Pre-Production 4

This is my final pre-production blog post for this project, it includes the following;

• Contingency plan

• Personnel/Materials

• Step Outline/Technical Considerations

• Treatment

ENJOY

Contingency Plan

A contingency plan is a backup plan for what happens when everything goes wrong, they are very details and entails every single element of the production from the pre-production, all the way to the production of a project and the post production.

With any idea or plan there is always flaws within it, within this idea there are many flaws within the process of creating this. Within this plan there are many elements to it which can go wrong.

• The actor/actors who I will hire for this music video production might drop out last minute, which will make the production go badly, to prevent this error from happening I will keep a list of back up actors who are usually free who I can contact to do the shoot instead.

• If I do not get permission to film in the Dorchester prison or the Holton Heath Royal Naval Cordite Factory then within my location scouting I will look for other locations to film in which look very similar to the ones I want to film in which require no permission for and keep a list of back up locations to film in instead.

• If the location I go to film in turns out to be too dangerous to film in which will cause safety issues for my crew then I will keep a list of back up locations which require no permission to film on and which are safe to film on.

• The green screening with main character Ronnie flying through the sky may go wrong, this is because it’s a hard element to pull off but it might work out alright, if it doesn’t work out well I will just record a close up of Ronnie and use completely double exposure instead of green screening and double exposure combination.

• The camera or my filming/technical kit’s battery may ran out whilst I am shooting which would completely ruin the shoot so to prevent this from happening I will check that the kit works and has a full battery life before taking it away from the college.

• Editing with double exposure may not work well but the best thing to do with double exposure is trial and error with different blending modes and different footage all of the time.

• If the stop motion technique doesn’t look as good as I expected it to be I am going to use slow motion instead and see what the shot looks like instead and then maybe using some more double exposure.

Personnel / Materials

For this shoot I will need a main actor to play the man on the hallucinogenic trip, I also need about 2-5 other people who will play other people within the storyline, they will play the people who are involved in the main character’s down fall, I might also use a crew dependant on how many elements I need, for example if I need someone to set up lighting I could use someone but on the other hand I could set up lighting myself but then again if I decide to do the music video in very long shots I will have to have someone to carry the lighting as I am moving my camera and walking. Once I start looking for actors I will document my findings in this table below. I don’t need any materials or props as such but if I do want to film in a location which is abandoned/derelict I really want to consider the mise-en scene of the place such as which abandoned artefacts will be presented in what area of the shot. The abandoned places I will use will already have things in it such as broken stuff which will already make my shot, so because of this I will not have to use many props because I have already got a big and varied workspace to work with.

Personnel

Someone to play my main character

(Will be played by…

Disco Ball which projects RGB colors, it also strobes to the beat of the music

Someone to set up lighting if needed – this person will be

UV paint – this will be used for the scene that is filmed in the black room with the lasers, strobe and disco ball

Someone to play other character

Possible Props/Props

Laser box – this will be used for the scene that is filmed in the dark room, it can either strobe to music or will project lasers on its own.

Someone to play other character

Mini Strobe light – will be used for the scene that is filmed in the dark room, users can control how many strobes per second it projects.

Step Outline / Technical Considerations

The opening shot of a sober Ronnie behind a piece of glass with coloured water being poured onto it will be a high angle shot titling the camera down onto Ronnie with the piece of glass. There will then be a voiceover from the main characters perspective which will be recorded in the audio suite in college, it will be recorded using the latest audio software and microphones, and there will then be a camera shake for a few seconds when Ronnie is trying to escape to make it more surreal. There will then be some screams heard which will be edited using sound warps on Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, the scene where you see him frozen behind the sheet of glass will use a medium shot where the camera track will be rotating around Ronnie’s body.

The next part of the music video is the title screen for the music video, I plan to have the same layer of text with the word “froze”, the word will be written in different text and different bright colours, they will be moving around so it looks like a strobe and moving around all the time, I will put these layers in front of a video layer that will be a film burn or some sort of layers or something similar to this, I will also use different blending modes to put these text layers on top of it so that they look trippy, it will be done in the style that the 24 hour party people title sequence is done in.

The scene where there is a piece of black liquid/ink where it develops into an entity by the end of the video, I will either do this by filming a wax mould or an ink mould and melt it on a close up shot with maybe a macro lens dependant on what the shot looks like just with a zoom on an HXR with normal lenses.

With the scenes of main character Ronnie walking through all of these fields there will be a colour correction effect so that the grass and skies look brighter, I am also going to apply the colourful visuals made in After effects to this footage by using blending modes within After Effects and Premiere Pro so that the whole thing looks very trippy.

