Intertextuality within our flashbacks

We thought to make our music video interesting and easy for people to relate to - we would include flashbacks to portray a story of a couple in a troubled relationship. We are going to change the visual effects of the flashbacks to black and white to make it look more dramatic. We had to think of different ideas that we could use for the flashbacks so they don't look too similar. Also we didn't want them all to be fighting or arguing with each other so we have come up with some clever ways of showing how they're relationship is slowly falling apart.

Here are some still images from other media sources that have used ideas that we think we will use and will look effective.

The break-up starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn contains a lot of clever camera angles which portrays the couple as dis functional.


This is my favourite camera shot as I think it best shows how the couples relationship is. Although this is a shot of a somewhat normal couple sitting on the sofa watching television, there is a noticeable distance between the 2 which suggests there is tension. They are sitting as far away as possible from each other at either ends of the sofa which suggests a lack of intimacy between them. I think this is definitely a shot we would re-create as it is simple to shoot but is very effective.

Here is the idea we have gone for which is a similar idea. We decided having them back to back on the bed would look best as it looks even more awkward as there is a noticeable distance between them and they are not facing each other with they're backs to each other. This will be one of our most successful shots I think because it is makes the audience very aware something is not right.

This still is also taken from The Break-up. I think the way the actors have been placed in the shot is very clever as one of the characters looks really small and insignificant at the back and the other much closer as he is closer to the camera which makes him look more powerful. The man in the picture is portrayed as a typical husband who is sitting on the sofa doing nothing and watching television. Where-as the women is standing up behind him looking tired and in need of some help from her husband. This is typical of a normal couple where the man does nothing to help the women and this shot shows this perfectly.

This is out representation of the previous picture with Emily the girlfriend in the background looking sad, with Joe the boyfriend looking cocky and smug at the forefront of the picture. The framing of this shot is good as the door frame acts as a picture frame with a picture in of the couples life.

Here is a still from the film New Moon which also contains a lot of clever camera angles and shots of Edward ( Robert Pattinson as the back) looking insignificant as Bella becomes friends with Jacob. This shot is interesting as instead of just using full on fighting, this is a shot that shows the emotional torment of being in this kind of relationship. With this particular shot jealously is the main emotion portrayed as Edward is made to look small and insignificant in the background. We wouldn't use this exact shot as our flashbacks are focused on the relationship between the two, but this is a good example of how positions actors are put in can change the focus of a shot.

Here is a picture we took which is similar to the New Moon one. Emily looks back as Joe as if in desperation to save they're relationship and she wonders what went wrong. The use of the mirror also looks interesting for this shot as we can see Joe looking in the mirror at himself looking emotional and confused.

Day 4 Filming Pictures

Here are the pictures we managed to take whilst filming at the barn house on Wednesday 6th October.

Day 4 Filming

We began filming the group and individual shots for the last part of the song on Wednesday 6th October at the barn house.

We arrived at the Barn House at 9am after me and Laura collected a new camera and a couple of tapes from school in the hope that we could find what we were meant to film on Sunday!

The first problem we came across was that the quality of the camera looked much different to the one we had been using previously. The colour on the screen looked like it had a blue tint and we thought we were going to have to go and get a new camera which would have wasted a lot of time. After adjusting the settings we managed to get it back to normal.

We began filming a few basic close-ups of each girl lip syncing to the chorus in the bedroom but we soon realised these shots really weren't that good. As we carried on filming we realised we were faced with a lot more problems than we initially thought. Here are some examples:

• We wanted a lot of our indoor shots to be brightly lit and we thought the barn house would be a perfect location for this to happen due to the large windows. Instead most of the shots came out looking very dull even with the inside lights on. Because the windows let in so much light, when we were in front of the camera we turned out looking very dark.
• Although the barn house is large - a lot of the rooms weren't very spacious as the home is so homely and there is a lot of general things around. This made framing a shot or finding an appropriate background difficult.
• We realised that although we didn't want a totally modernised house to film in, the barn house was just a bit too dated. We wanted old but with a of a modern twist but we just looked odd and out of place.
• The zoom button would not work properly! This was very frustrating as we couldn't film any shots that we wanted zoomed in or zoom in slowly.
• When we thought filming couldn't get any worse -the battery on the camera died within an hour of use! This meant the end of filming today and that we would have to reschedule to film these shots for the 3rd time!

The new plan of action:

We have all decided that the barn house wasn't working and we that we needed a change of location. We will now film these shots in Sophie's house, as well as being better lit, it has more of the old with a modern twist feel that we were looking for.

Because we abandoned filming when the battery died it means we are behind our schedule. Luckily we are ahead of the deadline schedule which means we can afford for things to go wrong. I think the change in location will make us feel more positive about filming as so far a lot of things have gone wrong! It also means that we can film whenever we want as we don't have to have permission from some-one outside our production group.

