'Moonlight Shadow' by Maggie Reilly was the song given to produce a Music Video as our Prelim Task. The 80's single was a mixed genre of pop and multi-instrumental; giving an overall mellow sound.
Artist Music Videos we were inspired by were Lisa Mitchells fantasy, dream like theme.
Our idea was based upon the mystery, magic and fantacy of the film 'The Chronicals of Narnia - The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe' .
Further research into 'Moonlight Shadow' we found rumours of the song having been written about the death of John Lennon. We decided to include his life story into our music video through the use of photographs. Combining fantasy with reality, bringing the two together - within reality there are evils, pain and death much like John Lennons murder and the suffering left behind with his friends, family and fans.
Maggie Reilly is a female vocalist therefore we used a female as the main character, not to confuse viewers. Our music video was to only be a narrative - we experimented with miming the lyrics as apart of the performance process however found it difficult, with an armature look. Therefore decided without miming it was as if the character was thinking which was better instead. We aimed to open the music video with the female walking into a closet inspired by 'Narnia' to allow the audience to identify our obvious inspiration and theme. She would then re-appear on the other side, having gone through the magical closet, past curtains and into an enchanted forest. On the ground, infornt of her feet lay a basket (entwining the imaginary and fantasy of childhood story tales and characters - such as Little Red Ridding Hood). As the character walks along the path through the forest she would collect images of John Lennon's life in her basket. Until finally admiring her collection towards the end of the music video before selecting and revealing his and her ending to the Music video, ending on a cliff hanger. The meaning behind our video is it is OK to dream but remain in reality.
The Props we included were a weaved basket (symbolising Little Red Ridding Hood as apart of the Fantasy), Plum curtains as a pretty entrance.
Our chosen location was a forest because we wanted to have an enchanted feel to our music video. Our main characters outfit was a simple black doll dress, symbolising her innocence and black to show grieving.
Divided Work
Scarlett (Me) - Filmed, Directed, set-up and preparation of scene, brought curtain prop.
Jessica - Acted, Directed,set-up and preparation of scene, brought the basket and pictures of John Lennon Props.
Hayley - set-up, Directed and preparation of the scene and brought peg prop.
Jay - set-up,Directed and preparation of the scene.
Overall I really like the final outcome of our Prelim Task, we achieved exactly what we had set out to do. The plum colour of the curtains contrast well with the greens of the leaves and browns of the trees. Mistakes were made due to the limited time we were given to film - such as unwanted people in the background. We did not find a wardrobe suitable to film the beginning 'Narnia' inspired opening therefore we improvised. We used a variety of different shots, angles and camera techniques which our video more interesting portraying our skills and a professional look - one favourite camera technique of mine was hand held point of view shot, resembling the female walking as she looks down at the floor in front. The jagged, unsteady camera shots have a realising feel to create empathy for the audience.
