Self Assessment Pt 2

Construction: Film/Video

These are the reasons why we believe we deserve a level 4:

Where appropriate, we used a tripod to enable us to capture key dance and fight scenes as steady as possible. for the contra zooms and the 360 degree panning shots we felt it would look better hand held to create a sense of built up tension as it is the moment before the fight scene. Most oft the production was shot using a tripod to get a clear and steady set of clips where both Olivia and Vickee are dancing as having unsteady shots would have probably looked a bit messy and uncontrolled whereas we wanted the audience to be able to focus on the performance aspect of the cinematography.

The Framing for our production varies as some of the Urban settings were very conventional for a Prodigy video so we wanted to focus on the scenes such as the galley of graffiti and try to get as much of the art work in frame as possible without dominating the frame to a point where both Vickee and Olivia were not the main point of focus. the Staircase scene is particularly important as the framing was intended to get both characters in the shot and make it evident that they were not aware of each others presence.

We used both wide shots and close ups to establish both setting and performance. the main close-ups are to show reaction shots of the characters, for example: in the contra zoom and the over the shoulder panning are used to mimic a Mexican stand off which is effective in bring a sense of intensity along with the music.

The material we shot is appropriate in conveying both performance and narrative style which we wanted to bring to the music video. The dancing which is incorporated throughout the video is both expressive and revealing as to what we are trying to achieve.

The costume design for our production is very specific to the concept of 'goody' vs 'baddy' as Olivia specifically bought white contact lenses to make her look weird and evil along with her outfit which is basic and black making her look like a conventional villain. Vickee put together a more bright and colourful outfit and made a cape which creates a conventional super hero feel along with her bright make up. they both wear hi-top trainers to give a more urban feel to the video and looks good with the dancing. We were able to find some really great settings for the video and we were especially pleased with the graffiti scenes which really helped to convey an urban gritty setting for the video.

Although we are still in the process of editing a key example of how we used editing to make the meaning apparent to the audience is at the very beginning. At the start we've used graphic matches and similar shots whilst Vickee and Olivia are getting ready, connecting the main characters together.

We used fast pase editing throughout our video, using a variety of jump cuts, straight cuts and slow motion in the run up to the fight scene. We have avoided using over the top effects and transitions as we thought they'd be intrusive in telling the narrative and are not conventional in the music video genre.

We have continuously used the basic concepts of music video, an example of this is using the music to visually connect with the video through dance and editing. Although Invaders Must Die only has a few lyrics, where appropriate we have used visional images to connect to these in our video through the characters.