Filming Day: Bridgend Town

Location: Bridgend Town

Date: 13th November 2017

Group Members Present: Hannah Martin, Jade Dibble and Caitlin Elward

Our use of this location was inspired by alternative genre music videos we had seen. We wanted to film in a dingy, urban environment, that did not have particularly stimulating mise-en-scene. Our inspiration as a group for this location came from watching videos such as 'Sweater Weather' by The Neighbourhood:

We thought that a location like this would help to highlight our protagonists emotional trauma, as the dark lighting would connote the misery that she feels. We wanted to use a location that was a blank canvas, as this would mean the protagonist would stand out against, and this would show her importance in the piece. We decided that filming in a location like to this would reflect the loneliness and the isolation of Hannah's character.

Unfortunately, due to other commitments I had with school, I was unable to attend this day of filming. However, before my group left, we had a discussion as to what the objectives of the filming day would be, and what we wanted to have achieved by the end of the day. Additionally, when they arrived back at school, they updated me on what they had filmed, and showed me the footage that they had gotten.

This was my favourite shot that they achieved on this day. The sunlight shining through the window isolates Hannah in this shot, which sets her apart from the dark background. This helps to portray the isolation of her character, and how to her, the world feels dark because of the emotional trauma she is experiencing. In this shot, she is holding a cigarette, demonstrating the bad coping methods she has turned to in order to try to cope with her self-hatred and denial. Cigarettes are common props used in alternative music videos, and have become conventional to their mise-en-scene.

The purpose of this over the shoulder shot is to demonstrate the distance between the two characters, and to demonstrate the longing that Hannah's character feels for Jade's character via her facial expression. As with the nature of over the shoulder shots, its purpose is to show the relationship between the characters, so Hannah is purposely positioned quite far away from Jade. Hannah is stood in such a way that makes you perceive that she wants to get closer to Jade, which represents her wanting to get closer to her emotionally.

The long two shot shown here has the purpose of demonstrating how Hannah's character is influenced by Jade's. We wanted to demonstrate the protagonists development of feelings for Jade's character, which we thought we could encompass in our video effectively through making it seem as though Hannah's character holds Jade's character on a pedestal and idolises her. Jade is influencing Hannah's characters to smoke, and the fact that she does whatever is suggested to her by Jade in an attempt to impress her, shows that her rational thoughts are overshadowed by her feelings.

In all of these shots, we focused on the lighting to make sure that it appeared dreary and miserable, to create a sense of pathetic fallacy, reflective of the protagonists clouded mind. We made sure that Hannah and Jade were in dark clothing, which is a common convention of alternative videos. They often focus their aesthetic around dark colours and lighting, and wear grunge-style clothing.