Whilst watching Ellie's lecture, some of the methods she mentioned stood out to me and gave me ideas of what I would like to experiment with in this project. Some of these were:

- colour lighting

- camera less filmmaking

- screen recordings (laptop camera, phone camera in motion)

- cinema graphs (fashion based)

- VHS cam

- low res mixed with high quality images with drawings on them

- blues, greens, light bright colours for the garment

- abstract imagery using coloured lighting

- open ended narration

- filming in reflections/mirrors and light bunnies

The Matrix with its classic green 2000s futuristic look is one of my favourite inspirations for visuals and imagery. The use of mirrors and reflections adds another layer and mystery to keep the viewer wanting answers to the questions created by the futuristic look and golden ratio composition of the shots. 

The green colour grading also keeps the visuals coherent especially when they're in the matrix compared to when they're not inside it with a colder, blueish look.

Doyle (cinematographer) and Kar Wai (director) have often collaborated on films such as Fallen Angels (1995), In The Mood For Love, Chungking Express and many more. These films usually follow a quite confusing and non-linear storyline with their dingy and grainy look complimented by colourful lighting often using a lot of greens, yellows and oranges but sometimes including colder looks by using blueish lighting to "implant enigmas in the subconscious of the viewer."

Their cinematography has inspired a lot of my work and I like the way scenes are not always easy to understand, keeping the viewer intrigued to find out more with their scripts and visuals. By using the specific colour palette, they can easily achieve a certain atmosphere adding dialogue to help understand each character better but still keeping a veil of mystery through the use of angles, composition, colour grading and light.

Jones often uses photomontage, which is the technique of collaging to create a composite image (photoshopping in real life), to create moving images sometimes using it over footage and sometimes creating a moving image only out of images. 

I like this for fashion based videos as it can make a simple image look dynamic without actually having to record a video and it allows for a more creative approach by painting and pasting other elements on top.

One thing I don't like as much is the colour palette used for some of the composite images as it starts to look messy and too abstract for my liking.

Gonen is a London based concert and BTS photographer that also specialises in moving image. She often works with the NiNE8 collective and Lava La Rue with her grainy and retro style. Her work is very similar looking to what I'd want my moving image project to look like. She often uses coloured lights with contrasting colours with faded colour grading and a grainy vintage look. 

She has also done a music video including water and filming in the bath which is something that I do often since the water creates an interesting texture and enhances the light bouncing off into the camera. Moving image captures that even better as the light is always moving and bouncing off different surfaces which can also cause glares in the lens.

In class we were given the task to create 2 TikTok videos in a group of people. We had a brainstorm of ideas before we started but when it came to filming, we just improvised and turned it into a comedy skit which kind of digs at news outlets and the topic of fake news.

Our first idea was to make a video about what people in Ravensbourne were listening to as this is a trendy video idea that could've got more attention than a comedy video, however, we didn't have enough time to plan exactly how we were going to do it so we improved instead. 

I wanted the set to look more interesting so I moved a plant over from the corner of the room to add a pop of colour to the composition and the video also showcases all of our different styles. 

We didn't add any hashtags but our videos got between 300-500 views and I reckon if we added hashtags, we could've gotten even more. 

The videos ended up looking very chaotic which describes our group dynamic well but I wouldn't go down the same approach as I prefer to have a video which was visually pleasing rather than have a specific underlying context which can get messy and too abstract for the viewer to understand.

For the homework task we were asked to film 3 videos 20 seconds long each. I didn't fully understand if we had to keep the camera still or if we could move around whilst filming so I experimented with a lot of different techniques. 

I wanted to use coloured lighting for the video to make it look more abstract but also coherent but it looked different on each device that I used. The first piece of equipment I used was an old Canon camcorder which made the image look very flat because of the saturated pink light so I had to put it on one side to create some shadows and depth to the image. I then used my DSLR which had a high quality look to it but the movement of the image was weird and looked unnatural - the zooming and moving around cause a lot of instability too which I didn't notice as much with the camcorder. Lastly, I used my phone which was the easiest to use but the quality wasn't good and it was hard to format it. 

Above is the final video without any added audio except for the original audio of the different clips. This created a very choppy audio especially when I had inverted the videos and sped them up which goes with the vibe of Hana. As this was experimental, I just played around and see what looks interesting and it ended up turning quite well. The clips were quite grainy though which was because of the camera settings since I didn't have a good camera for filming. 

I didn't use the footage from the camcorder or iPhone since it didn't really go with the rest of the footage and transferring it would've taken too long for a small task like this one.

I paired up with Naj and we got inspired by the Power intro we looked at in class with its sophisticated black and white look. I usually don't go for this type of look but i thought i'd want to try something different and something simple so that its easier to do. Also, mine and Naj's styles are very different and I'm going to get an opportunity to work on my style in other tasks but at this point it's important to experiment with different techniques and learn from these tasks.

We also looked at intros like Teen Wolf, Friends and different varieties of genres to compare and contrast the types of looks and techniques that are used to introduce the show. We liked how a lot of shows have a dark background and characters or details about the show come out of the shadows and create this contest yet mystery that keeps it looking aesthetically pleasing and intriguing to the viewer.

