Filming: Idea Analysis

Our initial idea for our "Control" music video is primarily Narrative. The lyrics to the song reflect the Artist's experiences with Bipolar Disorder, which causes them to feel as though they live completely different lives as two different people. They use the imagery of an old, empty house to represent their mind, and the disorder itself as evil and monstrous images. We decided these lyrics were too important to cover up, therefore we chose to follow the story in a visual way. Using the empty house as our location meant we were able to bring the lyrics and metaphor to life, creating visual understanding for the audience and helping to keep to the message of the song. Our character, to imply the two different sides of their personality, is presented in completely opposite ways: one more "scared" and empty, wearing a plain white dress with a blank, meaningless expression and body language, and then an overly confident and "fake" one, with a red dress, lots of makeup and curled hair. We decided to add a tiara to the look to help address the way the character presents themselves. We feel that the use of two opposite characters actually being the same person is well presented through this, and flickering between the two means the audience may be able to understand it. When deciding on lighting, we thought to use more high-key and harsh lighting to represent the "false" personality, as a way to establish this further to the audience and make it more understandable how this isn't a true version of the character, and it is the Bipolar Disorder itself causing this to happen. The lighting is literally "shining a light" on the disorder and the effects it has on people. We also wanted to reflect the fact that they are the same person to keep people from getting confused, by using parallel shots that hopefully will be edited together to morph them into the same shot.