With the visuals that I am making for the whole of the music video, they are going to be created with motion graphics on Adobe After Effects, I will create them so that they are colourful kaleidoscopes as well as light leak style visuals for the negative part of the trip, I will use shapes, neon effects as well as blending modes and effects such as and similar to warp.

With the scene of main character Ronnie running through the derelict/abandoned location I will have a range of medium shots, a range of long shots, some high angle shots, and a lot of close up shots, with the close up and long shots there will be a lot of camera movement (tracking) all around. As well as the camera movement the editing techniques will be as follows;

• I will be using the dark visuals I have created within After Effects and I will put them onto the layers of footage I have recorded using blending modes within After Effects and Premiere Pro.

• I will be putting one or more layers of video onto another layer of video using the blending modes within After Effects and Premiere Pro.

• I will be using some colour correction techniques so that it brings out the darker colours within the shot but I also want to isolate the main character using a tilt shift within After Effects or something similar to a tilt shift. I will control the vibrance of the scene also and will be using the effect RGB curves.

• I am looking at doing some stop motion when Ronnie is walking through the different location so by doing this I will either take some photographs of Ronnie running with a short shutter speed in between each frame or I will take some screenshots of the footage shots you have recorded within premiere pro and lining them all up in order throughout your composition.

For the scene where Ronnie is flying throughout the sky I will be using the green screen studio, I will cover a table with green screen as well as having green screen in the background, by this I will make the scene look like he is flying, this is done by using keying effect within After effects and putting a video layer behind it of a sky, I will also create some motion graphics with the sky in case the video layers don’t work.

For the scene where Ronnie is in the black room with UV paint on with the strobe lights, lasers and disco lights there might be some double exposure using blending modes in After Effects and Premiere Pro, these visuals would just be filming the output of these lasers. There will be a range of medium and close up shots as well as a rotating zoom with the camera, the lights will be turned on in the beat to a music track that will be played in the room, I will be turning on and off the DMX lighting Grid as well as using some red lights for the transition into the negative part of the trip.

For the three voiceovers I will be recording myself or another voice actor I have hired speaking the voice overs using the recording suite in college, it is equipped with the latest sound equipment and software to use, with the editing techniques with the sound I will put the layer of the song sound on as well as any other sound effects I want to use and then I will put the voiceover on top, I will fade the music track down to a low volume so that the audience can hear the song as well as the voiceover.

Treatment

The treatment of the piece is the entire piece I want to create scene by scene and as I want it to appear on the screen, similar to an extended synopsis/plot of the music video, it is one of the most important parts of the pre-production which guides you to the next steps of actually producing the project.

The opening scene shows the main character Ronnie as an innocent clean and sober teenager, he is located behind a sheet of glass in this shot, at this point there is no music at all, the clip is accompanied by a voiceover from Ronnie’s perspective explaining some of his downfall and in the end he ends with the word Froze, the reason for the word Froze is because it’s the main title of the song and it can be a starting point for the experimental imagery. Under this sheet of glass main character Ronnie is feeling terrified and scared you can see this by the facial expression and body language, he is trapped behind this sheet of glass, desperately trying to get out but he can’t, after this multiple cups of coloured water is poured from out of the shot onto the sheet of glass. He then starts running on the spot to try and get away but he doesn’t seem to be getting away, this is when screams are heard from all different vocal pitches and sound warps are used, this is when the video cuts to black and the word Froze comes to the screen. You then see the main character Ronnie appear as himself but frozen behind this piece of glass, the video will strobe so that you see him every 0.5 seconds with a cut to black in between around 5-10 times. This is when the music kicks in. you then see something on the screen which is black and white that you cannot make out what it is, it looks like a bubble or a circle at the moment and it is slowly growing.

You then see main character Ronnie wake up in the first location which is a very nice field/green area, there will be some trippy visuals in this clip put on the screen with double exposure and different types of blending modes, this scene represents the positive part of the drug trip, the grass will be greener, he will be laughing very highly and there will be some sound warps with laughter for about 3 seconds in the middle of this shot, there will be some close ups mainly as well as some medium shots in this scene. About 30 seconds into the shot main character Ronnie will fall over where he will start flying off into the sky. He is then in a black room where he cannot escape, he is surrounded by neon and laser disco lights, he is also covered in UV paint, he looks happy in this shot as he is moving to the beat of the music, but then about 20 seconds later he starts to look very scared and unhappy, the shot fades out slowly and then moves into a different shot, in this shot the neon lights turn to black and white strobe lights with some tones of red and white, this is where the main character’s eyes turn black and start dripping with coloured liquid, you will see this in multiple different shots, the shot will then fade to black and the main character goes with it.

