Andrew Goodwin’s Theory reads that:-
- Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and music. We have followed this convention as the visuals in the video match the lyrics of the song.
- The different music genres often have their own music style/iconography. Our song represents the Indie genre and I believe that our music video would fit in comfortably with this genre.
- Close ups should always be included. We have used a number of close ups to identify and introduce the characters to the audience. Also, the close ups capture the characters feelings and reactions.
- 'Amplification – occurs when videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning'. This is clear in our video as we have taken the lyrics and creatively experimented with them, creating our own storyline and meaning to the song.
Here is a montage of some of the close ups used in the music video. Using close ups encourages audience involvement, initiating a relationship between the audience and the character/band. The first close up shown above is of the main character which first appears 52 seconds into the video. The expression on the characters face clearly shows her desperation and suffering. I think this shot effectively creates a level of sympathy from the audience for this character. It efficiently adds to the narrative of the music video, clearly expressing this characters reactions of the 'haunting'. We used the artificial lighting created from the light bulbs in the garage for this shot. This created a natural look to the shot, allowing us to change it to black and white and still clearly see the image. We held the camera in our hands to make the shot more realistic and also to encourage audience involvement as the slight movement creates the feeling that the audience is involved in the quite personal shot. The second shot shown is a medium close up of the 'vampire' character in the music video. We filmed this in my garage as we felt that the brick background produced a cold and eerie feel to the video. She is holding one of the props used in the music video, the bread-knife. Holding this along with the serious and unhappy look on her face add to the atmosphere of the shot and adds to the narrative in the music video. We once again used the artificial lighting from the garage light bulbs to light this shot as it allowed us to create shadows whilst still clearly lighting her face. This shot conveys her attitude and purpose in the music video. The Third close up shows the 'blood tears' from the girls face which develop as the vampires infatuation with her increases. We used red food colouring to create this effect, continuously dropping more on my face and editing around the re-application process. This shot is very unusual and makes the audience intrigued with the reasons behind this behaviour. The editing process on these sequence of shots was quite difficult to get used to, but after researching for tutorials we managed to change the blood to red. This helped us achieve the impact that we was after when we developed the idea. We once again used a handheld camera to shoot these shots in my garage. This created a slight movement, which in the editing process we could emphasis more, creating a more eerie and disorientating feel. The last close up shown above is the shot where the audience establishes the clear identity of the vampire. Before this, she is shown with the Bad TV effect shown on her clips which leads the audience to be intrigued about who she is and her identity. This shot was filmed in the graveyard at St.Michael's Church in Wilmington, Kent. Even though the background is quite busy with the gravestones and trees, the audiences full attention is on the vampire as her face dominates the shot. At this point in the music video, the music jumps and this shot quickly appears on the screen, with the change in tempo of the music changing the pace of the editing.
Above are two images from the music video showing the main characters suffering in her bed when she is having a nightmare. The gestures convey her suffering, the hands on head and the shaking of her head are common reactions to pain and suffering, shown in many horror films. For this scene, we filmed in my bedroom using natural light from the window. We wanted the character to appear normal, not haunted, in these scenes as it increases the abnormality of the haunting scenes. The fact that she is wearing the same outfit through out the video makes it clear to the audience that it is the same person being affected in many ways. It also creates a sense of continuity through out the video. We filmed this from many different angles to increase the audience involvement in the scene as they feel involved with the scene. For both of the shots shown above, Fahmina Ali held the camera and stood over me. This close up showed the audience the characters suffering and feelings. this visuals follow the convention stated above as when the song lyrics mention a nightmare or suffering, these clips are shown. I think, as a group, we have successfully met these various conventions.
The cover for our digipak was created using Photoshop. The image for the front cover is a clip from the beginning of the music video, helping the create a strong link between the three products and emphasising the 'brand'. The shot is naturally lit, as it was filmed during the day. The effect were placed on the clip during editing using Final Cut Express. In Photoshop, the image of Lucy the 'Vampire' was carefully place behind the image of me, continuously suggesting the haunting. The mise-en-scene is also effective as it creates an eerie atmosphere for the front cover, similar to the other products in the 'brand'. When planning the digipak art work, I came across the image below and gave me a burst of inspiration. 
The black and white effect on a shot of the landscape draws the viewers attention to the person, which is the affect that we wanted.
After looking at many band website, we soon realised that they have their own set of generic conventions. In the production process, we knew to make our website realistic, we had to follow and include these conventions (listed in the drop down menu above). I think the final product includes all of these features including the music video, images and links to many pages to better the experience for the user.
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