D1: Discuss How the Meaning Was Created Through the Use of the Lighting and Camera Settings

In this report, I will be explaining how we have creating meaning in our music video by using cinematic techniques.

 We are creating a music video for the song Nightmare by the band Set It Off. This song is in the pop punk music genre so we are creating a music video to reflect this. 

 

 

 

Here you can see some of the rushes for our music video. We created meaning in these videos. We also used mise en scene (placing in the scene) in our music video and followed pop punk genre conventions. Mise en scene covers: props, costumes, hair and makeup, lighting, sets, locations, camera shots, angles and movements. 

LOCATION RECCE (Before Filming)

Prepared by		Faith Smith		Date				14.11.2022
Location Details		We are going to film in Doncaster UTC, hopefully Cast if we have permission and in an alleyway near Hungerhill School and in someone’s bedroom. This adds up to two indoor and one outdoor scene.
Scene/Purpose of filming		In our music video, the character is going to be cycling through lots of nightmare scenarios. They will be in their bedroom to start with going to sleep. These are going to be walking through an alleyway by themselves, a school nightmare and a lip sync scene where the character sings to an empty crowd.
Site Contact Name			Doncaster UTC			Site Address			College Rd  Doncaster   DN1 3BF
Contact telephone			01302 976515			Point of access			Front doors
Permissions			As we are students at DUTC, we will not need permission to film in an office there.			Availability			Our college can be busy at times so we will have to film when it is quiet such as lesson times. Also, if we cannot film in cast, we will use the lecture theatre for the lip sync scene which we may have to book.
Points of Interest						Suitability/Possible shots			Close ups, extreme close ups…
Safety Issues			Tripping down the stairs or because of equipment			Electricity Supply			We will have electricity from the plug sockets and if we decided to use batteries.
						Light			Sun from the windows and overhead electric lighting unless we decided to turn the lights off. We will use our own lighting too.
						Windows			There are some windows throughout DUTC.
						Noise			Other students talking, when the lessons change over and noise throughout the building since it can echo. This won’t matter though since we won’t need sound for our music video; our sound is the Nightmare song by Set It Off.

 

 

 

Site Contact Name		Cast		Site Address		Waterdale, Doncaster DN1 3BU
Contact telephone		01302 303959		Point of access		Through the front doors
Permissions		We will need permission in the form of a location permission form to film here.		Availability		There may be limited availability since they might hold auditions and shows.
Points of Interest		We would like to film the lip sync scene in the theatre.		Suitability/Possible shots		Close ups, extreme close ups, medium shots, wide shot, establishing shot of the empty seats, medium shots….
Safety Issues		Weather can cause equipment to be damaged  Tripping, falling over  Traffic when getting there.		Electricity Supply		We will need batteries since they may not be many plug sockets.
				Sunlight		There will be no sunlight, we might use the spotlight and have red lighting.
				Windows		There will be no windows since it is a theatre.
				Noise		N/A

 

 

 

Site Contact Name		Alleyway		Site Address
Contact telephone		N/A		Point of access		Near Hungerhill School
Permissions		N/A		Availability		Always available
Points of Interest		Alleyway		Suitability/Possible shots		POV shot, close ups, extreme close ups…
Safety Issues		General safety since alleyways can be hotspots for crime.		Electricity Supply		We will need batteries.
				Sunlight		We will hopefully be filming this scene during sunset.
				Windows		There will be no windows since it is an outside space.
				Noise		N/A

 

 

Site Contact Name		Atherton Residence		Site Addres
Contact telephone				Point of access
Permissions		All		Availability		24/7
Points of Interes		Bedroom		Suitability/Possible shots		Other side of the bed
Safety Issues		Tripping hazards  Avoiding spillages		Electricity Supply		Plug sockets
				Sunlight
				Windows
				Noise		N/A

We decided to change the locations and some of the camera shots we used for our storyboard. Originally the filming locations were in a theater, alleyway, school and house. The basic storyline of our music video is the character is running away from something through different nightmare scenarios. However, we decided it would be more interesting if the character was trying to escape one location (Sandall Beat Wood) but everytime then ran, they would end back in the same spot. This creates the meaning that the character feels trapped, unable to free themselves from their nightmares and struggling to escape their darker self. This does fit the pop punk conventions since this type of music does reference a lot of death and pain. Forests are also seen as scary since you can get lost in them and the animals could attack you etc. Therefore, the feeling of being trapped in a forest fits the meaning of the song which you can see in the lyric "With nowhere to go, I'm out on my own, oh, I'm so scared". Eventually, we only ended up filming in the woods and the lecture theater in our college as you can see below:

 

 

 

 

 

