Narrative

Narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.
Generally within film, narrative is used synonymously with plot and refers to the events which take place.
Narrative within music videos-
Music videos are often not narrative driven, as the main idea is to promote the song and create a memorable experience to help make the song stick in the viewers head. However many bands with more openly political messages or that focus on more serious matters such as racism or economic inequality, create music videos to match the tone of the song, to assist in the communication of the issue. For example, the band I am using for my coursework; 'Stray from the path' focus their songs around generally pressing issues and create their videos with the intention of assisting in communicating this message. 'Outbreak' a song by them, posted earlier on my blog, is about the over commercialisation of the health industry and how people (mainly in America) are accustomed to taking large quantities of pills which makes a huge amount of profit, rather than pharmaceutical companies investing in long term cures because they make so much money from producing preventatives. The video shows a family in a situation where they are eating pills for dinner straight from a plate, which is obviously an exaggerated metaphorical message.
Metaphorical techniques are often used within these types of music videos to make the narrative more interesting, making it seem more extreme, while maintaining the same message. This helps the message really hit home with the viewers due to the extreme nature.

Narrative within short film-
Narrative within short film is vital, compared to a music video in which the narrative is more optional because the focus of the piece is the song, narrative is what makes a short film worth watching.
Generally within short film the narrative is something that isn't overly complex, however just like feature films there is a huge variety of them. They range from the really abstract and original to films that rigidly embody the generic conventions of their genre.

Narrative within genres-
Conventions of narrative within comedy:

• Generally takes place in daylight, bright places, often well populated, for example; towns, cities or suburbs.
• Naturalistic approach to filming, tries to capture body language and facial expressions of characters.
• Usually stereotypes of people are emphasised and exaggerated, people portrayed as stupid and contrasted with 'regular' people.

Conventions of narrative within Horror:

• Often take place in dark places; Woods, abandoned houses/buildings or isolated islands
• Sustained shots with low key lighting to build suspense, fast cutting as the suspense comes to an end for some sort of jump scare, generally no ambient noise and sound is key, sounds like heavy breathing are isolated and amplified.

Storyboard interjection

While I've not included it in the storyboard I'm thinking of cutting in instrumentals in-between the narrative shots, this is to extend the video to match the length of the song and to break up the narrative hopefully creating a small amount of anticipation for the continuation of the narrative. The reason for not putting these in the storyboard is because I did not know how long the shots would be and didn't want to have to try and guess at the timings of the music that I would have to match up with the shots.

Storyboard part 3

Storyboard part 2

Storyboard part 1

Brief Shot ideas

• A torch flashing past the camera to imitate a search light.
• Fake news presenter for the sample intro.
• Someone accessing the bios of a computer, looking intensely at the screen.
• Someone doing a mic check.
• someone being caught on the phone at night, car headlights shining on their back.
• Riot police charging in on a breakdown.
• Hitting record.

Research into children's tv shows

Children's TV shows generally have very iconic intro's with easily recognisable characters and catchy music, this makes it easy for children to recognise the TV show and they often have sing along sections.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is a longstanding tv series that has been running for quite some time, the series is mainly family viewing orientated with some of the cruder jokes only understandable by adults but also contains a lot of slapstick comedy that is easily understandable for younger children and many children watch it regularly. While the intro has changed a considerable amount, many of the key 'gags' and elements have been retained, if adapted and modernised slightly. This iconic intro contains the five characters the series revolves around; Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie. Some of the hugely famous gags within the intro change the punch-line but retain the core structure of the gag, for example; Bart is always shown to be in detention writing lines of what he will not do on the blackboard and the iconic couch gag, changes every single episode.
Having researched into children's tv shows openings, while I decided a while ago on my idea being a music video, this has allowed me some insight into what it would involve and let me make an informed decision to not do a children's tv show opening.

