Planning: Props and Equipment

PROPS:

As our video consists entirely of narrative, the mise-en-scene is highly important in conveying our ideas. There are a number of props that we need to bring tomorrow, either for a specific use in the scene, or to help create the overall impression we were trying to achieve.

For the initial bedroom scene, we will need a clock for the opening shots, however as we are filming at Kuda's house, this along with many other props should not be a problem. We will also need an acoustic guitar for the guy to kick over in this scene, as well as for the photo shoot, which I will bring. It is an old, battered acoustic with loose strings at the head, which we feel would add to the whole indie, folk and almost hippy like style we are trying to convey. This is important, as we have planned it to be a key focal point within the photo shoot for our CD package and magazine advert, and if it looked completely out of place then it would have a detrimental effect on the mood of the whole style and image.

We have also decided to bring a number of items such as books, CD's and jewellery for mise-en-scene in the bedroom. Although we have not incorporated any of this into our storyboard, it may be beneficial to bring it along and have it in the background to add to the style, and also include the postmodernistic element of intertextuality. For example, two books that I intend to bring are J.D. Salinger's 'The Catcher In The Rye', and Stephen Chbosky's 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower' - both of which are typically associated with the alternative, indie scene. Additionally, both of these books concern the whole 'coming of age' and teenage angst ideas, which could potentially relate to our video. For one of the CD's, we could bring a copy of Joe Brooks album 'Constellation Me', which would potentially be representative of the artist and her style - in terms of the narrative, it could represent an influence of this type of music over the artists own personal musical style, potentially drawing similarities between the careers of the two artists, suggesting a similar direction and widespread success for Gabrielle Aplin in the future.

We have decided to use candles in the initial flashback scenes in order to create an atmosphere of romanticism and exultance, parallel to the themes we hope to portray in the narrative. The candles will not only serve to act as props, but will hopefully be the main source of lighting for these scenes, creating a low-key lighting effect, thereby heightening the impression of intimacy we are aiming for.

Evidently we will also need Scrabble for the flashback scenes, which Hannah is more than happy to provide. We have chosen this board game to use in the 'date' like scenario as a board game implies youthfulness and innocence, in cohesion with the style of both the artist and the genre. The game of scrabble represents a certain element of intelligence and a love for literature - a stereotypical indie / folk-like theme. Additionally, the game gives us an opportunity to create a wide range of synergy across our 3 media products, as we may be able to use the tiles as a form of typographical code in our ancillary products.

We have decided to create an element of humor in this flashback scene in the way of playing on typical romantic conventions. In addition to the obvious opening for word based play that we create with the scrabble board game, we have decided to amplify conventions of the typical 'date' situation - for example one may expect a flute of champagne or a beverage of some sort on a date like this to elevate the romantic feel. We have decided to manipulate this idea, purchasing a pair of champagne flutes at an expense of 60p each, which the character will bring out to suggest an adherence to these conventional expectations. He will then go on to pull out a bottle of juice, thereby manipulating the typical stereotypes of the situation into a more innocent and youthful light.

EQUIPMENT:

Our AS coursework showed us the importance of having multiple cameras, in order to get a wide variety of different shots thereby giving us much more of a choice in the editing stages. We have borrowed two camera's from college, and Hannah will be bringing her own so that each of our group will have one. This means that we will be able to simultaneously capture a number of different angles and viewpoints, which should also save time as we won't have to do too many run-throughs of the same shots. In addition to this, we have borrowed a tripod, which will enable us to ensure that we have at least some steady shots. This will probably mainly be used for the long to mid-shots, and we will probably find another means to steady any shots of the less straightforwardly framed shots. I have bought a pack of 5 mini-DV tapes for filming, which will enable us to have one tape per camera without having to switch, meaning we can all film at the same time, and also leaves us 2 spares in case of any problems.