LOCATION RECCE

Prepared by		Faith Smith		Date				14.11.2022
Location Details		We are going to film in Doncaster UTC, hopefully Cast if we have permission and in an alleyway near Hungerhill School and in someone’s bedroom. This adds up to two indoor and one outdoor scene.
Scene/Purpose of filming		In our music video, the character is going to be cycling through lots of nightmare scenarios. They will be in their bedroom to start with going to sleep. These are going to be walking through an alleyway by themselves, a school nightmare and a lip sync scene where the character sings to an empty crowd.
Site Contact Name			Doncaster UTC			Site Address			College Rd Doncaster  DN1 3BF
Contact telephone			01302 976515			Point of access			Front doors
Permissions			As we are students at DUTC, we will not need permission to film in an office there.			Availability			Our college can be busy at times so we will have to film when it is quiet such as lesson times. Also, if we cannot film in cast, we will use the lecture theatre for the lip sync scene which we may have to book.
Points of Interest			Lecture Theater			Suitability/Possible shots			Close ups, extreme close ups…
Safety Issues			Tripping down the stairs or because of equipment			Electricity Supply			We will have electricity from the plug sockets and if we decided to use batteries.
						Light			Sun from the windows and overhead electric lighting unless we decided to turn the lights off. We will use our own lighting too.
						Windows			There are some windows throughout DUTC.
						Noise			Other students talking, when the lessons change over and noise throughout the building since it can echo. This won’t matter though since we won’t need sound for our music video; our sound is the Nightmare song by Set It Off.

 

 

 

Site Contact Name		Sandall Beat Wood		Site Address		Doncaster
Contact telephone		N/A		Point of access		Gates
Permissions		N/A since it is a public location		Availability		24/7
Points of Interest		Woods		Suitability/Possible shots		Wide angle, establishing, medium, close ups, panning…
Safety Issues		Other people general safety, animals, items thrown in the woods, branches etc…		Electricity Supply		Batteries will be needed for the camera since there is no way we can charge them in the woods.
				Sunlight		From the sun.
				Windows		N/A
				Noise		Animals in the woods, trees, other people…

In the rushes, you can see the character performing to an empty crowd in a theater. This follows the music video types theory (Sven Carlsson 1999) since our music video follows the hybrid (performance and storyline) style. We decided to create this type of music video to make it seem like the character is singing the song because this relates to the storyline of their nightmare. Furthermore, we looked at other pop punk music videos for inspiration. MCR's I'm Not Okay music video have story and performative elements. 

Andrew Goodwin's music video genre theory (1992) states that there is a correlation between the lyrics of the song and the music video. The mise en scene, themes and actions in the music video create the same meaning and feeling of the song lyrics. I believe our Nightmare music video follows this perfectly since our character actions most of the lyrics in the music video. For example during the lyric "I feel the tapping on my shoulder" we can see a POV shot of someone tapping on the character's shoulder and the character turning around looking confused and scared. You can see this in one of the rushes above.

Mise En Scene and Meaning In Our Music Video

We decided to use two different costumes. For the performative chorus scenes, the character is wears punk makeup and clothing with dyed hair. This is a convention of the emo/goth clothing style which pop punk correlates to. In the forest scenes, the character is wearing normal clothing. I think this helps us seperate the nightmare from the actual performance section of our music video and also helps us follow the codes and conventions of them since characters usually change their clothing and location many times in music videos. Furthermore, this shows how the character is trying to fight their darker side and escape the monster inside of them since they seem like two different personalities.

 Chorus Scenes

In the performative chorus scenes, the character sings to an empty crowd in a theater. This makes us the audience feel uneasy since it is not normal to sing to an empty crowd. In addition, this shows how the character feels like they have no one to talk to about their problems so they have to sing them out loud to even have the chance to be heard.

 

 We decided to use two point red lighting in these scenes since the colour red connotes anger, danger and fear. This lighting also looks very cinematic and it also looks like stage lighting. The costume the character wears, their attitude and the red lighting is very contrasting to the forest scenes where the character wears casual clothing and seems very scared. This connotes how the monster (their thoughts) is/are taking over. This lighting has created a red chiaroscuro effect on half of the subject's face. This supports that the character is being corrupted by the monster.

 

We decided to focus on using medium or close up camera shots. This is because the character is the main subject in our music video and we wanted to accentuate how they feel.

 

 

 Forest Scenes

 Forests can either be a peaceful place or scary depending on the views of the person. They connote how the character is isolated from society (what a lot of alternative people feel like) and they are consumed by their thoughts (lots of trees symbolising the thoughts, not being able to escape them). Throughout the music video, we decided to film freehand instead of using a tripod. Normally, this would be a terrible thing to do since this can create motion blur and very shaky footage. However, this was our creative decision. The shaky music video represents how frightened the character feels and how they are desperately trying to get away from the monster in their nightmares. Their mind is racing so much and they feel disorientated. This is supported by the rushes above since we used some blurred footage of them getting up to run to show show they are fighting. We also have used a dutch angle with movement to show how the character doesn't feel stable and we also used a panning shot around the character to show how they feel like their problems are all consuming. We use a wide range of camera shots, angles and movements to symbolise how the character feels conflicted by their thoughts. Because we are in a forest in the day, we did not use any specific lighting techniques. This however contrasts the chorus of our music video and shows how the character had hope to escape the monster.

 

 

 

 To conclude, we have used mise en scene to help us create meaning in our music video. We have use red lighting and pop punk clothing to reflect the music gernre and we filmed freehand to show how the character feels shaky and frightened themselves.