MY FINAL PROJECT

Music video.

Tittle: Bipolar

The character will be going through many choices which the viewer will have to choose. This will lead into different stories.

About:

My final project will be an interactive music video allowing audience to make choices between the action and lyric of the song.

The song will change depending on the action.

Every time the viewer will have approximately two choices to choose between.

The idea is inspired by movie Black Mirror Bandersnatch and it will be made using program Klynt.

The video will be approximately 5/6 minutes whole.

First of all the idea seem to be very groundbreaking and made me very exited, moreover with time I realized that it's a bit hard to plan this kind of video and I didn't know how to start doing outline and developing the idea.

Later on the lecture we talk about different projects which people decided to do and also I got some advices when it's come to my piece. As advised I draw the first scratch and my next task was to think about the choices.

Although, I knew the structure already I wasn't sure what should be a storyline, who will be in the video or what would be a matter in the story. The only think I knew it's that I want this to represents the bipolar state of mindset.

The second question was should I do it all surrealistic or allow story to develop.

I decided to do both - the video will have a storyline and in the same time will have some surrealistic unrealistic footages which will give a viewer ultimate feeling of what the main character going through in her head.

INSPIRATIONS:

I would like to experiment with special effects, find out if I can do any interesting imagies with simple tools.

Interactive :

THE SONG:

I already created a song which will be the song of the music video.

The song is about Bipolar disorder and in metaphorical phrases explains what is like to be bipolar.

The track was produced in collaboration with music production student from University of West London and my part was to composed the music, write lyric and also sing.

https://soundcloud.com/mia-drewniak-295795253/bipolar-mia-version

NEXT STEPS:

For the next lecture I needed to decide what storyline I'm going to approach.

I decided that the story will be a bit of love story showing how relation beethween the girl who has Bipolar disorder and the guy who she is attracted to will be effecting her mood and emotions.

Sometimes tho the girl will be demonstrated just by her own and how being alone and by her self is affecting her thoughts, comfort, fettle and state of mind.

5.07.2019

DEVELOPMENT OF MY IDEA

This is the map of my film which I made in home.

My character will go through different moods like

happy - exhaturation

scared

sad - depression

angry - mad - furious, hate

neutral - bored - empty

maybe jealous *

In the 5 and 6 part I kinda struggle with development of the idea. I need something surprising and crazy to happen but I'm not sure what can it be. I'm hoping to gain some ideas.

2/07/2019

Before executing my plan there is still quite a few things which are demanding consideration like for example music.

I talked with my producer-friend how the songs should be changing during the video.

In some parts of video ( depending on choices) the song should have more 'dark' sound and in some more 'happy'.

The crucial thing here is to make everything sounds still consistent.

Right now we have a few versions of the song.

- One basic https://soundcloud.com/mia-drewniak-295795253/bipolar-mia-version

- Sad version https://soundcloud.com/mia-drewniak-295795253/bipolar-mia-sad-version

- And happy/pop version https://soundcloud.com/mia-drewniak-295795253/bipolar-mia-pop-version

When video is ready I will mixed them up depending on what action is going to happen.

I also need to record rest of the vocals which unfortunately is quite difficult at the moment as the availability in UWL studios are limited, or even there is non right now and if I was about to record it in another place the sound will be bit more different than the one I've recorded there.

PLANNING THE SET

I'm still considering the place I'm gonna record the song. I was thinking of doing it in Poland as I would already have actors really to work with me but when it comes to 'set up' stuff, it seems much more difficult. I'm very concern about the lighting equipment which is the heaviest and time which it would take when I would be recording it in Poland. In another hand, I'm not sure who else would be suitable to play the character rather than my cousin.

17.07.2019

PLAN:

1. Checking how they made Bandersnatch - some tips from producer and director.

How to make the action flow.

I decided to watch again slowly Black Mirror Bandersnatch and analyze how they made the choices, how did it have feeling of natural flaw.

I wanted to know as much as possible of how they made a film.

Timeline from Bandersnatch:

This really gave me idea of how they made story more engaging and not "cheap".

Kevin Lee presenting how the movie was created and edited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLqc0EX8Bmg

Another interactive video - It allows to make choices on Youtube by clicking A or B.

2. DEVELOPMENT OF A CHARACTER.

Who is She?

