Editing work.



Here is a photo of me editing some of the beach footage.



I found a really great short films that relate well to our project. Both share the genre of romance and are beautifully shot and edited. Given that we are currently in the process of filming these films have given me and Emma lots of inspiration for new ideas on how to frame shots and how we could edit our footage eg tones and lighting.

Half from Alex Bohs on Vimeo.

Half 

Written, Directed & Edited by: 
Alex Bohs

Cinematography by:
Mark Johnson


This cute split screen short film really excited me when I came across it. It is defiantly close to what me and Emma want to achieve with our music video, although we understand that this may be ambitious it feel it's possible too! The creative use of reflection and repetition of actions really adds to the value of the production - it allows the audience to understand that the characters share qualities and lives that are compatible. The use of the journal/sketch book connotes memorise, something that me and Emma want to explore along with nostalgia, and pieces of writing and drawings are ways one may document their life. I felt the animation really added another dimension to this production, it gave it a story book feel, again something me and Emma want to achieve. Perhaps me and Emma will experiment with small animations in the editing stages of out work to see if we can create the same effect. 

Pre-lim Fliming

Here is a screen shot of some of our pre-lim filming. After our first lot of pre-lim footage, we decided to focus more on the particular shots that we want to use. For example, we practiced the close up shot of the girl in the cafe when she is reading a book. We still feel as though we haven't perfected these shots yet but are still more confident with using the camera. 

We tried a high angle shot of the girl reading in the cafe, which we think works quite well. She looks directly at the camera as if she's looking at the boy who's just walked into the cafe, thus creating a POV shot. When watching this shot back, we realised just how important mise-en-scene is, because even though this was just a practice shot, the mise-en-scene still dulls the overall impact of the shot. From this we've learnt to take great care in choosing our mise-en-scene so that our film has the best possible impact, provoking thought and emotions in our audience.

Here's a short video of some of our shots edited together. It's the same shot practiced four times because we wanted to try and perfect it. In the third shot, the sunlight coming through the window behind definitely doesn't work, as it creates glare and also darkens the girl so that she can't be seen very well. This has taught us to experiment further with different lighting and face away from natural light coming from a window for example to allow the characters to be seen clearly.

We didn't exactly get the effect that we wanted to achieve with this shot and definitely need more practice. We wanted to have the book in crystal clear focus with the background slightly blurry, so we can just see the figure of the boy walking through the cafe but not in much detail, remaining quite mysterious. We felt that it was a good first attempt, but we need to experiment more with depth of field and keeping the camera steady.

Pre-lim Filming

To gain a better understanding of the tasks that are ahead of us, we decided to experiment with filming techniques and genre. We took the camera out and tried some of our planned shots to see what was effective. We really liked the camera shot at 0:42 using a POV shot, created by a hand-held technique, because it makes it feel more personal for the audience, as if they are there, creating empathy for the characters. We developed this idea by maintaining eye contact with the camera which ultimately creates a relationship between the character and audience. We experimented with editing once we had filmed some ideas, by uploading the footage to iMovie. This really helped us gain an insight into how to use the program which will be invaluable when it comes to editing our final video. We found some techniques to be really effective, such as slow motion, as it captures the dazed aura of romance. In contrast, we tried speeding up some of the film to portray the adrenaline rush felt when in love. We also included fade transitions to make film flow smoothly. To get a feel for what our final video might be like, we added the music we're going to use, to the footage which we felt lifted the whole vibe of the film due to the added dimension of the audio. Although this is only the early stages of pre-lim filming and we know that our video will be of a much higher standard, this has still been a constructive task as it's given us more confidence and skills for our future filming. 

Permission letter for song use

Dear Capitol Records,

Our names are Emma Dickson and Rachel Petrovics, and we are currently studying A-Level Media Studies at The King's School, Devon. 

As part of our coursework this year, we are creating and producing a music video to a song of our choice.  We have chosen 'Wouldn't it be nice'  by The Beach Boys as the song we would like to create a music video for, and we are writing this letter to seek your permission to do so.

Please note, this video will be used only for our coursework and will not be distributed or marketed in any form.  We would greatly appreciate your permission to use this song.

Many Thanks,

Emma Dickson and Rachel Petrovics

Location Shots

Character Profile

Here's a drawing of our two protagonists, with annotations around them describing their traits. We made them both quite similar to show that they are well suited and at first seem 'perfect for each other', as we want to portray the idealistic relationship in the beginning of our video.  