Setting

Setting:
Setting is the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place.
Setting is a very effective tool within media, and is often part of the generic conventions of a genre, and often defines the atmosphere and mood of the scene, with many different settings having different connotations. For example, a lady walking alone through an alley at night would create a sense of unease or danger compared to walking through a park during the day, which generally would be a pretty mundane task and depending on lighting and weather would set the tone for the scene.

Within short films, setting is key to defining genre, settings such as; cityscapes, warehouses and bars are often associated with action films, the environment offers lots of opportunities for stunts and are often settings associated with criminal activities. The sort of settings often used in short films are easily accessed locations, because a lot of these films are low budget, paying for access to locations is generally not an option, so places like schools, houses and other easily accessible locations are often used. Many different genres have settings particularly iconic of that specific genre, for example haunted houses for horror, urban areas for romance films or on space ships for science fiction. These settings are obviously part of the narrative and help define which genre the film should be a part of and help the viewer to understand what they should be feeling. But how does this apply within music videos? Often within music videos the type of music defines the atmosphere and tone of the video, with most people listening to the music primarily, rather than watching the video. While setting is often part of the narrative-if there is one-generally music videos choose settings based more on pure aesthetic rather than relation to narrative, for example, many bands use shots of them in a dark, empty building/room with high key spotlight lighting, with huge contrast between the light and dark areas while performing or in cramped areas with very high key lighting, while performing. However if a music video is narrative driven then setting generally plays a more key role, especially if there is dialogue.  

Research into student made films "Stuck" by 'Canopy climbers'

This music video is a brilliant piece of work, that could have quite easily been filmed by professionals. It uses a mixture of; lip-syncing, narratives and interestingly implements time-lapses as pictured below. The time-lapse is of the clouds passing the sun and the day changing to night, used to indicate the passing of time. The film's narrative seems to be about two boys who assault another boy, for reasons unclear to the viewer and then watching one of them deteriorate as the guilt seems to be eating away at him, before he apologises to the victim of the assault. The video follows a key narrative throughout the short film with many different shots cut in-between, for example, one of the boys is sat in his room lip syncing to the song between shots of the main narrative. The video contains three main characters, with no dialogue, all the sound is non-diegetic. The locations range from a field to a back alley of a town, the mise-en scene of the town creates a more sinister feel to the scene, whereas the open field creates an air of relaxation. The lighting is key in both of these scenes, the natural light of the sun shining through in the field creates a positive atmosphere about the situation. A lot of the scenes picture one of the main characters in environments which make him appear alone, for example the image of him being alone in a field or alone in his room with a pitch black background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Footage

With regards to the footage that I am planning to use, I am thinking of mixing a narrative story with close up instrumentals and hard hitting shots of newspaper headlines hitting a desk or shots cut together of riots and marches. The sound will nearly all be non-diegetic although I'm considering pausing the music to allow the sound of newspapers hitting the desk to play, through amplifying this sound it would hopefully create a very 'in your face' and hard hitting feel. Whether I do this or not depends on how well the footage fits the timings of the song. With the use of nearly no diegetic sound I don't have to worry about any background noise while I am filming as I can just mute it and play the music over the top, this makes filming much easier. However having no dialogue makes it more difficult to tell a story, with the meaning behind events having to be conveyed by the character's body language and facial expressions, it means actors will more than likely have to have some experience and the mise en scene will play an important role in the video to help construct an atmosphere in each scene.

Song choice

I think the song choice is an important factor for my coursework, as the song sets the tone for the video and limits what you can and can't do with the video. For example if someone was to use the frozen soundtrack, they couldn't then make the video about WW1 soldiers, the video has to be of some relevance to the song. My song for example is about the monitoring of media outlets, phone hacking and invasion of privacy, I could implement security camera footage of someone walking through a city, looking up at all the cameras so people understand just how many cameras there are around. Another thing I could do is show shots of newspaper headlines about the phone hacking scandal repeatedly being piled on top of one another to show just how important of an issue this is. The genre of music I am using is categorised as hardcore punk. I think hard hitting, politically related film making will accompany the song well. A video that has a bit of a dark edge to it, almost embodying teenage angst. Another idea I had was cutting together footage of riots and marches that have been covered by news outlets, but obvious copyright issues may arise and I have to be careful as to how I might implement this.

