creative decisions for our Music Video

2. What features of your work would you say are original to you? We decided to shoot our video in one location much like other Indie rock band videos. We used our school photography studio as it was a blank canvas so we could create a Mise en scene to look like a run down, bare and dull bedroom, which is the look we were trying to create for our main protagonist. For props our main running theme was the use of a doll to symbolise our main protagonist but also it represents childish themes mixed with adult content of drug abuse etc. Lucy used one of her own dolls and she used paints and mud to make it grubby, as well as cutting it up a little. We used empty pill capsules to give the illusion that I was taking real drugs as we wanted a dark ending to our video and a serious underlining theme/message much like other artists of our genre. We used a digital SLR camera to create a blurred and well focused view from the camera it gave us this rich effect that we could blur out parts of the background whilst focusing the audience attention on other things, I’m sure many filmmakers use different cameras to give different effects on Indie style videos. We found antique furniture and a simplistic camp bed to show that the younger child is uncared for, we also stuck magazine cut outs on the wall to give it a more personal bedroom feel whilst showing the audience what the main protagonist aspires to be but is unable to reach this potential due to the abuse given by her elder sister. We also tried to give a dingy and dark lighting effect with a grubby tone to make the audience understand what the main protagonist has to live with.

3. Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions? - clearly consider those musicians that you have examined / or film short. Be very specific here. Also think about other media texts apart from just music videos as this will demonstrate that you have embraced all forms of media, perhaps think about online technologies. Requiem for a Dream This films incorporates the use of drug abuse with people’s aspirations. This is a hard hitting film that should be seen by addicts and non addicts too. Although this films takes the audience on a very intense journey into the minds of addicts this film was still an influential factor for us as it inspired us to use fake drugs as a way of the main protagonist dying by an overdose to emphasise to the audience that she would rather be suicidal than face the depression of her destroyed home life and that her aspirations to reach her potential will never come true. Even the use of the eye on the DVD cover is similar to the use of the eye on our digi pack

4. Nil by Mouth a 1997 British drama film portraying a family of characters living in South East London. The film depicts the environment Oldman witnessed growing up on a council estate in South East London. Oldman's sister Laila Morse plays Janet and his mother voices a song in the film. The title is a medical instruction meaning that a patient must not take food or water. The main themes that run throughout this film are: Stealing Drug abuse Beats up his wife, accusing her of an affair Death Here we have taken aspects of all of the themes seen in this film, including domestic abuse, drug abuse, the essence of stealing the doll and finishing with death

5. Antichrist It follows horror film conventions and tells the story of a couple who, after the death of their child, retreat to a cabin in the woods where the man experiences strange visions and the woman manifests increasingly violent sexual behaviour Although this film is mainly based on the essence of loss we can focus on the physical abuse the wife shows to her husband and herself and that people’s mentality can change after something drastically life changing happens in their life. We have taken on this idea that the main protagonist has had to deal with being physically abused for a long time therefore her mental state has been crushed forcing her to commit suicide, similar to how the husband must kill his wife.

6. Tideland A lonely girl gets trapped in an eerie fantasy world after her irresponsible parents die. After her mother (Jennifer Tilly) dies from a drug overdose and father dies from a heroin overdose. Imaginative fantasy life the girl creates with the aid of dismembered Barbie doll heads that she often wears on her fingertips use of a doll as a way of escapism from her orphan life Although based on a creepy fairytale the underlying points are depicted upon in our video the way both the mother and father die from drug abuse and how the girl carries with her a barbie doll, just like our main protagonist has a rag doll who she uses as someone to talk to. We also wanted to create this eerie tone to our video.

7. Sweet Sixteen Based around a boys 16th birthday party, this film uses similar age characters as our music video to tell the tale of family hardship and drug abuse, more key points that are picked up on in our own music video.

