EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1



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Still Frame 1 - Relationship of lyrics to narrative/visualsStill frame 1 is the first scene of our music video, this still frame shows the scrap book we used to show Mercedes' happy memories of a relationship she was missing. This scene is shown in time with the chorus lyrics 'Just A Taste' implying that the scrapbook shows 'a taste' of what they had together. This lyrics shows that the relationship has ended and that this is not what she wants. The scrap book is the entire basis for our video, we took some of the images in the scrapbook whilst we were shooting the scenes to strengthen the continuity. We increased the speed of this clip to make it more dramatic, as if she were ripping the photographs out in rage, we then slowed it back down as she came to the picture she sticks on the mirror as we wanted to show it was her favourite photograph, which provides a good basis for her reminiscing (the scenes from the rest of the video).

Still Frame 2 - Lighting
This still shows Mercedes sticking the photograph we previously saw her remove from the scrapbook, onto the mirror, next to her in the mirror you can see the image of her singing and playing her guitar. We used the green screen to achieve this, we wanted to edit this scene in such a way that we could incorporate both the narrative and performance aspects, this meant we had more lip-syncing scenes in our video. Good lighting is vital when using the green screen, due to the fact that if you don't place the lights correctly, there will be shadows on the green screen and you cannot achieve a successful green screen image. Due to the use of mirrors in this scene, we had to find a location in which the lighting naturally lit the area due to the fact we didnt want any reflection of light glaring into the camera. Throughout the video, we used the natural light that the weather gave us that day. This is because we wanted the video to be as true to life as possible and also use it as a pathetic fallacy. Because we filmed the video in autumn time, when the weather is fairly dark, the feelings we were trying to portray Mercedes' to have, were extremely well reflected.

Still Frame 3 - Mis-en-scene - costume, props, make-up, casting, expression
This still frame shows the scene which is Mercedes' memory of her and Jamie are playing at Newlands Corner with each other. Their body language and facial expressions in this scene fantastically portray the love between them that was vital to our whole video. We needed them to look completely relaxed and happy, I believe we achieved this brilliantly. The costumes we chose for this scene were simple as this was set in the daytime and we needed the costume to reflect this. Mercedes' T-Shirt says 'To be or not to be? That is the question' which is a famous Shakespeare quote. This ties in nicely with our video because this could be seen in the context of the relationship.. Will it last or wont it? I believe this was a very clever choice of clothing. In the green-screen scenes, in which Mercedes is playing her guitar, she is wearing a T-Shirt with a guitar on it and in the scenes with Liam (the new boyfriend), she wears a T-Shirt that says 'Behind the Scenes' implying there is more to the relationship than meets the eye and she is hiding her true feelings. We edited this scene to make it look like a camera recording, this reinforces the fact that it is a memory.


Still Frame 4 - Relationship of music to narrative/visuals
Still frame 4 shows Mercedes singing with her guitar with a sillouette of her playing her guitar next to her. We made this part of the video black and white, tying in with the lyrics (e.g. 'I know I'm a dick, I'm addicted to you' and 'what the fuck's going on? Just wanna go back to bed with you') to show that she is feeling extremely down about the situation. We used some green screen image to create the sillouette and edited it into the existing scene. Because we used a mid-shot you can see Mercedes playing her guitar, showing she uses her guitar to release her emotion.

Still Frmae 5 - Representation of artist/band with reference to record label's expectations
This still frame shows Mercedes in colour, playing her guitar, with black and white pictures of her and Jamie behind her. This is supposed to symbolise that her past is behind her, yet she is not over it. The record label 'Big Machine Records' sign similar artists (e.g. Taylor Swift) and so we used inspiration from the way she is represented in her videos to decide on how to represent Mercedes in our video.

Still Frame 6 - Genre of music and how it is defined
In this scene, Mercedes is seen to be sitting with her new partner, having a picnic. We faded a photograph of her and Jamie in for a couple of seconds to show that he is what is on her mind.
The use of the narrative genre means we can easily portray the feelings we want to show. It also ensures the audience can easily empathise with our character.

Still Frame 7 - Camerawork & editing - shot types, angles, movement, sfx and transitions
This still frame shows Mercedes runing through the woods, whilst the image of her and Jamie running together overlaps. This shows that life has moved on, but she still misses him and wishes she was still with him. To achieve this effect, we had to decrease the opactiy on one image in order to get the other one on top. These scenes overlap well with each other because in both scenes they are running and are both long shots. In one of our scenes between Mercedes and Jamie, we had a close up of them holding each others hands whilst walking and we panned across to follow their movement. We used increased speed at the start of our video and slow motion at the end of our video both on the scrapbook focused scenes.  
Still Frame 8 - Intertextuality or influence of other music videos etc
Still frame 8 shows a photograph of Jamie and Mercedes in flames, this idea came from Taylor Swift's video - Picture To Burn. 

This is a stereotypical scene from narrative music videos or romantic films. It is extremely common in media to use the image of someone burning a photograph to show the extreme emotion they are feeling. The video as a whole, was inspired largely by Katy Perry's video - Thinking of You.

Still Frame 9 - Setting/location
Still frame 9 shows one of the last scenes in our music video. Newlands Corner was where most of our video was filmed. It is where the story begins, and also where it ends. It is the key location in our video showing Mercedes here with Jamie and then bringing her new partner there in an attempt to replace the memory of her previous relationship with new ones with her new partner. By using the same location throughout most of the video, we had the same lighting throughout which establishes good continuity. We used the camera effect again and changed the colour effect to sepia to show again that these are memories.