Research into student made music videos Imagine Dragons Radioactive

This video is a narrative driven piece, with no instrumentals or shots of any musicians performing the song. The video appears to be about someone who has become infected with some sort of disease that has turned him into a zombie like character. There are four characters within the piece, all male, three dressed in white, disposable full body suits with weapons and the character that is playing the zombie. All the sound is non-diegetic and only the song is heard, played over the top of the piece. The video takes place in a field that is shown to be private property, the lighting is all natural, having been filmed on a sunny day, while this does create a couple of interesting shots with the rays of sun shining through the bushes, the video would have been more suited to a night time shoot, as some of the guns and acting is a bit cheesy, and the make up and costumes aren't really up to scratch. Having shot this at night or dusk would have taken some of the attention away from the slightly poor costumes and using flashlights could have created some really interesting potential shots.

Research into student made music videos Slipknot 'Killpop'

This video contains two main characters, a young male and female clearly depicted as being a troubled couple with relationship and possible mental issues. The video is a mix of lip syncing and narrative but the entire video is non-diegetic sound, with the soundtrack playing over the top. The video contains no instrumentals or shots of a band playing. There is few locations, most of the video takes place in different rooms of the house, but through the use of the mise en-scene the atmosphere of each individual room is different, use of low key and high key lighting is especially effective at creating a different feel to each scene even though they take place in the room possibly just next door.
The video contains dark and slightly disturbing and distressing scenes, which fits well with the mood of the song, and having looked at other videos, generally the video matches the tone and mood of the song, but also I think maybe creating a video with a contrasting mood to the song could be very effective in some cases as well, making the audience unsure how to feel, keeping them engaged and curious. Although I do not think this is something I will personally implement into my coursework as I already have ideas to the contrary.

Research into existing music videos 'Biblical' (professional)

This video involves a scenario playing over and over but changing every time it happens, the main character goes through the scenario three times, each time becoming less aggressive, seemingly more content and generally nicer to the people he encounters. The video is a narrative driven video that asks the question of whether someone would change how they acted in a situation given the opportunity to do it again. The video shows a variety of transitional shots, following the main character through different scenes, with him constantly moving, the scenes focus on him performing a certain act and then showing the reaction of the people it affects. The lighting in this video is mostly natural and all the sound is non diegetic but the character is shown to be singing some of the lyrics although it is obvious he is not singing within the narrative. I chose this video to analyse because the idea of the camera following the main character around through a series of different scenes and having him travelling is something I am thinking of using within my own video. I was thinking of having a character who walks through a city looking over his shoulder, looking at all the different CCTV cameras and doing close up shots cutting between all the different cameras he sees.

Research into existing music videos 'Younger' (Professional)

This video is a narrative based video in which the lead singer of the band plays a character who starts off as a very normal seeming character and then progresses to become more of a disturbing character as the narrative progresses. The video shows him attending some sort of inspirational speaker in a street garage and the main character is shown to question what he is saying which seems to irk the audience and they kick him out, he then goes to retrieve a gun and threatens the speaker and gathers the audience around him before kissing a girl who slaps him. The video then progresses to him having tied up the audience and threatening them with a gun and seeming to breakdown into insanity.
The video has a very urban setting to start with, with abstract themes throughout the video, the mise-en scene then changes to what seems to be a warehouse, with low key lighting, the scene inside the warehouse has individual lights shining on different people leaving the background in darkness, the lighting has a blue tint to it, giving a very obscure feel to the entire scene, however there is individual yellow spotlights in the background that seem to have no impact on the actual lighting of the scene.

Mid way through the video the music pauses and shows a scene of the main character being chased by the crowd and then chasing the crowd in and out of shot, adding to the narrative, using a drone sound over the top with the screen dimming and brightening, showing a progression in the plot and then fading into the next scene.