Who is He?

To create a realistic story about the subject I need to know who my characters are.

From Lessons with Clifton we learn that we should answer bunch of questions about the characters until the recording time.

I need to say that thinking about it gave me more of an idea where should I film and how my characters should dress.

Blanka: Collage girl, bipolar dissorder, fine art artist - love painting, open and extraverted outside - lonely and scared inside. Has mental problem - get scared, has visions, can't deal with her own emotions. Every little thing she is feeling 10 times more than other people. Self- destructive.

In love with a guy Victor. Why?

She thinks he can safe her from suffering. (but he can't)

Victor - also a Joker is a casual guy, but a bit mysterious. He doesn't know what Blanka feel and appear many times in her imaginations. In her visions he is saving her from the pain while later you realize that he actually is killing her. That's why he is tricky like a Joker.

Tall brown hair - interested more in his own life.

3. Prepare detailed shooting plan with list of attributes I need.

4. Where do I put "special effects" paranormal visuals.

- camera spinning round

- glas, ice

- bath black hands, 'fake blood on her face, black liquid on her face"

- crying and tear going to bottle

- piorka lozko z piorkami

- guy with a mask

The new series 'Euphoria' is coming soon, in the trailer I saw some examples of footage which can help me create a certain emotions in the film.

First - Intimacy

Second - Being in her own head/word

Third - Being scared

5. Equipment, time management, realization.

FILMING TIME

LOCATIONS

I genuelly struggled when it come to choosing the location for filming. I was divided between Poland or UK but after consideration I decided to film in Katowice in Poland. I borrowed some equipment from a company in Krakow (which I needed to pay unfortunately ..) but it was still better than going back and forth to UK.

TECHNICAL ISSUES - EQUIPMENT

I borrowed the light with some cool lighting options so I could experiment a lot and find the right feeling. For the tripod I chose gimbal which was harder to use than I expected but as I didn't planned have any 'stable shots' just 'stabilized' and 'smooth', so I think it was the best option in my case.

THE FILMING PROCESS

Day 1 of filming was very good and exited, we put a lot of attention to personalize my main character - the girl played by Blanka.

I gave her buggy pants, stained with paints t-shirt, sticks in hair, exotic earings and and make her smoke cigarette inside the house ( which was risky considering that's my aunts flat etc), but I think she came out very realistic on screen and had this very artistic vibe which I tried to achieve.

As I talked with Ken before about how many locations I should have I decided to have only 3 locations which I have chosen very carefully.

- Her bedroom with paintings

- Bathroom

- And artistic caffe called "Absurdalna" from word Absurd hehe

The first scene ( also many others) are in the room where the girl is living and also doing her work ( paintings), as a background we put her REAL paintings which she made in her fine art Academy and I also made her paint one.

In the beginning I asked her to paint just a simple human with smile face and sad face, but she came out with much more advanced painting which was a good surprise for me.

I bought additional attributes which made the room looks even more realistic.

I know it may sound irrelevant to talk about but I really think that background is very important when it comes to story telling.

Next scene in the bathroom.

I wanted to have 2 bathrooms in the beginning but then I thought that by changing the lights I can get the same effect.

Also I think the action had to be in the bathroom as this is the place where people are alone and kind of taking their 'mask of' etc.

We took long time to prepare and think about angles and attributes ( like what should be on the screen and what shouldn't ).

There was important scene with hands in the bathroom which cause a lot of sucrofise from my actors as they needed to paint their hands all black and later struggled with cleaning the paint. The girl also paint her face few times... yeah a lot of paint and cleaning... Besides, it was hard for them to fit in the bath together as it was so small bath. But we laugh a lot and it was fun.

I'm so happy I choose to work with them cause it was very good time.

I needed to explain what their characters are feeling and it was so good to be able to relate to real life situations with them.

Creative decisions:

The second day of filming I wanted make sure that we have all 'inside house' footages so next day we could fully focus on filming in Absturdalna cafe.

I am really proud of how artistically we manage to film all the footage.

The scene where the girl is dancing like crazy- insane- euphonious person was very good and her acting and improvisation dance was what I was looking for.

She also came out with an idea to dance with the plastic piece of paper with with the set of lighting I created and it came out very interesting.

