Made In Britain - My fashion/concept video short

My fashion video was a reflection of a negative emotion most people endure at least once in their lives. Focusing on inner conflict, (a disruptive feeling I battle with daily) I hoped to highlight the effects within a relationship, portraying someone struggling for acceptance and love, only to be rejected, concluding that first one needs to accept, love and appreciate themselves before anybody else can do so. 

Retrospection Recollection

The video title was taken from my mood boards and is made up of acronyms, using the words retro and collection pertaining to garments, and the full title referring to rememberance, which is related to my Made In Britain designs based on the military during the earlier part of the twentieth century. (See page titled "Made In Britain - Mood Boards)

Planning and Making and Editing the video 

Initially, I had planned a wartime story involving a man leaving his lover to go to war and not returning. However, due to a lack of resources I was unable to continue with this story and therefore had to start again. 
My story begins with a troubled child who grows up to be a good man, yet within the man lies demons from the past, preventing him from fully enjoying and appreciating all good things that come his way. Although he meets a beautiful. confident young woman who loves him dearly, instead of cherishing her, appreciating her and encouraging her, his insecurities blur his thoughts and he begins to become slightly destructive. This then creates problems within the relationship and he begins to undermine her. This is not done purposely, but subconciously. He cannot entirely believe she has chosen to be with him, but she has the forsight to recognise this and tells him to address his issues before walking away from the relationship. The man becomes frustrated and realises that before he can continue with his relationships in his life, he needs seek counsellingin order to acknowledge and accept any past concerns

Below are various stills from my fashion video, each one displaying different effects applied in iMovie. 

The red screen appears and the audio begins, opening with a slow and echoing electric guitar playing. The title cross zooms in and cross fades back out. The slide then fades to black. The second screen is contrasting to the first and uses the same cross zoom and fade to display a quote. The red screen is symbollic of the poppy which, in turn, is an epitome of rememberance within the military. The quote relates to inner conflict.

The quote screen then fades to black and then birds on the water appear. I chose swans to symbolise growth and change, but the screen then swithches to an x-ray style, before quickly reverting back to the original. The effect would suggest a certain negativity within the subjects life.

The birds screen fades to white then water ripples are in the frame, first flowing in one direction coloured in a vibrant blue, then the image is reversed and some of the colour is abandoned. As water is a symbol of emotions, this reflects the feeling in the film as being not entirely secure and an inability to develop them. 

The next set of frames firstly appear as a negative image and show the image of a boy who appears distressed. He kicks the wall in frustration, and the moment he does this, the image changes from a negative to a black and white sillhouetted scene, and a heavy drum beat ensues. The music is from then a continuous succession of drums, guitar, bass and then added vocals. The chosen song is "Miss the Misery" by the Foo Fighters.

The next group of transitions were timed to the rythmic beat as accurately as I could place them. A picture of prison bars in a negative tone spins in and back out to transform the scene from black and white silhouette to an x-ray image. I then used the mosaic function to change the theme again to negative. The scene then fades to black, to expose a close up shot in black and white of the boys eyes, ensuring the contrast and brightness were quite high. Fading to white between scenes, the visual returns to the image of the boy, then the same image is horizontally flipped.

A flash of a close up zoom shot of the man (supposed to be the boy now grown) interupts the image before returning. The flash effect is done by fading in and out to white, between the scenes of course, giving a flash effect. Agian the scene fades in and out of various styles using the black and white, x-ray and a negative vertical flip.

Here, the song has progressed to its pre-verse, and staying with the fast, rocky pace, I continued to change things in time with some of the beats. The circle close function was used to change from the silhouetted scene to a close-up of the man's face set to aged film and with the colour reduced. Then a quick close up of the boys eyes in a serpia tone appears, before reverting back to the close-up, with the camera zooming out from the image. An arc shot is incorporated with a normal colour image, then the scene is changed with a reversed arc shot and an even closer close-up. The scene shifts again, still using the arc shot, but at a faster  pace and in x-ray effect. 

The verse begins, and a scene change is imminent. In this scene, the man is with his girlfriend and the shot is set to 'romantic' in iMovie. In rhythmic fashion, the image changes to x-ray then back to romantic. Continuing the sequence, the effect morphs to negative, back to the normal video effect with a horizontal flip and in reverse, then just as quickly reverts back to romantic effect. The scene is then slowed down and changed to cartoon effect as the couple walk towards the camera which focuses on their joining hands.
Here the visuals are very effective, portraying happiness, romance and living almost in a "cartoon-like" world, not facing reality.

At the second half of the verse, the scene changes when the previous one fades into white. The couple are now walking down the street conversing. The scene is black and white, and as they walk, they appear to be having some kind of disagreement. The mosaic transition changes the effect to negative, then to normal effect, horizontally flipped, using the swap function.

The image fades to black and resumes the black and white effect and changes again with a cube transition to reveal the cartoon. During this time, the story unveils an uncomfortable situation between the young couple and the camera zooms in to their hands that once were entwined. The girl rejects her lovers affections.

As the music transpires, the scene shifts to the couple walking away from the camera with flashes of different effects again. The negative effect sees the couple walking backwards so is set in reverse mode. This effect is lovely in this section of the film as a light in the distance above the girls head is shining, and the negative image displays it as a deep red, which on second glance, looks remarkably like a poppy.

Transforming to a cartoon effect in the scene, the girl is seen in a dispute with the man, and abruptly turns and walks away from him. This movement is sped up in time for the pre-chorus within the song.

The scene changes yet again, using page curl right in the transitions menu. This reveals a negative image of the man, now alone, sitting on a kerb holding is head in his hands. This then reverts back to the cartoon effect.

During this build up of music, the image continuously changes from cartoon effect to black and white, cartoon, x-ray, negative, glow and raster effects. This is done quickly and in sync with the music, now audibly presenting heavier beats and a climactic symphony. 

The young man is now in despair and leading up to the chorus, he focuses on the lens of the camera displaying his anger and irritability. He then lowers his head in realisation of what he may become.

Another arc shot proceeds during the chorus, with the couple uncomfortably embracing eachother. The images are quite beautiful and classical, yet they highlight the discomfort and the longing the characters have to stay together. 

The chorus hails the end of the concept film, with previous clips re-used in reverse at a higher speed and slightly altered to appear different. This part of the film is a representation of what the male character should do to redeem himself and be happy, to look back on his life and understand and learn from past experiences that may have damaged him. 

Back to the boy with the sadness in his eyes and the video is at an end. The final scene is the swans in reverse, in x-ray effect. As the titles roll up the screen, the music fades.

The End!