Research into existing music videos 'Outbreak' (professional)

Stray from the path 'Outbreak'

This music video was shot using a fisheye lens, the band themselves said they were aiming for a
'90's lo-fi VHS video' look to the whole video. The exact idea behind this choice is unclear, but my interpretation of this is it creates a seemingly documentary feel. The footage looks like something you would see in a 90's documentary shown in school on an old television. This could perhaps suggest to the audience an argument based in fact, because while this is music, the band creates the music to get across a message and present their political views to the listeners. The song is about the health industry and how illness has become a business.
The video is made up of a narrative story, shots of the band performing and cut in shots of things like pupils dilating and cells within the body multiplying and reacting. The narrative story contains four characters, a middle class looking American family made up of three people, mother, father and son who looks around 11 years old, then a medical professional of some kind who gives the mother what appear to be prescription drugs. Within the video there is no dialogue or diegetic sound, the only sound is the audio of the song tracked over the top. There is limited locations in the video, the house of the family, an office in which the medical professional prescribes the drugs to the mother and a dark abandoned looking building in which the band is performing.
The music video's narrative relates directly to the lyrics and the meaning of the song, with references to how people have become dependent on taking so many tablets and prescription meds so regularly that its actually bad for them. The way that the narrative relates directly to the meaning of the lyrics is something I wish to implement into my coursework, as I think it creates a more powerful message as well as making more sense contextually.

Narrative ideas

I had an idea recently of following someone through Norwich city and doing an over the shoulder view of them walking through the city looking up at the multiple cameras and then chopping in stills of the multiple cameras around the city in increasing speed and editing the video so it looks like the video has almost corrupted and then cut back to the instrumentals, possibly a close up of a drum skin being hit.

Song lyrics

(1939 in review)

[Chorus]
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I can’t say shit without being hacked
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I know they hit record and play it back
X2

Town houses, bugged out
Drop the bomb, smoke them out
Eavesdropper, free thought stopper
In my home, in my phone, in a helicopter
Looking down in the towns with a searchlight
There's a shadow with no sun tonight, alright?
C4 to the door, say hello to your big brother
Now put your hands up motherfucker

[Chorus]
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I can’t say shit without being hacked
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I know they hit record and play it back
X2There’s a storm about to roll in
Boarded up I’m Edward Snowden
Morse coding
Messages behind the men in black
Bite my lip before I catch a bullet in the back of my head
Narcs sleeping in my bed?
Keeping tabs on everything I said
Hand me over to the feds
Drag me to the chemical sheds
And let my last words be:
"Free speech is dead"

"Free speech is dead"
"Free speech is dead"

[Rou Reynolds]
Yes, solidFrom GCHQ to the NSA
When the tables are turned
Laws are nothing but hearsay
They are subject to the whims of stubborn rulers
Taking a drill to a hard drive ain’t gonna fool us
It’s all uncovered, their shadows are lifted
Through the metadata, and content they're sifting, Ask my boy Orwell what the hell do we do
His fiction pervades the future, for me and you

C4 to the door say hello to your big brother
C4 to the door say hello to your big brother

[Rou Reynolds]
Now put your hands up you fuck
C4 to the door say hello to your big brother
C4 to the door say hello to your big brother

Now put your hands up you fuck

[Chorus]
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I can’t say shit without being hacked
Mic check, is this thing tapped?
‘Cause I know they hit record and play it back
X2


I have highlighted parts of the lyrics that have directly influenced ideas for my narrative and will be reflected within the video quite apparently.

New song choice

I have decided to change the song that I am using for my coursework as my previous choice was a bit limited with the narrative options, the lyrics were very hard to draw anything from whereas this new song has given me lots of ideas and options on how to the go about the narrative.
The song is called 'Eavesdropper' from the band 'Stray from the path'

Documentary

Documentaries are films that follow the occurrence of an event, and report on it in a non-fictional manner and are generally aimed to inform. They often contain interviews with experts and are based around certain areas of particular interest such as historical events, topical news, obscure trends, and anything that people might like to be informed about.