There were scenes of death, love , anger - it's really easy to get those emotions presented in a very cliche cringe way, - but (in my opinion) we somehow manage to make it looks figuratively.

I think it was very good decision that I draw the sketch of film on paper and wrote what exact footages I needed. It's very easy to get lost in the process and loose idea of what you've already recorded and what is still yet to do. The notes really helped me with consistency of filming and knowing what's the plan.

I think it's important - TO PLAN THE MOST YOU CAN ( and write it down)

What I could done better:

I wanted to keep my crew small and have impact on every detail of the filming process. After all though, I have a feeling that it would be better for me if I have had some extra person - camera operator. I think I could focus then more freely on directing - not being confused by managing both in the same time.

Sometimes I catch my self not explaining fully the scenario because of stabilizing tripod. Another time I'm so focus on the action and the feeling I want them to establish that I find my self loosing focus on the camera and so on.

So definitely for next time I will have to hire some person to help with technical aspects.

The second issue I struggled with was a temperature. I'm sure many other people struggle with this as well during the summer but I feel it's just really makes the work go slower.

From what I learned before when directing, is to consider how the actors/dancers/who-ever on screen is feeling as it has huge impact on the project ( and it's also nice thing to do).

That's why we had a long breaks to cool down, have a water, ice cream etc. I also needed to start filming later than 12pm. I think if the weather was bit cooler our work would go faster.

But that's the issue I have no control of.

That's all from my 'reflection after shooting' thoughts, but it is time where I haven't starting editing yet, so I will for sure came with some more afterwords.

THE CHANGES I'VE MADE THROUGH THE PROCESS:

The one main thing which I changed ( also a bit by accident) was that the scene in 'the bar' supposed to be in a bar.

I was walking in the city centre to buy necessary things for filming and then I saw this cafe and when I came inside it was totally amazing and it felt like it's the place where my character will probably go. I asked the manager for permission and they asked very serious questions about what is this project for etc but in the end they agreed and we got all the footages we needed.

Also in some scenes I thought that I will show the guy with his friends in a bar/cafee but in the end I thought that it would just bring confusion to the viewer and we can easily have the same effect without additional actors.

I was also planning on like having kissing scenes and so on but I thought that would be too easy to show love that way. I watched some interview with crew of "Shallow" with Lady Gaga where she said that in the movie the characters didn't need to say "I love you" to give viewer the feeling they love each other.

Same here, my characters didn't need to kiss to show they attracted to each other either.

Let's hope it will work.

Having said that I've also change my male actor few days before as the previous one couldn't attend. I was actually happy as the second actor had this solid - serious- handsome man appearance with definitely fitted the role of cold - poker face- breaking heart man.

The other thing was that instead of showing everything from the girl's perspective we decided to have one part from a male perspective and do a bit of a trick on the view when the guy is getting receipt.

4.08.2019 STARTING WITH EDITING:

In the music video, I wanted the Joker to have 'galaxy eyes' in one of the scenes. I never used it or worked with the green screen before. 

I decided to use my time today and see how it works.

 I started editing pictures with green screen pieces on it and as a result, unfortunately, wasn't so powerful as I expected. Maybe I should edit more? Or maybe choose different galaxy background?

I will try it both, also I already know that will be a bit of work as I recorded my actors in a room with a green light... not the best.

However, I'm positively surprised that it's quite easy to work with green screen. 

8.07.2019

EDITING STARTED

I've started editing and it's much more harder than I thought . Colors don't match, there is a lot of missing -in beethween- footage which I didn't think about and the action is so viral and confusing that I don't know what's gonna came out of this. It will be for sure surrealistic, but I don't know if my message will came through this video.

Too late to change I guess, I think the problem is I got so exited and creative that I give my self not easy job...

Now I'm editing 3rd day and also there is a lot of footage which are good mixed which this really good mixed with this bad ones.

I played for couples of hours with green sceen as it doesn't work that well as well, I need to make it move togheter with a guy in a mask.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

The editing for the last few days went very well and I dare to say that the video improved a lot.

I decided to give up on some elements and find some new exiting solutions.

One of the things I gave up on was Joker’s ‘spiral eyes’ and instead I made an interesting experiment using Isadora.

