Key Locations of our Video

In our music video the key location for us was bedroom where the sisters had a safe haven. Many films have used a bedroom as a key location, and a bed as a key prop. 

One key scene which involves the use of a bedroom is Katy Perry's music video for her song 'Friday Night'. Although most of the action takes place at the house next door, the video begins and ends with the bedroom, it shows it to be a key location. 

Another key film which uses the bedroom as a key scene is 'Misery' staring Kathy Bates. The film itself is based in a bedroom and this therefore adds to the location being a key scene. 

Second Cut of Music Video

After showing the second cut of our music video to my mum, she gave us some positive feedback, and some criticism. She said that overall the video was good and it had a good and clear storyline, however some of the shots we had filmed showed Libby smiling when she should have been sad, and at some points both Libby and myself were looking at the camera. We have decided to re-film the ending, to show the idea of the running away being a dream, and also to re-film Libby's lip-syncing as she smiled when we filmed it the first time. 

Comparing our video to Colbie Caillat's

Another country artist who we wanted to influence our video was Colbie Caillat. She is like Taylor Swift, in which she also plays the guitar and is a country singer. Her video 'Bubbly' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWGqoCNbsvM) also links in with Taylor Swift's as most of her videos are about relationships and often they end with a happily ever after. 

Like Taylor Swift, Caillat's video for 'Bubbly' includes a few close ups of her. We haven't used many close ups in our video, and the only time your really see the face of the sisters, is when we added the green screening image to the image of the sister sleeping. 

Like Taylor Swift, Colbie Caillat uses the idea of bright and vivid colours, which we again used in our video. The use of bright and vivid colours helps to emphasis the happiness and tone of the video, however in ours it is only there to show happier times. 

Comparing our video to Taylor Swift's

Our song we have chosen is 'Safe and Sound' by Taylor Swift. She has also made many other music videos for her songs. Mainly she sticks with the country genre to her music and most of her songs involve a guitar being one of the main instruments.

For example her song, 'Our Song' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2stN7kH28) involves a jazzy and upbeat guitar solo to begin the song. However unlike our video Taylor Swift's are normally more upbeat and lively. In her video she is in bright colours which match the theme of the song. In the shot below she is dressed in bright colours and surrounded by brightly coloured petals.

We chose to add in a splash of colour into our video for the flashbacks. Although in our video this is to show a happier memory for the sisters, it still links in with the original ideas from Taylor Swift's videos.

Also in the video for her song 'Back To December', (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eocfbbyIUn8&feature=relmfu) she plays on the idea of reality and dreams, by having snow appear in doors. Although in our video we haven't gone that far and that dramatic, we have used the idea of what is real and what is just a dream. 

Techniques in our video and other films

In our video we use the Black and White colour effect tool to make our video seem more depressing. The 1993 film 'Schindler's List' is completely in black and white. Although the film itself was based on the second world war which gives a sense of depression to its self to begin with, by using the black and white colour effect the depression and isolation of the Jews, is felt more by the audience.

The Michael Jackson 'Thriller' video uses a collection of dull colours when we see the zombies, yet when we see Michael Jackson himself, he is dressed in a bright red suit, which makes him the main focus of the video. In our video we use the bright colours only once, and that is when we show our flashbacks. In the flashbacks the sisters are wearing brightly coloured clothing which adds to the idea of them being happier.

In our video we have used the idea of split screening, to show the parents arguing and the sisters trying to forget the arguing by playing with the little sisters hair. This adds to the idea of the relationship between the sisters. In films the most common use of split screening is for filming one actor or actress who has been cast in the role of identical twins. For example in the 1998 remake of the 1961 film 'The Parent Trap', Lindsey Lohan played the roles of identical twins Hallie and Annie. The film used split screening to be able to cast the actress as both twins. Although this is completely the opposite of our reason for using split screen, the film does show a very close relationship between the two sisters.

Dreams and Reality and how this links to our video

In our video we play on the idea of the sisters dreaming of a better life, and yet how all they get is the reality of a war at home. Dreams and reality can often become twisted in films and TV series. In our video we plan to shot a final scene showing that the sisters running away is actually just a dream that the little sister had thought up. Dreams play a big part in the 2010 thriller film 'Shutter Island'.

In the film the main character Edward "Teddy" Daniels, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, has a dream sequence concerning his dead wife Dolores. The whole film itself is a psychological thriller, which plays on the concepts of dreams and reality, which leaves the reader confused as to what is real and what is not.

We have chosen to add this concept to our video by the use of colour changing effects. We have used flashbacks to show happier times for the sisters, and this is to give the impression of something being almost to good to be real, considering the situation the sisters find themselves in now. This we will also be playing with when we shoot our final scene with Libby waking up, to prove the running away was all a dream, and they are stuck in the warring reality.

Broken Homes and how this links to our video

In our video we are using the idea of a broken family and a broken home. This idea has been used in many films and TV programs before. They use many features that we have also used in our video. In our video we have many shots of the two parents arguing. 

The 1979 film 'Kramer vs Kramer' deals with a similar topic to ours. The films stars Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as two parents who are in the middle of a divorce. In the middle of the warring parents is their son Billy. This links in with our story idea as in our video the sisters are caught between the parents arguments. 

These two shots (the top from our video, the bottom from Kramer vs Kramer) show two ideas of how arguing is shown in films. In both shots one character is pointing their finger at the other. This is a typical gesture when someone is in an argument. 

 

The TV series 'Body of Proof' also deals with the idea of an already broken up home, which has resulted in divorce. Although in this TV series the married couple has already divorce, they have a child together who is caught between her parents (left and far right) arguments (mainly over the husbands new girlfriend, middle) In the series although they are both civil to each other, there is still a sense of hostility towards one anther. 

Editing 9th November

With the filming we had done over the half term holiday we used this to continue our editing, working from the points we had been given before the half term to make our video better. Also we had a conversation with our media teacher about our ending. We decided that the idea of leaving in the car didn't seem to fit with our video, so we decided to change our idea slightly. Instead of the children leaving in the car, we are going to change it so that we see the children running down the street looking as if they are heading for a better life (which means we can use the packing filming we have already filmed) but instead of cutting it there, we are going to include a shot at the end of the video of the sisters waking up, showing that the whole running away to a better life, was just a dream and in actual fact the sisters are still trapped with their warring parents. 

Half Term Re-Shoot 29th October

For our re-shoot we decided on the 29th of October due to other commitments and actors only being available on certain an specific days. Using the pick-ups and points our teacher helped to pick out during our last lesson before half term, we decided that we needed to re-film parts of the argument as they seemed to un-realistic and so therefore we filmed an extra shot of Joe walking out of the room to add to the idea of arguments, and also when we see the flashbacks in our current version of our video, we cut straight to the sisters packing and leaving. We also used more violence in the arguing such as Karen pushing Joe as our teacher helped us to figure out that there was too much finger waving and pointing in our current arguing. This didn't seem right as why would they leave if we had just viewed happier times. For the scene when Libby goes back for the teddy bear, we decided that we would make this longer so we filmed the sisters leaving through the front door, then having Libby go back for the teddy bear, this means that we will have longer shots to work with and it makes the teddy seem more important. Likewise with the teddy we also re-filmed Libby hugging the teddy as in the previous shot my hand was on her shoulder, but in the shot with her hugging the bear, it had disappeared. The book itself we decided would be easier to edit the writing onto if it was an image, so we photographed the book and plan to edit later. We also added in a few extra positioned shots of the packing to add time, and make it more believable.