 



Add caption



We thought very carefully about who we wanted to play these characters as we want them to be believable. At first, we thought about using a couple of our friends who we know are confident and wouldn't be shy on camera. However, we decided it might be better to use two people who are actually going out, as there is a natural chemistry between them which would come across on film. We are going to use Hannah and Steve as we feel they fit the description of our characters well.

Atlas Hands - Benjamin Francis Leftwich

This is one of my favourite songs and when I watched the music video, I found some similar qualites to what I've been inspired by for my music video, eg. natural lighting. The beach location is something which I'd love to use, especially with the sunset; it creates a very mystical atmosphere. This would be good for my video, as it would feel quite magical, mirroring the love that the characters feel. The slow editing fits with the pace of the song and creates quite a dreamy effect, particularly with the use of natural lighting. I really like the close up of the boy's eyes at the end because it makes you feel a connection with the character. There's a scene in my music video where the girl first sees the boy in which we will also have a close up of her eyes. I can use this video as inspiration for that particularly shot.

Rihanna - We Found Love

This music video was directed by Melina Matsoukas and presents Rihanna's relationship with her boyfriend as being like a drug and how their addiction to each other results in the singer leaving her boyfriend because of his possessive nature. The video received a mixed response from critics, with some praising its cinematic feel, whilst others criticized some of the explicit material featured. 


Visually this song has great significance as it has a faded blue, brown and green tone at times - something that we want to experiment with. There are many jump cuts and this highlights that we are on track with out editing ideas. 

Relating back to the previous comment about this video holding a cinematic feel has given us confidence as we would like to create this with out video. The beginning of the video does not feature the song 'We Found Love' but a monologue with a piano backtrack. Me and Emma have been thinking about doing something similar to this (possibly having childhood videos with a eire backtrack?) and this video is evidence that having a 'story'/opening sequence before the music video itself can be successful as this particular video has 19 million views in just under two weeks on youtube!

Below are some screen shots that me and Emma found to be inspiring: 

Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

 This music video Yoann Lemoine
Yoann Lemoine

Album Cover Research

These album covers inspire us because they hold the vibe, that we want to create: kooky and original.  We love the layering of mediums (eg scrapbook and photo montage) and the vintage feel. They all are simple, yet engaging to the eye and this is something that we aspire to do. We are going to experiment with incorporating The Beach Boys logo (two down) into our album cover/poster. We understand that it will be hard to create a modern for a old song, however it is timeless and iconic meaning we a wide target audience to market for which excites us! We have researched both modern artists and vintage artist, and we can see similar codes and conventions in both and we now understand that these conventions are important to follow, giving us some structure to our work.  

These three sperate adverts for the film [500] Days Of Summer are of great inspiration to us as they hold a certain vibe - nostalgia, romance, cute and youth.  Although these advertisements are not for a music album, the film has been significant throughout our planning process. 

The colours are clean and neutral (mainly blues and beige) giving of connotations of vintage memories, and this realtes to out video as we are using a vintage song "Wouldn't It Be Nice" By The Beach Boys. The use of mediums in these posters are effective as they add a new visual dimension - We both really like the use of photographs as it gives a sense of montage, and this is something that we want to incorporate into our final product cover.  

Media Consumption.

I think it is relevant to explore how my audience would consume my music video. Giving that the 21st century is brimming with new technolgical advances, espically online my audience would most likely consume my video online, through site such as youtube, and one of my target audience memebers (Rachel Beaney) said this is how she watches and keeps up to date with new releases


I found this insigtful youtube video called 'Social Media Statistics & Facts 2011' and it highlights the power and popularity of social media.

"Nearly 2 hours of video is uploaded to youtube every every second" was a statistic that really stuck out to me as it shows how easy and popluar it is to be a producer of media, not just a consumer. One can then share their work, or others work using other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and this can lead to a worldwide phenomenom.


Another thing I find interesting is that the video is made in Australia so it is very biased, especially when it labels Australia as the number 1 prolific user of social media in the world.

It surprised me to realise that Myspace is no longer popular, with users "cutting ties and fleeing to other social sites" such as Facebook and Twitter. I decided to do further research to find out why this is the case and found this really interesting article - 3 Reasons why Myspace has lost popularity

Twitter has become a huge phenomena. It was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 200 million users as of 2011, generating over 200 million tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. Daily user estimates vary as the company does not publish statistics on active accounts. As a user of Twitter myself, I find that I do not use it as much as Facebook and I think many of my friends would agree. A lot of people my age that I know prefer to use Facebook and some don't even have Twitter accounts.

I found a article on the Gaurdian Business Blog that explores the "increase in number of hours public spends watching TV, playing video games and using the internet"
The Gaurdian - Article

The pie chart below shows what online sites are most popular for sharing information, such as music videos.

