The first shot is a generic opening to a silent film as shown left which is the opening shot to the famous silent film ‘Poor Little Rich Girl’. The idea of the beginning shot being in black and white is appealing due to how it gives the video a silent film feel to it.
.Our music video could start with a young girl sitting on a little table dressed in a vintage dress playing with toys in a wooden box in front of her on the table. In contrast to the black and white opening shot the table shot will be flickering into a bright colour. The young girl will be shown with a box which links to the idea of Pandora’s box, which refers to the phrase 'to open Pandora's box' which means when one does something that results in bad consequences which cannot be undone. This will link to our idea as the toys that the girl will be playing with which are inside the box come to life throughout the video enabling us to see the confusion between illusion and reality. This idea of the little girl beginning the video whilst sitting in the middle of a table with the box on the table is an intertextual reference to the oldest color film which was in 1901/1902.
The beginning of the film will be shown as being in a late Victorian era, meaning the costume will be of that fashion and the silent movie style will be relevant. An ellipse will take place in the music video where the young girl will transform into a young women, she could possibly be wearing a costume of a contemporary British fashion. Meaning there will be a big transformation from one era to another. This will represent the quick change of fashion but will also show how music of all eras is still listened to by many different people of different eras. -When looking in the box the young girl will begin to play with toys which resemble three small masked men, one masked in a pig mask, one in a cat mask, bunny and mouse. It will be an over shoulder shot of the little girls hands playing with the little toys, the camera will then zoom into the toys which will then cut to them as real life people in a large field, this shows how illusion is being mixed with reality, connoting a dream like state.
I like your idea, particularly the flickering start in black and white then the transition to I'd suggest highly saturated colour. There is also the Alice in Wonderland reference thus enabling you to film with a curved lense which distorts the characters and indicates dream. The masks need to be effective.
ReplyDeleteI've just had an idea that comes from a children's book my daughter had where a village is depicted transforming through time, so the pastoral village ends up becoming a city with supermarkets, high rise and so on. So a pastoral setting could slowly transform into a contemporary cityscape where the contemporary girl finds herself. Filming urban shots could take the form of the way the city is shot in Africa Shox, with the girl in a bemused state like the protagonist in Africa Shox but of course far less dark. Rather like Alice in Wonderland where everything is bigger than she is. Just an idea, you could use cross dissolves with the masked figures reflected in glass frontages (i.e. the Forum or the Arc at school) - your final shot could be back to where you started with toys being put back in the box thus using a circular narrative! Only a suggestion.