Thinking about our plot, we wanted to concentrate on the patriarchy and empowering women. We are going to use The Handmaiden as our inspiration and will base it off that, giving it a modern twist.

Another show we could look at is Pretty Little Liars and Desperate Housewives as these have similar themes and/or visuals to what we want our intro to look like.

'Redemption' is a show following 3 women who have married rich and have turned their old oppressive lifestyles as the housewives, to them taking charge and overturning their patriarchal homes. The use of fire is to compliment the warm look of the shots and uncontrollability of the characters. They fight 'fire with fire'. 

Shooting this was a long process as me and Naj only had 2 days to get all the shots that we wanted, gather props, lighting and create a moodboard. We decided to use ourselves as the actors since it was such short notice. We started a moodpboard but since we didn't have a song in mind, we didn't know exactly what order we wanted the shots to go in and decided to experiment and see what looked good as we shot. 

A lot of the shots were out of focus as it was too dark to determine whilst filming and we were short of footage as on the 2nd day of shooting, we only got 2 hours in total to set up the lights, get all the props ready and film. I ended up using some outtakes to fill in the gaps whilst editing and used a clip I had taken on my phone of a candle burning. 

The editing process took around 10 hours in total as I had to chop up the music to make it shorter to the build up of the song as well as fading it out naturally. It still ended up being 15 seconds over the 30 second limit but I was happy with the result as the flow of the song was still good and sounded natural. Matching the transitions to the beat of the song was also a challenge as the spikes in the song were the voice instead of the instrumental.

I also added some presets and colour graded some of the shots to make them look more coherent and mysterious. 

Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out but doing all the roles of being the cinematographer, actor, director, editor and sound mixer was difficult in such a short time frame. Me and Naj were very ambitious with these opening credits but it paid off and we had lots of fun learning about moving image and using Premier Pro.

The green screen task taught me about using more complicated effects and key framing as well as practicing my colour grading since Tom's skin is very pale and the lights made him look red/orange. I had to correct this whilst keeping the green screen consistent as well. 

Whilst watching YouTube I discovered a woman who makes vlogs of her life in the Sweedish mountains. Her videos are very cinematic and are colour graded in earthy tones making it seem more like a story than a normal vlog. She uses drone/aerial shots which look beautiful and contrast her close ups of her everyday life well. 

I wanted to add her as an artist, even though her videos aren't what I'm looking to do, because her work is very inspirational and shows how colour grading can enhance the beauty of a shot and to convey a certain vibe to the viewer.

A director duo who have worked on Tove Lo's How Long and Magic by Vince Staples. They are based in LA, California and have only recently started working together. Their work on Tove Lo's song was a big inspiration for me and the artist I am going to be working with as it's simple yet has a deeper meanings embedded throughout the video with lots of red visuals. 

The video for How Long presents the artist in two forms - a poised, rigid character who is doll like in appearance almost like a glamours barbie. Then on the other hand we have a scorned character who has discovered the truth and feels more explosive and confrontational. 

This is something we are looking to portray for the song Darkness by having one character who is bottling up all their emotions, putting up a front and being almost stone cold then another one who has brought out their chaotic side and is not scared to express his emotions.

Finally, I met an artist who I wanted to collaborate with for this project and we talked about his style of music, visuals and availability for the shoot. We had very similar tastes when it came to production but he wanted to keep the whole thing very red, dark and moody whilst I'm more familiar with a green/yellow colour grading, however, the idea works well for me and him and allows me to show off my style whilst also following the artist's needs and vision. 

I wrote down a list of shots I would like to get since the promo video is a non narrative piece of work and will be pieced together based on the music rather than having a storyboard/story line.

I used the KitStore to book all my equipment since I do not have a camera and also wanted to experiment with film equipment, however, since we're not film students I had no access to the proper equipment. I ended up booking:

For the props we will be using fake blood and flowers then Marian is going to be styling himself. We will keep it simple with the red, black and white palette.

Whilst shooting, I had not heard the artist's music yet which was difficult when it came to the visuals and pace of the shots. The artist also didn't want to lipsync which made it more difficult for me since we would have to rely solely on visuals and body language to convey the feeling of this song that I haven't heard before. I told the artist my ideas for the shots then let him control the pace and mood of the shots, however, later I found out that it didn't really match the audio, especially the more chaotic visuals where Marian had blood on his face.

We also couldn't get the gimbal to work so I couldn't get more dynamic shots of him like I had previously planned to do. This limited the range of shots I had for the final edit and had to think about how I can make it more dynamic by using different cuts.

The shots with the flowers on the floor with Marian laying in them works very well and create a very interesting visual especially since I had done those shots hand held and added to the dynamic feel I needed for the final video. 

I definitely should've got more shots of the surroundings and more abstract visuals instead of having Marian in each shot since that would've broke up the portraiture feel of the shots.

What went well:

- I'm happy with the visuals I got

- booking extra equipment came in handy with the set design

- both me and the Artist were happy with the vibe of the visuals we got

- developing my skills using Premiere Pro

- using colour grading

What could be improved:

- make sure the client has work to show before shooting 

- have a bigger crew to help with various different jobs to avoid wasting time

- create a sketch of what certain shots are expected to look like even if there's no narrative

- allowed more time for editing footage