If I was creating my music video for a company, I would create many pages on social networking sites, such as a fan page on facebook, and this would most likely increase the popularity of my music video.

Audience Theory

In response to my post about 'understanding your audience' I have researched audience theories, which will allow me to understand their possible perceptions of my video, thus how allowing me to cater to their needs.

1. THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

Dating from the 1920s, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. As you can see from the diagram, this theory suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted   via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway populaces to their way of thinking. Basically, the Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated, ie the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers.

2. TWO-STEP FLOW

As the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did NOT reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones, a more sophisticated explanation was sought. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts.

3. USES & GRATIFICATIONS

Throughout time, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts. Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

In 1970, Halloran said, "We must get away from the habit of thinking in terms of what the media do to people and substitute for it the idea of what people do with the media." In other words, the consumer now has a say in what they want from the media.

C. Wright Mill decided the four functions of the media for the audience are:

• To give individuals identity
• To give people aspiration
• To give people instruction
• To give people a form of escapism

Researchers Blumler and Katz expanded this theory and published their own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes (ie uses and gratifications):

• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

4. RECEPTION THEORY

Extending the concept of an active audience still further, in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.

When considering these theories, I will make sure I use recognised codes and conventions in my music video to grab my audience's attention. I know now that the codes I use will be interpreted differently, so I am expecting a mixture of opinions when my product is completed. I will also make sure I get audience feedback throughout the process so that I can give my target audience a product that they want.

Target Audience

Emily is 17 years old. She enjoys reading and hanging out with friends. Her favourite genre of film is rom-coms and she loves anything romantic, from books to songs. Emily likes listening to indie bands such as Noah and the Whale, Warpaint, Bombay Bicycle Club and Animal Collective. Her fashion is also very indie and she's often seen wearing unique brands of clothing. She could easily relate to the female protagonist in our music video because they have similar personalities and style.

Steve Jobs

My teacher showed me this speech made by Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. To me Steve Jobs was a defining person in the media, as he changed we communicate and create to and with one another. This speech also highlights the importance new media technology and the role it has in the world. It has given me inspiration to create great media and have an impact and influence on my target audience. 

Risk Assessment.



Costume - Girl

We are now starting to think about what our protagonists will be wearing when we are shooting. Considering that out USP (Unique Selling Point) is telling a classic 'boy meets girl' story, with a kooky and quirky vibe, we must assure that the costume follows this trend. When looking at previous movies that we take inspiration from, and in this case [500] Days Of Summer, you can see that the costumes connote cute, originality and indie.          
Frills and bows are featured, suggesting a girly girl, which is something we want to portray. The colours are subtle, suggesting the girl may be slightly reserved and innocent. There is a definite vintage tone, again highlighting the quirky vibe we want to capture.  

These are some other dresses that we think our female protagonist would wear. Again it shows that she has a quirky personality!

Is our narrative strong?

I have been advised to think about how to summarise our music video, simply and effectively.

The narrative to our music video is the classic 'boy meets girl' romance/young love story, however the story is subverted and the relationship leads to a eventual break-up. It plays with the theme of nostalgia and it holds a certain quirky kooky vibe.

Audience Feedback

Emma and I decided to film some audience feedback to make sure that our focus accommodates our target audience's desires. We asked three people of 17 years old; one boy and two girls (as our target audience is mainly female) about their views on music videos and their opinions on the concept for our music video.

We learnt that...

- A strong narrative is vital, as it engages and entertains the audience. 

- Our ideas do appeal to our target audience, as all feedback was positive. 

- Despite the fact that one person had not heard of the song, 'Wouldn't it be nice' by the Beach Boys is widely recognised and in general, a good choice of song. 

- The connotations of the song are nostalgic: "summer", "childhood", "young love", "beach"...

- All three agreed that our narrative and song choice go well together, thus creating a sense of resonance. 

(We also edited this footage using iMovie, which is a programe that we can use when we come to edit our music video. It was really helpful creating this short interview as we learnt how to use iMovie meaning we are now confident if we wish to use this in the future. )

We are very pleased with this feedback and we are confident with our ideas, and excited for the future!

Understanding Your Audience.

I found this mnemonic acronym last year when doing my AS coursework, and I thought it still applies to our present coursework, as we are marketing to a niche target audience.

• Analysis: Who are they?
• Understanding: What is their understanding of the subject?
• Demographics: What is their age, gender, background, profession, and so forth.
• Interest: Why are they interested in your genre?
• Environment: Where will they be viewing, and what are the conditions?
• Needs: What do they need from you?
• Customization: Do you need to adjust things for any special needs or interests of specific audience segments?
• Expectations: What does your audience expect? 

