Monday 9 November 2009

Experimental Video Diary

I have finished most of my filming for my experimental film and most of it went well. But I did have some problems with the tripod. I found it hard to get it in the right posistion for the shot. Another problem I had was lighting, as most of my filming was done in the evening when it was very dark. I ended up having to put loads of lamps on pointing in the direction of the camera just to be able to see more clearly!

I found editing my video quite easy to do once I knew how the software worked. I had too firstly go through my video and shorten it down, because I had about 8 minutes of footage, when I only needed 3 minutes. I ended up watching it through and cutting out a few sections like end scene because I didnt feel that it worked well and it just changed the concept I was trying to get across. The problem with the last scene was that it was of the girl crying and that shows the outcome of the medias pressure in a very narrative way. I didnt want the film to be to story based so I cut the scene out so that the audience could just imagine the outcome themselves, and with the whole video the outcome was implied.

I also had to cut out some of my television footage of random television clips. I had to cut out one clip in particular because it was of a BNP protest, and although it is media pressure it didnt fit into the concept I was trying to show. I wanted to mainly stick to televison clips which pressurise people into changing there appearance and making people want to strive for perfection.

After cutting my video down, I then had to remove the audio sounds and add music. I made my music using garage band, however I didnt make the music myself it was pre recorded tracks and I just put a few together to create the sounds I wanted. After putting the music to it, I then focused on making the transitions from one clip to another look smooth. I mainly used fade in and then on the scene after I would use fade out. I think the transistions did work and looked good.

I wanted to make the last clips of the girl doing her makeup alot darker than the other clips, so I did this by using Sepia to change the colours. I wanted this last clip to be darker to show the contrast between the lightness and happiness of being young, and then the darkness and pressure of growing up. I think this effect did create that feeling along with the repetative music.

My experimental video

My experimental video will be based on the concept of doll face by andy huang. The concept for my video will be how the media can heavily influence our lives and how it can actually have such a negative effect on our lives.

My video will start with photographs of a little girl showing childhood memories. Then will be clips of television flashing on a screen. The shots will be from lots of different programmes such as americas next top model, the news, mtv music videos and others. And within those clips of programmes will be clips from the little girls childhood to show the contrast of the innocence of the child compared with the sexual images the media bombard us with.

The next shot will show how the media has impacted on that childs life. The shot will be of the girls room showing her makeup and images of models and beauty. The next shot will be of the girl applying makeup and going through her daily rituals.

The end shot will show how much of a negative effect the media can have on us. The shot will be of the girl reading through a celeb magazine comparing herself too all the airbrushed, stick thin, beautifull models she sees. The shot ends with her lowering the magazine to reveal tear stained cheeks.