Opening scene- After researching the working methods of several film directors and producers I realized how important the opening scene had to be, it had to be able to go in any direction and be unpredictable as well as being able to capture the viewers’ attention and hold that interest, For these reasons I thought having a Tic Tac box coming to life next to an ash tray was a suitable opener. I used a medium close-up establishing shot to give the first brick to a storyline, it was shot as medium close-up so that the objects involved could not be questioned, it is very direct. Before I started shooting each scene I asked myself if this scene right now would make a good photograph and I became quite obsessed with the lighting, shadows, composition and contrast/saturation of the colours. In the opening scene, for example, the shadows and the lighting merge well together and there are no clashes in colour so I am quite proud of it. The way the Tic Tac box walks was made to be slow and rickety at first, to give it character; the way it walks is slightly childish and the slow rickety actions give it a sense of learning. However, it is going in a clear direction which tells the audience that it has some form of motivation - which I hope inspires a sense of wonder and curiosity. I am very pleased with this opening scene.
Scene 2 (Tic Tac box comes out from under the sofa) - I shot this scene to tell the viewer that the discarded, forgotten Tic Tac boxes are coming from all over the room, from dark, closed places such as under the sofa. The Tic Tac box in this scene is very damaged and this was done on purpose to make it look old and forgotten, the reason for this will be explained later on. The contrast in this scene has been massively increased to emphasise the darkness under the sofa, the light green colour of the tic tac box is this colour so it stands out more and makes it the prime subject of the scene. The way the Tic Tac box moves is quite quick and not very agile, this has been done to convey child-like characteristics of unperfected but excited movements, which I hope has created a visual reflection of the childishness in the music. I am happy with this scene.
Scene 3 (tic tac box getting up and looking around) - The editing of this scene has been done in a way that carries on from the last scene. As the last scene finished the Tic Tac box was half way towards standing up, in this scene the Tic Tac box is in the second stage; half way to standing up. I did this so that the actions ran more smoothly and suggested that the Tic Tac boxes were all moving for the same reason; this has been underlined with parallel scenes highlighting that the tic tac boxes have the same objectives.
Scene 4 (the bin) - This scene has been created to put a bit of childish humour into the video, I found the idea of the Tic Tac boxes all poking up their heads at the same time quite quickly from the bin quite amusing, it also tried to accentuate the point that the Tic Tac boxes are coming from all over the room, where they have been both forgotten and discarded. This is a minor, few second scene so I do not think that by itself it captures the elements that I wanted it to, however, I tried to build up a larger, more clear image by using this and other minor scenes to help communicate the ideas.
Scene 5 (Tic Tac Boxes standing up) - This scene shows my first attempt to shoot a panning shot while experimenting with stop-frame animation. The movements of the Tic Tac boxes is, again, very rickety and slow to communicate them learning and waking up. The panning motion could, I think, be improved but it is very short and only shows some more features of the other Tic Tac boxes, so it is not a major scene. I did this pan not only to add to the video but also to practice and learn from it to improve my technique.
Scene 6 (Cigarette scene) - The Cigarette scene has been included to give the video an artistic, atmospheric element. I really like the colours and movement of smoke, it is beautiful and hypnotic and I wanted to capture that. Also this setting is the same as in the opening scene and is further repeated throughout the video, I have done this to familiarise the viewer with locations so that change becomes recognisable. In this instance the change is from the cigarette being there now and not later on, the camera angle is the same as well so that the object being missing is easily noticed.
Scenes 7 and 8 (Mint being made) - These two scenes are to show Mint being made, scene 7 is a long shot of a group of tic tac boxes working together to create Mint, illustrating that there are several boxes involved. The camera becomes shakier as well to represent the energy involved. The next scene is a medium close-up shot of three Tic Tac boxes carrying white-tac, one of them drops a bit of white-tac to again show childishness and learning. These two scenes begin to tell the viewer the objectives of all these moving Tic Tac boxes.