We are going to respond to these questions throughout our project, so we will gain a understanding of our target audiences needs and desires. 

Storyboard!

Me and Emma have created a detailed storyboard that clearly shows our thoughts about what we plan to do and how to direct our actors when filming. It has allowed me to understand and appreciate how much detail and time goes into the planning stages of creative a filmed piece, although I now feel confident and calm about future filming events. 

The Power of Moving Image

I found a really interesting article about the power of moving image and I thought it was highly relevant to my process to creating a music video, as it allows me a great insight to the influential nature a moving image holds.

"Moving image is the most powerful way to put across any message. According to web business consultancy firm Odysseyuk.co.uk, people remember 30% of what we see, 20% of what we hear but 70% of what anything we watch and hear at the same time. Phrases such as: “a picture is worth a thousand words”, “actions speak louder than words” or “I’ll believe it when I see it” exist for a reason.

Moving image is the most recipient friendly and convincing way to put across any

message."

This quote really summarises my point about it's effective, and manipluative power.

Source

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice

Me and Emma have come to a final decision on the song we want to choose for our music video, The Beach Boys' - Wouldn't It Be Nice. Not only is a great, and relevant song, but it is also universally famous and iconic.


Below are the lyrics to the song: 


Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

Happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was never ending
Wouldn't it be nice

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy

Wouldn't it be nice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn't it be nice

Good night my baby
Sleep tight my baby


Here is what one my target audience members thinks about this song: 
"To me, this song exudes hope. I have never seemed to be able to make a relationship succeed, but somehow this song helps me keep it together. No matter how low I can be, I play this song and a chance that there'll be light somewhere in the way just pops up.


In certain opportunities, though, it makes me long for that sometime I haven't lived, in that somewhere I haven't been, with that someone I haven't yet met, but know I will.

Until then, play it once again, and help me make it through. "

- As you can see this song is very meaningful and hold a great sense of both lust and loss, which is something me and Emma plan to include in our video. We want to capture love in it's real and raw state. 

From a editing and directing  point of view the song has high potential due to it's easy tempo, allowing us to cut and plan shots with ease meaning we can try and avoid messy cuts and editing in general. 

Genre

Genre: A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterised by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

I have chosen the genre of romance for our music video, because I am part of the target audience (being a female teen) meaning I have a clear understanding of what one wants and can expect from this genre. It also has clear conventions that I can create with ease in my final piece, for example having two romantically inclined protagonists. The songs that I am considering also have romantic connotations ie The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice has hidden meanings of loss of love, or longing for love. 


When asking a member of my target audience (Cassie Shaw) what came to mind when I said the word romance, she immediately said "Titanic". This re-enforces that media is more prominent than the reality of romance.

Taylor Swift - Mine

Me and Emma find this music video, directed by Roman White, very inspiring and close to our own ideas, thus we have screen shot key pivotal moments of the video to help us gain a deeper understanding of the conventions of a romantic music video. 

1. Extreme close up of male protagonist.    

There are extreme close ups of both protagonists, and edited to jump cut several times in this opening sequence. This establishes the relationship, and the audience can read the attraction that both male and female protagonists hold for each other. It is also in a subtle sepia tone, connoting warmth and confort, something that one feels in a happy relationship too. Me and Emma want to experiment with tones when editing our work, to achieve an aura or sense for our target audience. 

2. Thread of photos.

I really like the idea of hanging threads of photographs, so me and Emma are very happy we found this video! It relates to the previous post about the connotations of photographs, and creating memories. This had given us the green light to use photos as a visual motif, as this video is successful. The tone has also shifted as it is now brighter, and in higher contrast. 

3. Two shot - beach location

This has inspired us to use the beach as a key location. It connotes romance and natural love, something that we want to portray. The clothing and makeup is very neutral, and this had made us think about our costume in advance. The proxemics of the shot clearly demonstrate the romance between the couple as she is laughing - connoting happiness, and he has her arms around her. 

4. Walking along the beach

Emma noticed that there was a darkened haze framing the shot. We liked this idea, as it gives the impression of a fairytale story. We will experiment with this during the editing process. The female's dress is white, and she has a flower in her hair, connoting innocence an purity - we want to create a similar image to this, thus we will experiment with various costumes. Interestingly, the male is dressed in black and has a tattoo on his forearm, contrasting with her delicate portrayal. We like the location shot again, especially the sea in the background connoting peace and harmony.