Generic conventions:

• Documentaries often include reconstructions or re-enactments, people re-enacting incidents that have already occurred but perhaps have not been recorded previously, for example, if someone wanted to create a documentary on crime or more specifically something like muggings, they may re-enact a mugging to demonstrate it. 
• Voice-overs are a common feature within documentaries, for example David Attenborough's nature documentaries, he commonly does voice-overs while the camera focuses on creatures or aspects of nature.
• Interviews are often featured within documentaries as well, usually with recognised experts in the field that the documentary is based on.
• Breaking of the fourth wall is often prevalent within documentaries, with people often addressing camera crew, or the audience directly, explaining the current situation to the viewers, possibly commenting on events that are unfolding in the scene.

Generally documentaries aren't really suited to short films as its difficult to cover any topic in any great detail in a short space of time, trying to explain something like the skater subculture for example just wouldn't be possible.
However if someone wanted to give a bias view of something, for example portraying skater subculture as negative, it may be a good way to influence what people think of it, by showing only one side of what it is and what takes place within it, they could cause people to look upon it poorly and if this is the creators intention it may be used to great effect.

If I was to do a documentary it would probably be on the skater subculture, purely because it's a widely misrepresented and in my opinion 'hard done by' group of people of which 99% mean absolutely no harm to anyone, and I would like a chance to represent these people in a way that truly reflects who they are and what they are.

 

 

 

 

Comedy

Comedy is a genre that nearly everyone enjoys, however most people have a unique sense of humour, and so they generally lean towards a particular sub genre of comedy and this is where comedy shines as a genre. Because there is so many different types of comedy, e.g. slapstick, spoof and satire to name a few, there is a huge range of comedy films, ranging from spoof films such as 'Epic movie' which caters to a very childish adult humour, with lots of slapstick and sexual innuendos, to more real to life comedies making fun of awkward real life situations such as 'The 40 year old virgin'.

Generic conventions of comedy:

• Comedy generally uses a naturalistic approach to camerawork
• Often set in places for social gatherings such as bars, cafes, restaurants etc.
• Diegetic sound is important within comedy as many of the jokes within comedy films are spoken and presented during conversations
• Characters are often very stereotypical as this affirms people's pre-established ideas of people they may not encounter in real life or situations they will never find themselves in, such as 'Pineapple Express's 'Saul' who fits a very stereotypical image of a weed dealer
• Props are also commonly used within the genre of comedy, especially within the slapstick subgenre

Comedy is a difficult genre for short or feature length films as an actor with enough charisma to deliver scripted jokes and make it seem natural and funny is hard to find and requires a lot of takes to finally get right, given the limited options I have when it comes to people acting in my coursework it seems unlikely that I would choose this genre.
However comedy would be easier in the sense that constructing the settings would not really be an  issue as there is many places that are viable for shooting in the local area, such as one of the many pubs in town.
I watched a few short comedy films to help my understanding of the genre and found that most of them failed to really make me laugh, a few smiles here and there but nothing really to tell my friends about. I think this is a good representation of how difficult the genre is to get right within a short film, the two that made me smile the most, were 'elevator' and 'no offence', these films however were only really of note for their topical humour, with one making jokes about obesity and swine flu and the other about the commonly used idiom 'No offence' and how people seem to think it excuses them for being rude.
In 'Elevator' the character that the camera follows throughout the film spends most of his time inside the elevator and the camera has to work with tight camera angles, despite the size differences of all the people and the tight camera angles, the camera work is very good, with the majority of the shots looking in on the elevator from where the doors would be.
The film has no actual dialogue but instead uses close ups of things in the mise-en scene to create and tell jokes, such as the close up of the maximum weight the elevator can hold, implying that the elevator is going to fall and that the character is in danger, while no else seems to be taking notice.
This is effective and a good technique because this way actors do not have to worry about being experienced and having a charismatic personality while delivering the jokes scripted which can really make or break a comedy film.