Scene 9 (Tac been made) and 10 (heart question mark) - 9 is a scene which has been shot as an extreme close up shot, the reason behind this was to keep the viewer interested; I wanted them to be wondering what the Tic Tac boxes were making. All the viewer can see is several Tic Tac boxes moving around in a pile, the detail and activity says that something is happening but you do not know what it is. The next scene is shot much more smoothly than the previous scenes, this was done to give a sense of calm as the scene features a question mark in the shape of a heart, followed by a shot of a Lindor box and then Mint. My intention was to encourage the viewer to link these elements in their minds by suggestion rather than with a blunt statement so that they would remain interested in and challenged by what they saw. I feel that the editing works well over these scenes.
Scenes 11, 12 and 13 (Mint’s first steps) - This is where the Tic Tac boxes intentions are revealed: they came together to make a creature. The first shot is a close up of Mint’s arm moving which has been done to reflect a scene from Frankenstein (the movie) when Frankenstein’s monster first moves, it is not at first obvious what the shot is of until in scene 12 it zooms out to a long shot of Mint trying to stand up, he finds it difficult which is meant to show him learning. In shot 12 the angle is looking down on Mint, something the audience are encouraged to do, he is weak and vulnerable. However, when he stands up in scene 13 the camera angle changes and the viewer is encouraged to look up at him and see that he is now stronger and capable. The viewpoints in 12 and 13 have been chosen to make the viewer feel impressed and almost proud of this Frankenstein creation for learning this skill. When shooting these scenes I was learning how to mould and control the model during stop-frame animation, and I found that my learning was reflected in Mints learning; his stumbling and tripping echoed my own method and I think this helped to give a sense of impulse and struggle to these scenes.
Scene 14 (Mint moves and finds head) - In this scene mint shakily walks over to a pencil, picks it up and then carries on walking, this scene has been put in to build suspicion about what he is doing, once again to keep the audience interested in Mint’s intentions. There is an establishing shot of Mint’s head; I made his head so that it is unrecognisable unless it is seen on the body of Mint himself, so this establishing shot is intended to maintain the viewer’s curiosity. In this scene I also used D.O.F to guide the viewers attention from Mint walking over to Mints head, by doing so the plan is to make the viewer relate the two together and them to realize that mint and his head are connected and are likely to interact. It felt appropriate to use puppetry in the next shot and I am not especially pleased with this part as I found it extremely difficult to match the colour with the stop-frame scenes and it is also more dark than I intended.
Scene 15 (Mint blinking) This establishing shot has been done with a bit of humour to show that the head is now a part of the body and that Mint is learning how to work himself.
Scene 16 and 17- This shot is where you finally see the whole of Mint as a moving, functioning creature and the first section of the storyline is now complete, Mint has created himself and now his new objective must be introduced to the viewer. The camera pans slowly over as a long shot to a red Tic Tac box, this leads the viewer to ask the question what is this box and what impact does it have on the storyline? A new foundation of curiosity I hope will keep the audience interested in the video. The pan was shot to follow the path of Mint’s sight, then zoom in to an establishing shot at the end of the pan, representing the focus of Mint’s mind. Although I think, again, that the pan technique could be improved I am satisfied that I managed to convey the message. The way Mint moves is also very important to this scene and the whole video; he walks in a very robotic and rusty way, he is still finding it hard to walk and is learning; this once again reflects his childish elements, it also captures the atmosphere of a gritty, indie style film in the way he moves little by little in a very jumpy way, I am generally pleased with this scene. Scene 17 is an over shoulder shot from the red Tic Tac’s angle, looking up on Mint. This shot is to show the progress Mint is making towards the red Tic Tac box and, by using a low camera angle it gives the viewer a sense that Mint is important to this box.
Scene 16 and 17- Shot 16 is an establishing shot that suggests what the red tic tac symbolises. A heart. In shot 17 he looks around the room wondering what to do with the heart. Shot 16 quickly zooms in on the heart in a staggered, jittery way. I worked the scene this way because I found that when I used a smooth zoom in it gave the heart an element of calmness which now seemed to conflict with the other jittery scenes before and after it. I wanted it to be seen as energetic and edgy.