Inspiration from “Doctor strange”

ately I watched movie Doctor Strange and one of the best scenes of the movie is when Doctor after loosing his hands comes to Guru who is pushing him to astral dimension so he can “Open his eyes”.

The viewer can see what is in his mind combine with what is the universe.

Suddenly all he can see is never ending void of hands as this is his obsession.

I believe that this Is one of the strongest scenes in the movie as well as the most scary and uncomfortable to watch.

Inspired by that I decided to play a little in Isadora to make ‘madness’ of my character more surreal.

SOON THE END :

Additionally the structure of my film is practically ready to go (to Klynt).

However, there are still some details which require more work. Like colour grading for example. The colour grading is a real trick in my case as I had my colourful light’s and constantly changing daily light.

I’m trying constantly to match the scenes colours but I’m coming to the point where I will just have to compromise with what it is. I really tried my best though.

MUSIC

Somehow the music which was ‘ready to go’ didn’t match that well the video and I found a new solution. I decited to have a recording session again where I will sing maybe a little bit different. The background of the song will sometimes go slower sometimes faster to enhance the atmosphere In the video.

Video sequences :

Seq 1

Seq 2 a)

Seq 3 a)

Seq 2 b

The rest files don't want to upload cause weekly limit on Vimeo

Klynt and making the tittles.

Today I came to ICE building to work on the project. I don't know why but Uni laptop seems to be overtired with my files and it’s working very loud and slowly. I thought why not using computers in ICE especially that the screens are bigger which allow me to see more details.

I started uploading videos already to Klynt, when I realised that I need some sort of background for buttons to look more professionally. I made a tittles in Premiere and I think it’s really made a difference.

Now all files are ready to go - except the music.

MUSIC

Unfortunately I find that music which I made before doesn’t match at all the action and I would have to cut way to much of the video and basically it needs a bit of change.

The problem is now that the studio which I used to go doesn’t reply me. I saw some avaiable slots but no body reply my emails.

I still have few days to go so I’m hoping to find some solution, if not I will just use the old song and ask my producer-friend to somehow ‘remix it’.

My thoughts and conclusions:

To be honest I think I wasn’t aware of what I was singing for planning this project. It took so much time, thinking and effort and it seems like a never ending process.

Also, in the meantime I made a collaboration project with pianist Adalberto Maria Riva using Isadora program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxuXHHD7AIg&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1rRIQhlHPLvGQKHn7s2WbKzKQNlNyxUm9rEtZLvPy5abh-ncDZw2ipNEc

MAKING BUTTONS

Ready video: (without music yet)

As you probably noticed there is less scens than I draw in previous notes. This is a concious decision as I think those scenes covers all that I wanted to present. They might be some flips back and forth but this is a general draft .

28.08.2019

Today in ICE the last amendments, sorting out the music and checking whether the videos have the right endings.

I’m correcting endings so they can finish ‘smooth’ and the music nicely blur out and the video going slowly to black.

Music:

I need to say there was a lot of struggle with music, thanks to Ash - my friend who produce music it’s fit to video right now. He was so supportive and helped me with extending and mixing the music. Now I have soundtrack to half of the video but as I mention before that I wanted music to change I need to wait for him to finish the second soundtrack.

tody issues :

Describing what is what I exactly want and I feel because of the way we need to write our blog - I began to understand better how to explain people what I want. I send him some examples, think few times how I can describe and ‘put in words’ what I want to achieve.Also there is a lot of simple technical cutting, checking if everything play well together and what I’ve described above.

Inspirations for music :

Adding and correcting :

I thought by creating button back in time I will encourage people to go back and see what is going to happen when they choose different scenario without needing to start from the beginning. I'm thinking should every ending has a button ' back in time'?

I'm also wondering whether I should make quick time player to record the screen in case it won't run on tomorrow, so ill do it just in case.

Some more about DEVELOPMENT :

I filmed this project from 15th July to 18th. It took me around 3 full days of filming which I couldn't extend because of my actors availability and as well my budget for renting the equipment.

Editing took me next 1 and the half month, almost everyday correcting some parts or thinking how to make it look better, thinking about the sound.

I tried to edit this to 3 different versions of song, 2 different songs and in the end I decided to remixed it totally and do another way around – not video for song but song for the video.