Horror

Horror is another massive genre that has had a huge variety of entries, some good, some bad and some bordering on criminal. The horror genre is very vast and has many sub genres like horror-comedies, fantasy-horror, zombie films and many more. One of the genre defining directors was Alfred Hitchcock, who directed Psycho.
Many of the generic conventions of the genre can be taken from this film alone, such as his use of the iconic music that is associated with Psycho. Sound is very important and useful within horror, its excellent for building suspense within a scene and has been used in many films such as 'the exorcist' and 'Jaws' to great effect with the jaws soundtrack and tubular bells from 'The exorcist' becoming widely recognised soundtracks.
The music from psycho is excellent at building suspense, using high pitched, sharp, repetitive sounds.

• Another generic convention within horror films is having a deformed/disturbing character that is usually the antagonist, this is prominent in films such as the grudge, a paranormal horror/thriller.
• There is often a 'typically blonde' character that usually dies
• The mise-en scene is usually very dark and gloomy, this reduces visibility and increases nervousness of the audience by making them unsure as to what's coming next
• Usually in isolated locations such as the wilderness or in the sewers, somewhere that it would be difficult for people to assist the characters if they were in distress.

Horror films are well suited for short films as often with feature length films the suspense becomes too drawn out, and the effect that was previously keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, ends up becoming boring. With a short film this is not a problem and having just one major 'scare' is very effective. These films are also often left on a cliff-hanger which is effective and works because the audience has not spent the entire film investing in the back story of the characters and is just enjoying the film based on its horror aspects.
A good example of this is the short film 'lights out'  posted to the left. The film is very short and consists of seeing a dark figure getting ever closer when the lights go off with the final shot posted below.
The final shot is a jump scare, with the face of the 'demon' or 'monster' being shown just before the screen cuts to black, leaving the fate of the character to the imagination but obviously implying that they have suffered some terrible fate. This is effective as after the audience has jumped and recovered from being scared and recomposed themselves, they then begin to contemplate the fate of the character and this means the story sticks with you and continues to scare the watchers after the film has finished, when they themselves are sitting home alone and are about to turn the lights off.
One thing that would be difficult however would be building the suspense throughout the film, this is a challenge throughout the entire genre of horror and is not specific to short films. However the limited time frame does make it difficult to use the time to effectively build suspense. Because as a producer, I would need to tell some sort of story in amongst the suspense building and have some form of recognisable structure to the plot, as well as building suspense and creating a scary setting.

If I was to do a horror film I would do a crash landed pilot in the forest who is isolated and lost and believes he is being chased by something and every time he stands still that something gets closer and so as exhaustion sets in this 'thing' that is chasing him gets ever closer.

Romance

The romance genre is a widely recognised genre that has had many entries into it that have received a lot of recognition, as a result the generic conventions of this genre are recognised by nearly everyone.

Generic conventions of romance:

One of the key areas of film is sound and music, and in romance films especially so, they have very recognisably, music, for example 'Notting hill' has a very typical romantic soundtrack, slow paced but happy, creating an air of tension/excitement/anticipation, as well as often creating intimacy within a scene. This is used across all sorts of romance films such as 'The notebook', 'Friends with benefits' and many more across the genre.

Todorov's theory of narrative structure, Todorov proposed that films are structured in three parts, equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibrium again. Romance films generically follow this structure more often than not, with many films starting out with a happy couple who then end up having some sort of conflict that the main body of the film focuses on resolving and when the equilibrium has been restored the film comes to an end. For example even less traditional cross-genre romance films such as 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the world' follow this narrative structure. With the film starting out with Scott being just an average guy, then meeting the girl, literally of his dreams, he has to fight seven of her evil exes to then finally end up with the girl, this narrative structure is present in a lot of films but especially so in romance films.

