Sam Scaife - Digital Media Design BA

Unfortunately one of my dancers is busy during the time where I have the studio space booked. I not only have one dancer to shoot so my idea has to change a little as I can not longer get the subtle product placement shots I was keen on.

Currently I plan to combine footage of setting up the space with footage of her dancing then have a voice over that talks about the pureness of the water and how that relates to the effortless of dance. In face I've written in my sketch book in regard to the music

The water is effortless. Dance is effortless. The music should be effortless.

this could be changed into a slogan or key statement in the voice over, something like this

Great music is effortless. Great dance is effortless. Great water is effortless.

Shots

I want to take inspiration for my shots from artistic photography and films. currently I'm imaging the piece to be shot with really tight framing so that the movement is more abstract that a wide angle of a dancer. almost as if I am creating this effect but with the body instead of liquid

The fashion blogger tavi post large posts of images which inspire her. When I look through them it gives me a really good idea of what she is currently thinking about. To help me bring my ideas together I'm going to compile a similar wall of photos with a little comment on what about the shot it is I like and how I could transfer that to Aquapax.

I'll be filming in a mirrored studio so I'm really keen to make use of what I have available to produce some interesting shots. I can take this angle and pull the focus so that you cant see what she is looking at. Personally I really like the grain and low saturation of the image as well but I'm not sure this will be suited to Aquapax.

Looking through Koray Birand's work I'm getting really inspired. He creates exactly the style of video that I want to create for Aquapax. I was Imagining more of a slow paced editing style but the first of these two videos has given me some ideas of how I can transition between shots. The second video is a cool example of some more experimental shots I can do.

I really like how there is no point of reference within the frame so you could the movement is exaggerated.

I have been trying to find contemporary or ballet dancers to be in the piece. I can show the wide audience by having different ages dancers in the piece.

A friend of mine Nandini knows the girl with long hair 1 min into this video though she is based in which could be difficult to organise so I decided to find some local dancers.

I used to be in a street dance class and one of the girls mentioned that she used to do the styles of dance I'm after. I asked her to be one of the dancers and she has agreed to be in piece.
The second dancer is a girl called Alix who has also agreed to be the make up artist for the piece. Having a make up artist is really going to help me get a really polished piece.

Both of my dancers are similar ages which dose not communicate the age as well as having two largely diffrent aged dancers.

I've pitched my ideas to the client and it didn't got very well. He like the angle I was coming from but did not like the vision for who I was going to film it, he felt that it would be difficult to execute and the idea of passing the same bottle was unhygienic.

I was reluctant to bring up my idea of dance as I had lost faith in it but simon raised that I had been thinking of that and they that had a better reception with the client. I would need to fit it to the product though. My tutor mentioned the recent air france video which uses dance to communicate the idea of elegance, luxury and flying.


Having seen this as well as the videos I have researched I will go back to my idea of dance. The client was keen on having really expressing the key points that make Aquapax so special. This needs to be brought into the piece.

I was looking back as some ways which I can add water into the piece and came accross these pieces by Shinichi Maruyama these are really nice uses of the showing pure water. This is something that I could work with to make the piece more about water, as the examples of dancers in water tend to leave underwhelming splashes.

As the brief says tangible product statements I want to realise this in the form of a voice over. This is so it will not distract from the visuals and viewers will get to get the message. 

Well I've had a new idea and I thought i would give a bit of background of where it came from first. In my sketch book the first thing I did was to write down key words which I connected with the idea then look for patterns to help inspire me. There where two key area which developed from this, Touch and Reusable. Then I when I was talking to my tutor Andrew about my dance idea we began talking about police forensics and the idea that action leaves a trace. My idea then strayed away from that but when I just reread the brief it contained the word touching and it made me really want to go back to that.

The idea
My new idea is to have an Aquapax bottle passed between hands in different locations with a voice over talking about the values of the brand and the reusablity of the bottle and the idea of sharing great things with the world and each other. This idea also lets me bring the idea of revolution that I really like into the piece. Its a very simple idea and I'm sure it must have been done, when I was trying to think of similar examples the Coke advert of the woman giving out bottles of coke to strangers came to mind.



I would produce a far my stylish video than this. Something which would have the potential to have a "viral effect" (quoting the brief). Another similar video came to me when I had just sketched out a load of different ideas in my sketchbook and one of them was like the Tropicana advert set in New York.



This video has a really good feel of the high quality footage I would go for, I also really like how subtle the product is in this advert. I will do a more detailed analysis of this later.
I was thinking that visual interest could be maintained by the different scene which it was passed between and also the direction which it got passed from e.g. up and down as well as left and right. I then had the idea that people can reach into the scene to take the water bottle from other people, I think this would express interconnected ideas of changing social migration which the client mentioned are represented on the packaging. The reaching into scenes idea made me think of the music video for a recent Justice tract Audio, Video, Disco



It would have less focus on the actual scenes and more the movement between scenes creating an impression of a continuous shot (which I really like at the moment). At first I was worried that it did not have enough of a luxury aspect to it but I talked to my cause mate Simon and this can be implemented by choosing the people and locations which the bottle gets passed from. Also I my vision of the luxury is more achievable now that it is more connected to brands such as John Lewis and Waitrose (though I will not lose sight of Merce and the Muse.)

Before I started writing the previous post where I decided I was going in the wrong direction I was looking through my sketch book at the ideas and notes I had written down and I saw Sam Taylor Wood which reminded me of a piece I had seen of people emerging from water. A quick google search and I found my the video I was looking for, Bill Viola's Ocean Without a Shore even though my thoughts on the brief have move on since I found the clip I thought it was useful to post up so you can follow my thoughts.

I feel like I'm getting a little lost about the purpose of the video so I'm going to look back at the brief and my notes from when the client came in and clarify what it is I need to produce.

Brief
So I've just reread the brief and its really help think about what exactly it is that the client is after. here are the key points I got from it

• QR code output which communicates information
• Information should be powerful enough to want to pass it on
• QR code takes user to a video sting
• it should connect with the audience emotionally, adding value to the core product.
• video should contain quality promotion graphics with tangible product statements
• compel the viewer to look, listen, and learn enhancing the brand value
• creative idea
• let people know the brands inherent quality characteristics

Client meeting
here are some of what I think the key points are that the client wanted to express in this video

• premium brand 
• featured in shops such as Waitrose and John Lewes in the uk 
• Eco Luxury product
• Straight to the point
• Clean, modernist & personal
• No manipulating
• It should be clever
• Tell the truth
• the company is [carbon] neutral and so is the product
• reusable
• suitable for infants
• Slick