I had a full influence on this aspect – I came out with ideas to make 3 different soundtracks which you will be hearing in the video. The changing sounds are not that obvious and also the moods of the girl are slimly more subtle but I think it’s what gives the video more of an artful style.

I’ve started reading some books like New Media Language by Jean Aitchison where I was hoping to find some information on how the videos and media can deliver message better (so people understand what I’m trying to say) but unfortunately book wasn’t helpful. It had some information about history of radios, magazines and bunch of names I could not remember.

Well I though I will mention that as it’s also part of my research.

Filming:

Filming people and directing them, making sure they know what to do – it's not easy.

Organizing, tones of organizing and never ending dissatisfaction.

Talking , talking – my project was the main subject of our friends group meeting for a while, someone throw one idea, someone another. I think it’s also significant. A good friend of mine mention once that the movie needs more ‘hardcore’ scenes, more dynamics, more rough scenes, more  sexuality. 

Then I had to choose between who I want to play my character. 

The male actor changed 3 times in the film and because he wasn’t the boyfriend of my actress certain scenes needed to be changed but his coldness is what I was looking for.

MEANWHILE

Meanwhile I was doing another project – a dance project for pianist ( which I mentioned before) using Isadora. Unfortunately I got to do this in the same time as filming ( 3 days).

Technical issues:

Laptop from the loanshop seems to loading files too long, my own computer has no memory and the computer I’m using is in the iCE building and that’s the only one which can coop with my files.

WHAT DID I ENJOY

I’m not the person who can stand many hours in front of computer feeling alright. I need breaks, I need to move. It was hard task for me to sit to edit , to do color correction. I think of a project as a bigger picture and do not enjoy correcting details – but sometimes it’s nessesery. 

I think the best part was creating an idea. Thinking how to do certain stuff, planning, searching for inspiration. When I got my script and story board and be exited about what's gonna to happen next.

Secondly, when I saw my whole film in klynt. Just as I imagine. Just as I draw before. 😊

Artistic influences:

Summarizing I choose the video to present modern surrealism. Terrifying, dual, mocking. 

That’s the words which can describe what is happening in the video. 

Artistic story line. 

LAST MINUTE

Last minute we are still improving music. I got idea that when the girl I going crazy there will be bunch of weird sounds coming like for example laud laughing of the girl sunnedly changing to laugh of a man. 

I thought where there was something similar to which I could refer. Then I got it! - Suicide squad.

The girl going crazy, laughing loud, in scary way. I type and there it was this song with laughing too. 

MUSIC 8 K:

Lately I discover music 8K which is basically allowing to hear the music all over the room, a spiral of sounds, a halo of music. 

References: https://advanced-television.com/2015/03/30/the-sound-of-music-in-8k/

I want to use this technic in one part of my video. I asked Ash is that possible. I’m waiting for effect. 

THE END

In conclusion I would like to say that I’m quite happy from my project. I learned a lot. It was a large enterprise and it’s something new to me as usually I’m realizing my ideas in very short time. This time it was impossible to do it faster. I had a ‘give up’ point and ‘ do it anyways’ moment and I’m happy I go through all those thoughts and now I can see the result.

As mention before I wish I had better cinematography skills and operator skills. Maybe better camera would help as well. 

All the plans I realized and I haven’t show much people my video as I wanted to be the whole first. The music video game – I'm waiting for feedback. 

As I don't know How to export it to the web ( I tried but doesn’t work) I will bring the project tmrw to class. And hand in .

Submission

I came today to class and alwugh I had copy of the project it didn't work and the project was gone for some reason, as I wasn't sure about whether it's gonna work because of. previous problems I came 2 hours later just in case. And as I imagined I needed to do all fro the beginning - meaning klynt. It wasn't easy in such a rush and some buttons were changing places and also I couldn't focus that much on details. I did what I remembered. I hope you will take this for consideration when judging this project. I made it to Klynt in 2 hours all narrows and buttons. It's not bad tho. Not sure if subtitles has mistakes - I have dyslexia and I might have missed some letter. I hope you will enjoy and I have an extra copy of what was it previously recorded by quick time as a proof.

Now the file is downloadning so I can send it over.

I'm wondering how all other people will be able to see it without all those files....

Made it. today

FINAL PROJECT LINK http://www.kinopraxis.com/miadrewniak/index.html