Romance films often have a very urban setting, set in a city, sometimes based around a workplace where a chance encounter is viable to happen. For example Date night is based in new York, about a couple trying to enjoy their night and shenanigans ensue.

Often used in romance films is dim lighting to create intimacy within a scene, the image to the left demonstrates how dim lighting is used during intimate moments within the film. Another thing that is commonplace is using dark places with natural light bursting through in intense but small amounts, also demonstrated in the image below.

 

Romance films are fairly difficult to do within the limited time frame that a short film allows for, this is because of the need to connect with the characters, if there is no time for the audience to connect with the characters they will not engage with the film or really care about what happens to them at the end of the film, so making effective use of screen time and creating meaningful and deep scenes that will engage the audience is essential.

Romantic comedies however, might be easier, as this sub-genre aims to create a feel good feeling and engage the audience differently by making them laugh. Obviously writing good comedy is difficult in any film and would be a challenge, but is probably more suited to a short film. This allows the audience to care for the characters by making them likeable and funny rather than trying to get the audience to empathise and sympathise with the characters in emotionally complex situations which requires more of a connection to the characters.

http://shortsbay.com/film/vicky-and-sam
The short film link posted above is a short romance film called 'Vicky and Sam'. It is about three film writers in a diner that are trying to think of a romance film idea and everything they pitch becomes real life, including what happens between the couple Vicky and Sam and this eventually involves the writers and the couple's stories entwining and coming to a close after the couple and the writers have been through a couple tricky situations.

Genre

All genres have recognised generic conventions that need to be present in a piece of film for them to fit into said genre. A common example of this is within horror films, there is often a supernatural theme present, this a generic convention of the horror genre, demonstrated in films such as 'Paranormal activity', 'The ring' and 'Woman in black'.
In my next few posts I will be evaluating some genres for a short film, discussing the generic conventions of each genre, producing a textual analysis of a media product already released in each genre and briefly discussing and outlining how I would handle the production of a short film in said genre.

Ideas on narrative

I recently decided to try and attempt mixing a narrative structure with video recordings of the instrumentals, for example close ups of the drum skins being hit, possibly a good opportunity for a slow motion shot to add some variety to the speed of the piece.

ideas-lighting

I am considering using some inspiration from Spike Jonze, he uses very bright shots with a lot of natural light shining through, I am thinking of adapting this, in the style of the current video of Narcs 'RHS', using a dark backdrop and lighting the focus of the shot with an almost spotlight effect to focus the audience on what I'm trying to get them to see and hopefully fit some interesting things in the background of the mis-en-scene that they would not notice until watching it through for the second or third time.

Close up ideas

In the video of RHS there is a line that is repeated, until there is a final whisper before a breakdown, and for this section of the video I was thinking of doing a close up of a mouth whispering the lyrics before the breakdown, like the picture below. How this is going to be integrated into my music video to compliment the rest of the narrative is yet to be decided, but it is an idea I would definitely like to implement.

 

Ideas

I'm currently thinking of doing a narrative music video of this song 'RHS' by a band called Narcs, the official video is posted above, I am unsure as yet as to whether or not I am going to produce an interpretation of this video or do something completely different, but have a few ideas for some shots that I wish to integrate into my short film.

Auteur:Spike Jonze

In preparation for our coursework piece this year we are looking at an auteur and the one I have chosen to look at is Spike Jonze. Spike Jonze is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television ranging from adverts for Coca-Cola to shooting footage for skateboarding videos for Sonic Youths.
Spike is famous for very original and imaginative pieces of work such as 'Her', a very forward thinking and mature piece of film about a man who falls in love with an AI.
All auteurs have certain styles and traits that mark their work as theirs, one thing Spike Jonze uses quite often in his work is very light filled shots, with really bright and pure, natural light shining through, as you can see from the screenshot from the film 'Her' above and another from one of his other works 'Where the wild things are' below.