Reflection of the shoot & Description of the shooting schedule plan

The shoot was to be held in the same location, though unfortunately the initial plan to obtain the footage in 1 sitting failed. However I was forced to work around this. The weather played havoc with my schedule. I planned for it to be done in one full day, of which the weather had to be nice. I had multiple dates available to record, though most of the time these dates failed to meet my necessity and urgency of recording. Once I had obtained half the footage in 2 weekends, I had to ensure there would be little, most preferably no continuity errors, the weather then had to remain the same or very similar each time recording took place. Once I was achieving to get the footage, it ran smoothly, though admittedly the quality is not to the standards I required due to both me and my helping camera woman busy in other areas of work. The video also had to be cut down, the original song and footage would last around 5 minutes, though I had to cut the product to 3 minutes. This turn of evens meant that I had to find a suitable place within the timeline of the song and footage to create a decent cadence. As abrupt as the finished version may be, I made sure the song finished on the root note, allowing more of a feeling that it had ended.

Shot list, Casting decisions & Shot reasons

1) Tracking close up to long shot with tilt upwards.
2) Stationary long shot as character walks away.
3) Close up tracking shot of arm with pan & zoom to focus on the photograph.
4) Small montage edit close up.
5) Over the shoulder asymmetrical mid shot with focus on character's arm and photo with pan & tilt.
6) Medium close up with pan.
7) Extreme close up of unfolding the photo.
8) Medium long shot with pan left.
9) 2nd small montage edit.
10) Close up tracking shot with mild pan to over the shoulder shot, additional slow zoom.
11) Close up slow zoom to extreme close up.
12) Extreme close up of torn photo.
13) Close up tracking shot with tilt to mid shot.
14) Mid shot of character's final descent.

Casting Decisions:
Casting the video was not a hard choice, I wanted the video to focus around the narrative, thus I needed only one character to reflect the story told through the lyircs. Due to the face the song was my own, I thought it best for me to play the character. And so, had a close friend record the footage under my direction.

Shot Reasons:
The repetitive use of the shots was too help reflect the sense of the character's mental state of mind, a visual manifestation of his entrapment. The smudge effect added was to create more emphasis and too reflect on the album's abstract theme.

Acillary Alternate/Un-used Versions; Poster

The first initial draft was to follow the album's scheme and appearance . The zoom effect was kept to help the abstract feel, the layout of the text would remain the same for all the versions I did for the poster. It greatly linked to the album though I felt as though something more could be done to help it stand out.






The 2nd edit (The alternate final version) stood out greatly. I took the original image and manipulated its brightness and contrast in order to establish the sharp image. The fonts remained the same, only I changed the colour, and by doing so, it added a 'warmer' feel to the poster whereas in the 1st draft, the dark orange colour gave a harsh look. Instead of following with the colour scheme of the album, I allowed the picture to remain in its full colour form, just with the additional tweaks. The image's multiple colours provide a feast for the eyes and the lighting helps construct the atmosphere.

Costumes & Props used

Though not a great deal of props were used, and there were no costumes, I did make use of a few minor items:

Rope:
-The rope was a signal of things to come, from the very beginning it is used as a sign. A clue almost as to why the main character is carrying it with him. Due to the fact the rope was also red, that gave outstanding connotations of it signifying blood, thus too being a further clue.

Photo:
-The photo of the couple that the main character holds tight in his grasp is the physical manifestation of his lingering anguish. A direct link to his past, the last item he holds for his repentance. Though the tearing of the photo reveals the characters state of mind, consumed by hate and dwelling on what could of been, yet never will, thus this action shows him giving in to hope and choosing the only way out he thinks is the only route to take.

Stick:
-With it's very minor appearance, the throwing of the stick signifies the character's descent into his darker self, enraged by the turn of events.

Original song demo [Full, uncut track]

Song Lyrics & Analysis

Error Of Ways


The colours on your photograph are running,
we both knew this would never last, so stop crying.
If only this was just a dream I'd wake up happy,
if you could just see the simple things, you'd know how I feel.
Your beauty, divine as it may be, prevents me.
Your love, as great as it may seem, traps me.

I'm trying to break free.
I'm trying to forget.
Please someone release me,
from this hell in which I'm kept.

Why is it you can't see
the error of ways?
It's my past that haunts me.
I'll take this curse to my grave.

A thousand times that I have said, I'm sorry.
So many times that I have begged, forgive me.
In all this haze I fail to see, the light.
You think I listen when you say, it's alright?


I'm trying to break free.
I'm trying to forget.
Please someone release me,
from this hell in which I'm kept.

Why is it you can't see
the error of ways?
It's my past that haunts me.
I'll take this curse to my grave.


I'm trying to break free.
I'm trying to forget.
Please someone release me,
from this hell in which I'm kept.

Why is it you can't see
the error of ways?
It's my past that haunts me.
I'll take this curse to my grave.

Those sleepless will end now.
I'll soon see the light.
It's a bitter pill to swallow.
Soon this will be alright...

....soon I'll sleep.

Analysis
The lyrics follow one man's journey through depression to the end. They, in a sense are the narrative, allowing us to follow in the steps of the main character. After a harsh break up with what he believed to be his one true love he was overcome with depression, it constantly tore at him, until the inevitable happened and he took his life feeling unable to live on being tortured by the remnants of his once perfect past.

Ancillary drafts: Front cover.

Early Front Cover Design

The front cover's image was a certainty for me to use, however it underwent multiple versions as the cover. This is the 1st design, I played around with a zoom edit, vastly increased the harshness of the saturation, brightness and contrast. The look was there, I wanted an abstract appearance to the cover, though this proved to be just the building blocks for the final version.

Early Back Cover Design

The abstract feeling was to be continued, and this time a colour scheme was decided. After editing the initial image used for the back cover, I played around with the positioning of the duplicated image. By placing the images in the corners within the mise en scene, space for text was easily created and so this was set to be the template draft in order to evolve to the final version.

2nd version edited image for the inside

The original image for the inside of the CD case was a multi-coloured rose, however, in order to maintain the scheme and theme of the album, it has to be edited, the colour scheme was already there so I edited it accordingly. Though changing the hue/saturation, brightness and contrast was all I did, this therefore became the base image to be used.