Day 3 Filming Pictures

Here is a film I made of Day 3 filming in the Barn House, showing the locations we planned to use and the actors and props.

Day 3 Filming

We were due to begin filming our 3rd day of production on Sunday 3rd October at Laura's aunties barn house.

The aim of today's shoot was to get all the flashbacks of Emily and Joe done and also some more group and individual shots of me and the girls lip syncing to more of the song.

We arrived at the barn house at 11am with everyone ready to begin filming. As we began setting up we realised there was a problem with our camera. We still aren't sure what is actually wrong with the camera but whenever we put our tape in the camera rejected it. At first we thought there was something wrong with the tape. Joe told us that he had the same type of tape needed for the camera at his house. So Joe and Charlotte went to Joe's house to find another tape while me, Sophie and Laura stayed at the house and planned shots we would use and took pictures. Joe and Charlotte returned with the new tape so we put it in the camera to use but once again the tape was rejected. We then realised it was a fault of the camera which ultimately meant we couldn't film that day as it was a Sunday and there was no way of getting another camera from Chauncy. This was a real disappointment as everyone was ready to film and mean that we had to reschedule which was a real problem as everyone is so busy.

Despite the major problem of not being able to film, we decided to make the most of the wasted day and take pictures of the location and thoroughly plan what we were going to do:

• We realised we were going to have the film the remaining shots on 2 separate days because this was the last weekend that we were all available to film.
• We will film just the group shots on Wednesday 6th October from 9am til 11am as this is when our media lesson is. We would not have time to film the flashbacks as well as the group and individual shots in only 2 hours.
• The flashbacks with Emily and Joe will have to be filmed sometime next week which will be the last shots we film.

Here are some examples of the pictures we took whilst we were there of locations and props that we could use:

Day 2 Filming Pictures

Here is a film I made of Day 2 filming at Sophies Boyfriends house, showing the locations we used and the actors in action.

Day 2 Filming

We began filming the 2nd day of our music video on Wednesday 28th September at Sophie's boyfriends house.

The aim of today's shoot was to film the flashbacks with Joe and each of the girls that only last about 5-10 seconds at the beginning of the video.

The shots feature Joe (the boyfriend) behind Emily's (the girlfriend) back. The shots will be put together and made to look like he is a compulsive cheater who is cheating on each girl behind all of their backs. We filmed 4 different shots in the same location but made to look like 4 different locations using me, Charlotte, Sophie and Laura separately with Joe.

The first shot we did was where we had Sophie and Joe sitting together on Sophie's sofa and Joe presented Sophie with a ring. We thought a simple medium shot would look best as we want to viewer to focus on what is happening on the sofa and not be distracted by anything in the background. The framing looked very good as the sofa fitted perfectly in the frame. We wanted to make the scene look homely so we had Sophie holding a cup of tea and positioned the actors on the sofa so they looked at home and comfortable. To make the situation look less awkward we decided to add speech which left everyone feeling more at ease. It also made to shot look more realistic, the speech will be muted in the actual video.

The next shot we filmed was the kitchen scene where Laura and Joe were standing around enjoying a glass of wine together. Initially we weren't going to use wine but we came across the bottle at the house and decided it looked realistic. We didn't actually put the real wine in the wine glasses - instead we found a pink coloured fruit juice and used it instead but left the bottle in the background. A medium shot was used once again because we wanted to keep all the flashback simple and in this particular shot we wanted the 2 characters to be emphasized. The framing of the shot turned out well as the kitchen area was small which meant the a lot of kitchens items were in the shot such as the oven and utensils.

Mine and Joe's scene was next to film, we decided to use the bedroom (which is made to look like mine). The scenario was that I was doing my hair in the mirror which was actually the camera and Joe had to come behind me and give me a hug. First of all we tried me sitting on the edge of the bed and looking into a real mirror, but the framing of the shot didn't look right so we decided to use the camera as the mirror which worked really well. We used a medium shot again but took a while to get the right shot as the height difference made it hard. In the end we ended up with a good shot.

The last shot we decided to film was the kissing shot, we are also going to use this last in the line-up of flashbacks as it is the most dramatic. We used the living room again for this shot but opposite the sofa so the 2 shots don't look like they are filmed in the same house. For this shot we thought a close up would look best as it emphasized how much of a cheat Joe was. Once again due to the height differences it was hard to frame but we worked it out by having Charlotte on her tip toes when they kissed.

Today's filming was definitely a success as we got the shots we wanted too without any problems. We managed to get 4 different looking shots out of 1 location and think the shots we did produce are of a high quality and will look good in our video.