Ronnie then wakes up in a derelict/abandoned place where he doesn’t know where he is, he is running around scared because he doesn’t know where he is, he keeps coming around to the same locations over and over again which is a psychological thing for Ronnie. Whilst Ronnie is running around he is confronted by some figures throughout his life and there will be some double exposure on the screen of close up shots of people shouting at him, he is greeted by some people in capes and some people who look generally scary as well as some well-hidden silhouettes, the shot will go into some more shots of him screaming, there will then be another voiceover of him explaining this. He will then fall into the ground and wake up in another derelict place surrounded by fire and as well as some satanic symbolism and imagery surrounding him, he is wearing a cape in this scene and is rocking back and forth whilst sat on the floor, he looks very scared at this point accompanied with some heavy breathing, this will be accompanied by another voiceover as the shot fades out and another one fades in.

The next shot is of Ronnie flying into the sky, he is surrounded by clouds and skies and the voiceover from the last shot continues on to this shot, he is flying for about 20 seconds with multi-angles from all around the sky, when the shot reaches its end the sky turns from bright and sunny to grey and miserable, this signals the end of the music video and the transition to acceptance.

Voice-over treatment

• Teenager behind the glass shot with different coloured waters being poured on the glass – music will fade in right at the end of this shot in a quick fade – voiceover as follows; “So this is me before, before the storm happened, it all happens to us at some point I just didn’t think it would happen to me so often, I am an inconsolable, inconsiderate human being, I have disappointed and lost everyone who I love, this is the stages of the trip, completely negative, equinox, I’ve had some fun throughout the years but now I am nowhere, Froze”

• Black room laser light scene – “here I am having the best time of my life, give me more, give me more I would tell them, ‘GIVE ME ALL THAT YOU HAVE, PLEASE’ I would beg, the lights would blind me and the scene I was living in was absolutely smashing, but not for long, the lights started to fade and I was trapped in my own mind, couldn’t get out, where the hell am I now? Faded”.

• Ronnie flying throughout the air at the end of the scene – “I have been forgiven, at last, I am so happy at this moment, I’ve made the transition into the end, this is what this has made me, scared of the shadow I live in, liberation is all I need and now I have it I made it to the top half of the world. Or did I? Transitions”

Double Exposure Visuals Treatment

During my music video I will have different visuals on the screen whilst the main footage is rolling, they will be applied on the screen using blending modes from within Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, I will create most of these motion graphics on Photoshop and After Effects as well as some filmed footage. These will come in no order throughout the video as I want to be quite experimental with the visuals but I will list them below.

• There will be a running visual throughout the music video where there will be a piece of black liquid which is small and throughout the music video there will be cut scenes every now and then where you see this expanding slowly, by the end of the music video you see it become an entity or a silhouette of a person, this will not be a double exposure visual but I might have it fading in/out using double exposure dependant on how the edit looks.

• At the beginning of this music video I will have the visuals looking very bright and very colourful, because this is the happy part of the music video where he is in the field, the visuals will consist of kaleidoscopic visuals as well as some random starry visuals with colours of yellow, orange, light blue, white which are stereotypical happy colours. These will be in no order and is the experimental part of the editing.

• Some more visuals such as a stop-motion part of the trip, I will edit it so that there are lots of extremely short shots but so that it looks like a film. This is going to be a great visual if edited correctly.

• Towards the end where the man is in the derelict parts of the music video, there will be some very angry and scary visuals, such as the same shot being put over the same shot but in a different position using blending modes, some kaleidoscopic visuals like n the first part but in this part there will be angry colours such as dark red, black, white etc, there will also be some silhouettes, fire, powder, tiny shots of random drug culture stuff which will all be put on using double exposure

• The parts of the music video where he is flying around in the sky will have visuals behind the man of the sky with clouds and the clouds moving etc. this is going to be a mix of filmed footage of the sky and some motion graphics, it might be one or the other depending on which one works the best.

• There won’t be many double exposure visuals for the scene where Ronnie is in the main black room, most of the visuals will be created from the style of having the disco lights and the laser lights in the room as well as the strobe lights with the effect of the UV paint on the main character as well. I will probably use the technique where I put the same shot over the same shot as well as recording the output of the laser and disco lights as well as the strobing machines and putting that on towards the end of the shot.

I got my inspirations for these visuals from films such as Enter The Void, which is a feature length film directed by Gaspar Noe which follows my style of having a trippy centred film and Techniques from films such as Requiem For A Dream and this Youtube Short Film I found called “S T R E A M” where it shows two main actors walking through India but the whole thing is done in stop motion.