Scene 18, 19 and 20 - These scenes are all establishing shots to carry on the storyline, scene one shows him looking round, wondering what to do with the heart when he sees the TV, the over shoulder shot on scene 19 shows Mint seeing the TV and suggests to the audience that his next action may be including it. The next scene shows Mint looking down on his heart and then looking back up; leading the viewer to believe that the next step in the story will involve the heart and the television.
Scene 20 (television) - This scene starts with Mint popping his head up from below the set of draws, this establishes his route which was hinted at in the last scene when he looked at the heart and then the TV, the reason for him climbing up the set of draws towards the TV is still unknown so there are still uncertainties left to draw in the viewer. The scene is split in two so Mint climbing up the set of draws does not get dull and the viewer does not get frustrated and lose concentration. The rest of this scene is in almost slow motion flash animation to mirror the shift in the music. Mint places the heart on the TV, I made this story block to make him look more innocent and naïve, confused about where his heart lies. The TV turns off in time with the music, it turns off to signify rejection. I am reasonably happy with these scenes, I like the way the video speed changes and the metaphor behind the scene itself of giving your heart away to the media. The important aspect to this scene is the colour, its very different to the rest of the video. Here the colour is white and blue which is different to the orange and brown colour that dominates the video, the reason for this was to try and visually reflect the audio change that happened in the music. He stands in front of the television before it turns off and blankets the room with the orange glow that had previously been the main colour but this time round it looks much darker than the white, this has been done deliberately to combine with the camera angle of the back of Mint looking into the Television to highlight the harshness of the rejection that Mint has just felt
Scene 21 and 22 (Dropping of the heart and cigarette) - Scene 21 shows Mint giving up on his heart, throwing it to the floor and walking away, this uses a close-up shot which is turned into an establishing shot when you see the heart drop in front of the camera lens. The D.O.F in this shot makes the heart blurry and him walking away quite sharp, this has been done to tell the viewer that him walking away from the heart is the more important element of the scene rather than the heart itself. The shot in between 21 and 22 shows the ashtray from the first scene but with the cigarette missing, this is explained in scene 22 where Mint is smoking. I am really pleased with scene 22. The idea was to have Mint relate to the audience, confused and full of angst, which many of the display pictures of Shins fans on Facebook showed. In this scene a lighter flickers in and out, which does not work out as well as I anticipated, however this scene took a very long time to film and I am generally pleased with the outcome apart from this.
Scenes 23 and 24- These two scenes show Lindor box girl (Tac) being created and Mint’s reaction to this. First of all the Lindor box moves very slightly, which draws Mint’s attention, the energy and excitement of this situation is conveyed in the frantic camera rattle and Mint blinking quickly. I used this style showing the Lindor box being created as well; I think that it being quick and jolted also helps capture this energy and magic in the scene. Throughout the video I have put in small glimpses of this Lindor box moving to arouse the curiosity of the viewer. I did not want to disappoint the viewer so I decided to make Tac while taking pictures so I could show her being created into a video. I think I have succeeded here, I am very pleased with the results of this scene due to how smoothly it ran, it was also interesting to watch the process of her being created, for these reasons it is my favourite scene from the video.
25 (Mint and Tac meeting) - This scene starts with Tac finding it difficult to stand up, there is a close up shot of Mint’s reaction to this, his eyes are wide but he does not look frightened. The next scene is of Mint giving Tac his heart to help prop her up, which is meant to be taken both literally and metaphorically.
Ending scene- The ending scene is a slow motion zoom in on the heart which is now connected to Tac, the zooming in gets slower and slower and in the end works as an establishing shot which tells the audience that Mint has given his heart to Tac. I thought that having the two characters sitting next to each other holding hands with the heart connected to Tac would be the right way to end the video as it would reflect the optimistic, child-like and happy feel of the song.
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