5. Dancing silhouette

Me and Emma really liked this shot! The use of lighting is really effective, creating a silhouette of the happy couple. We find this shot to be a powerful shot because of it's simplicity, but it is riddled with hidden meaning. If it is possible to explore lighting when we are shooting we would like to try this out.



6. Hug

This shows the unity of the couple, and we realise that love s growing.  We also understand the importance of non verbal communication between the actors as this screen shot, itself, tells a story.





7. Close up hands - Jewellery

This clearly demonstrates the genre of romance, with the ring and the touching of the hands being obvious signifiers. Hands, again could be a recurring visual motif, because of the meaning it holds: love. Rather than a ring, we are thinking of using a necklace as a prop to symbolise the couples love, so when it is taken off the love that they once shared  is over.


8. Over the shoulder shot

We are planning to have many over the shoulder shots, as they give the audience a POV perspective and insight.






 9. Fighting


Here we see tones of blue, connoting sadness. These shots are also edited to be in slow motion, which is an extended metaphor for a relationship slowing down, and coming to an end. This is something we wish the explore. Again the non verbal communication is strong, again highlighting the importance of choosing are actors with care.



10. Extreme close up/two shot

Throughout this video it's obvious that these shots are often used. Reasons for this are because of the audience reading: establishing the mood, and understanding the relationship between the characters.

This is an intense shot of the couple - you can almost see fear in her eyes, showing that she is scared to lose him, whereas his stare is more reassuring, conveying the intensity of the love at this specific point.

By deconstructing this video, we have learnt to think carefully about each individual shot as if it were a photograph because each shot has meaning, and the meaning needs to be conveyed with ease to audience. 

              

Photographs

Me and Emma are planning to use photographs in our music video as a visual motif. Reasons for this are because of the connotations attached to the idea of a photograph - memorise and emotion. Both create a sense of nostalgia, which is something we want to achieve from our target audience. We want to provoke feelings from our audience, and make them think about past relationships. Although this will be hard to create I think with good use of conventions, it is possible.

The sentimental value a photograph holds is personal and meaningful, so we are planning to use hand held camera, so we can have realistic POV shots, adding to that sentimental and empathetic feel that we want to gain from our target audience. 

Match.com

 (Accidental Duet)

(Train Station)

Advertising is a powerful outcome of media, and recently Match.com (online dating site) have created some original and unique adverts for their site. When researching in depth Match.com invested £7 million into the campaign: Start Your Love Story, which aims to "capture that butterfly moment you feel when you find someone special.". I feel these adverts hold a feeling that I inspire to gain from my audience.

When deconstructing these adverts to a further level I discover that the gradient is washed out, possibly representing a 'story book feel', this is again something I am wanting to capture. There are many extreme close ups of the main characters, perhaps to capture emotion and create that intimate sense. I wish to explore these in my own work and see how they work out!

Lastly I found a quote from Katie Sheppard, director of relationships and marketing at match UK, she said: “We’ve always been about helping people find love, and as the best-known dating site in the UK, we have been at the heart of hundreds of thousands of moments like these."

Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap

I think this song would be great for my music video, it holds an airy sound, which something that I think a memory would sound like. The lyrics also connote romance, but both the beautiful and ugly side.

"A moment, a love
A dream aloud
A kiss, a cry
Our rights, our wrongs
A moment, a love
A dream aloud 
A moment, a love
A dream aloud"


During this part of the song I can visually imagine quick jump cuts of montage clips of the charters, I think this is a positive start to my media course and I am looking forward to storyboarding and exploring more song ideas. 

Inspiration - Man Ray

Man Ray is an American artist and has worked with a wide range of media, including film. he contributed to the Surrealist and Dada movements. In 1999, 'ARTnews' magazine named him one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th - It is clear that Man Ray is truly a defining artist, thus he inspires me.

L'Etoile de Mer (1928 Man Ray)

If find L'Etoile de Mer to be very enigmatic; it's simplicity coupled with film technique creates it's audience to be silent and intrigued. I did not want to any reaserch about this short film before watching it so I could gather my own intial opinion, and gain my personal responce. I found it to be highly metaphorical, and the film is in fact the representation of a couple, or/and a love triangle.

I was also interested in the way Man Ray shot his film as it had a very blurred effect, I then found out that almost all scenes are shot either off a mirror like the final shot, or through diffused and textured glass. This is something I would like to explore with my own work. Although it is not high tech, it still creates this mystical lure.

The most defining moment in the film is the ending: The female appears in a mirror with the word 'belle', which shatters. This is symbolic that the love affair is over. I think it is highly important to have a defining ending scene as it is opening scene; this is again something I will aim to achieve.