8. Artists Apart from all the films that have influenced us there have also been artists that have influenced us greatly. PJ Harvey is a significant influence on our music video creativity choices. She sets all her music videos in one location, she has also in cooperated dolls into some of her videos and she dresses in a very female way which contrasts to her emotionally intense song lyrics, which is very similar to our video which is why she has been such an influential artist. Florence + The Machine have also been influential to us as obviously we have used one of their unreleased songs but again most of Florence’s videos are artistically based and well shot, they use mainly one location to shoot the video in and again she wears girly clothes that contrast to her Indie rock song choices.

9. How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest? - be clear here about the creative process. You don't need to get into audience theory, just the ways in which your creativity engages - think about a wide range of technical aspects that you have used We tried to engage our audience by using a narrative storyline ad trying to in cooperate that a young modern audience could relate to. This is also emphasised in through our use of costume and the use of antique furniture that we thought fitted into the style of music whilst using genre specific props such as the fashionable heart necklace, the jewellery box, magazine cut outs on the wall and the dark engraved antique style mirror. From taking certain aspects of other videos that we liked we thought this would provoke a similar audience to the genre of Indie music that they like to listen to. In the editing process we are using fast paced repeated shots to engage the audiences interest and make them want to watch more, the use of repetition is predominant in many modern music videos of all genres. We changed the speed duration to either slow down or speed up particular shots to either emphasise what was going on in a particular scene or to create a particular atmosphere by using the lighting as well to impact on an intense effect same with the different style camera angles. We used a range of make up to make the wounds and bruises look realistic which I think would engage an audience to use their ‘suspension of disbelief’ to actually believe that the characters have been seriously hurt.

10. Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make these decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production? - ensure that you talk about your choices and decisions. Don't just explain, but evaluate and comment on. We used a digital LSR camera to create blurred effects on different characters and scenery, we decided on this as we did some prelinary tasks and for the dark sad tone we wanted to create this made up our minds that we wanted a crisp camera effect that could also blur in and out of specific moments, such as Emily lip syncing and me going out of focus. We used a range of different camera angles to engage our audience, from just seeing separate body parts, such as hands on the CU shot of me sewing my doll back together as we thought we wanted to bring the audience into the action, and as sewing is such an intricate job we thought let’s use a close up to amplify this. This is the same when I go to take the necklace and put it on, this is an important part of the story, hence why a similar CU shot is repeated at the end when we just see a shot of Emily placing the necklace in my hand and closing my fist. Because we were filming in quite a small area it was harder to get full length shots so we had to choose to keep all the shots quite close up and focused, however this worked well as we created an intimate relationship with our audience. We used a range of over the shoulder shots, Close ups and even shots where Emily would look straight at the camera to give the effect that she was talking directly to the audience.

11. Cont. We used a table lamp to create the illusion that it was always dark in the room, but used two main photography lights to give the impression at the beginning that I was turning the light on in my room. From looking at the footage the walls look quite dingy and this could be from the way we placed the lighting but we liked how it gave this dingy lighting effect as this in kept with the run down look of the room, metaphorically the way my make up was done at first to show like too was run down and had really dark eyes which turned into black eyes. We occasionally used lip syncing on the lines that we thought were most prominent for Emily to sing directly at the audience. Thus emphasising her nasty character. Our Mise-en-scene was dark in tone with black mirrors and table cloth with dull coloured antiquesas well as the old and nearly broken stereo system all of this added to the effect that they had a dysfunctional family life and were uncared for and unloved which was represented in the use of the props and location. Personally I love the shots of me in the mirror, because now the audience can see my personal feelings towards what my sister is doing to me. After she beats me I sit looking at my bruises in the mirror although this is a personal moment for me the audience are with me watching my every move, and we want them to bring on sympathy and compassion for the life that our main protagonist has to live with. This camera shot is repeated, on looking at the state of myself I have gone slightly mental and decide to put on lipstick thinking this will make me pretty again , however as soon as I finish the audience are given a pause before the see a hand come into shot (obviously Emily’s) and you see is the hand smudge my lipstick now the audience can see why how I have come to the end of my tether and the only way to stop this is to become suicidal. The storyline is rather intense but we wanted to audience to understand that this is a common theme in our society today and this theme is emphasised throughout by the use of Mise-en-scene camera angles and effects and the overall editing.