Lily Bennett - Film and Video

When planning my video, I was aiming for an aesthetic that could resemble coming of age movies, in particular the film ‘Lady Bird’ (directed by Greta Gerwig). Lady Bird had the style I wanted to use in this video; I went into more detail about all the different reasons why this film was such an influence to my video here: LADY BIRD. The aesthetic was the main element I tried to bring into my video, I love the colour scheme in the film: the naturalistic dull pallet that is intertwined with a optimistic feel. I tried to intertwine this into my video through the costume being plain and not colourful, as well as the gloomy look of the forest and its natural tones and colours. I believe I have achieved this goal and think it works effectively in my final video.  I also was heavily influenced by the ending montage from the film Mid90s (an A24 film directed by Jonah Hill), which I went into further detail in here: MID90S. I was ambitious to create a montage and so looking at this moment from the film really helped develop my filming ideas. I also chose to do my video in this style because of the fast paced nature of my chosen song, and believed it would work to my advantage. 

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Overall, I think I have managed to keep to a set plan throughout my planning and production, keeping my initial ideas as a key component to the video. However, I have also experimented and drifted from some early ideas, which I have found to also work effectively in my final product. For example: originally, I had planned to go with a different look with my costume, I wanted to use sunglasses and flower crowns on top of the bed sheets. However, I decided against this after I visited my location and took my initial images, deciding that I wanted the white of the bedsheet to be a bold and bright contrast to the earthly tones of the forest. As well as this, I also decided against the use of sunglasses in my video, as I did want them to reflect light or even the camera, which turned out to work for the best. Another initial idea I changed was the style, I initially wanted to go for a 60s inspired colour palette and look, but ended up going for a more 90s/2000s cameracorder inspired style (which was heavily influenced through a lot of the films on my “CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION” page). I decided to make this change, because I believed it would work better with the song and its meanings.  I also looked into and experimented with other ideas but had to go against them due to Covid restrictions; however, I still think I have been able to achieve a lot even through the recent restrictions. 

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When filming in my first location (Heywood forest), I asked my mother to drive myself, my friend (who wore a face mask in the car and wore the costume I had prepared to perform in the video) and my dog (who wasn’t going to be in the video, but just fancied a walk) to the location so I could film for a couple of hours. Because my storyboard was filled with different locations in the forest, we didn’t film the video in the correct order, and instead followed the path of the forest and filmed in the set locations when we got to them. My mother held the bag I had the costume, other camera and (rented from the college) tripod in while I filmed any handheld shots with my rented camcorder (Panasonic SD-90). I varied my shots between the tripod and handheld devices, because I wanted to create to look of a found footage montage look in my video. However, in the future I would use the tripod more, because when looking back at the video: the shots look a lot steadier and look a lot more professional.  

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When visiting my second location (Codden Hill), I asked my mother to drive me out again; however, I couldn’t get my friend to come and film this section of the video, due to Covid restrictions and her own college work, so I used my brother as the performer (and my dog tagged along for the walk again). I had to get another bed sheet to cut up for my brother’s costume as he was smaller than my friend, but this wasn’t too much trouble. Because I wanted this last section of the video to be a montage, I didn’t have a set plan of what I wanted to film, but I did know how I wanted the outcome to look. This meant that I asked my performer to do the necessary moments for my video, but I mainly filmed this I found interesting or believed would look good in the final montage. When looking through footage, I had to delete and sacrifice a lot of footage due to not having enough time to fit it into the video, which was the only downside to not having a strict plan for that segment of the video. I think this worked well for the video, but I would prefer to use a plan next time, so I had a more precise idea of what I needed to film for the video. Overall, it was a good filming outing and I achieved a lot in the two days I spent filming in both my locations, as well as having a fun learning and experimenting experience while filming. 

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When looking back on my video, I can see areas I would improve and change in editing, which I wasn’t able to change at the time because of not having access to a college computer (after going into lockdown). If I had access to a college computer and Premiere Pro, I would make changes to my video so that its final product looks and runs a lot smoother for the viewer to watch and engage with. Looking through the video, I can see areas where I should’ve make cuts and transitions snappier to amplify the fast paced music.   

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My favourite part of the video is the last part (after the second chorus), it has the outlook I had indented and aimed for and works well with the music and section of the video. I am mostly proud of this moment in the video, because I think it works the best and is probably one of the sections I kept retouching in editing. However, when redoing this section, I would make sure my camera was steadier by using a tripod which was more stable. As well as this, I would want to reshoot some of the clips and give more direct commandments to my actor(s) to get a better shot. But overall, I think this section of the video is the strongest part and I’m overall content with how it turned out.  

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I think my time management for this project has been well executed. My plan was to create as much prep as possible before filming during the October half term, so I could start the editing process before Christmas and then finish any extra editing or written work during the month of January. This mostly followed through, with some exceptions to editing, which is why I believe my video isn’t perfect yet. Initially, I was very concerned about time management, due to working at the weekends and not having time to film, as well as not being able to make it to my location or film people for my video because of Covid-19 restrictions. Luckily, I was able to find solutions and compromises for these problems and I think the final video hasn’t been badly affected by this. Therefore, this plan worked out well and to my advantage because of all the new restrictions that came into place during December.   

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To conclude, I’m pleased with the final video and I’m proud of the work I put into this project. Although, I still don’t believe that the video is perfect, I think the amount of work behind it and the creative process to get to this point has been well executed. I now understand and know what I would do to improve and what I would do differently next time, which will help me grow and progress for future projects and films. Overall, I was able to achieve my set goal and idea for this video, and even though I had to make compromises it still sends the message, has the style and story I was aiming for.