Research 6: Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Video 4)

This is one of my favorite music videos however I normally forget about the song so I am glad that I have remembered it and can write about some of the shots that I particularly like in the video. It is a very post-edited video, with loops and added lens flares and various other digital effects added.

Here are some screen grabs of particular shots that I found the most interesting and that inspired me most to include in my own music video:

 This is the first real shot we see of any actors. This is Ellie Goulding featuring in her own video. The entire screen has been taken up by her head, ad what is not is filled by her hair. The essence of the music video was sought after here, with as much light gold colour being portrayed as possible. This may be something to do with the name, but it is clear to say that the makeup is very suitable and the emotion you can see in her eyes is deep and meaningful, as she looks straight at you from the screen. This sort of shot can be very important in any music video as showing emotion to the audience is vital to the way  that the audience view the film, and the emotions that they get form watching the video.

 This is a nice shot, it shows a close up of her head as she is lying down. Using a side and back light, the image has been whitened out quite a lot, with a silhouette around her forehead and nose. The depth of field dips in and out of focus on her face and the movement creates a very deep effect which draws the attention of the audience to see what she is doing. The dark background helps here as it enhances the silhouette given the fact that it has not been strongly lit in comparison.

 For this screen grab I wanted to bring particular attention to the white line across her forehead. This start off as a black screen with a wiggly white line moving up the screen, then the colour slowly fades in and we see that the light is moving along the contour of her face. This is a really thought over shot and creates a nice effect which I would be keen to replicate as long as it is appropriate in some form or another.

This shot was used various times throughout the video. It is not really a locational shot, but more of a heavily decorated room, focussed mainly on mise en scene. For example here, the way the mirrors in the background are perfectly symmetrical, and gives a lot more depth to the room. I would imagine this shot was taken as a straight shot, playing through the whole song (after it had been choreographed) and then edited into the song at appropriate points. This is a good way of shooting footage as you often have more than you need, leaving yourself options  later on during the editing in case some other footage did not come out as desired.

This last screen grab I took shows a very edited piece of footage. There are a few shots the same as this, (all taken from one constant clip I think), but the way in which they have put the stars is genius. There's very little chance that I would be able to do this sort of advanced editing, however I can use this sort of idea when it comes to my own video.