Planning for shoots... Props

By Fern Disney
In the exam room...

We will be using fake exam papers to set the scene of an exam. A way we will be able to get these props will be from my old mocks and work last year. As I dropped one of my subjects I will happily use the work from that subject in order to make the scene appear more realistic. Although there will only be a few close ups of the ones that actually look like an exam booklet, the others would likely be different papers. 

One of the most common aspects which reminds me of the tense under-pressure conditions of an exam is the dreaded ticking clock so it would definitely make sense to use a clock in this scene. The camera shots of this prop would include mainly close ups and every so often the sound of the clock would be edited in my work to get my audience to remember the clock and the tense feeling it represents, including close up of peoples hand tapping to the tick. As already mentioned this part of the music video is purely acted out, there isn't any music over the top, thus making the sound of the clock important.

It also wouldn't make sense for us to film a exam scene without the prop of pens. To make this as realistic as possible, we will need to use black pens for each student- one in their hands and one at the top of their desk. This is because, in exam you are unable to write in any other colour than black otherwise you fail. The pens aren't a crucial prop yet I believe without these, the scene will appear too staged. The pens will be included in shots such as nervously tapping on the desk to the clock tick and will always be visual in most close up shots of our acted students.

One of the main factors in this scene is where our main character receives a text about ditching their exam to go "hang out" with their friends. Therefore an important prop for us to use will be a phone. Without the use of a phone, we would have to "pretend" our character is using a phone with a fake phone and this just wouldn't have a professional effect. As there will be a passing of messages, we will do this through having the phone on our character but changing the name of one of the contacts and messaging them through the other phone.

One of the main aspects of this scene which will differ from a real exam hall will be that students have their bags next to their feet. Normally, all bags have to be either left outside the exam hall or left at the front of the hall. However, for our character to be able to see that they have received a text, we will have to place a bag next to their desk, otherwise we would have to have our character holding their phone which I think wouldn't work at all.  

Through the rest of the music video...

As our music video is about the negatives of drug use, we will have to use a prop which symbolises drugs, obviously we will not have any drugs on our set at any stage, so we will use small bags with a substance such as flour it imply this prop. Even though the music video is about "getting in with the wrong crowd" and doing all the things which you shouldn't, the drugs prop would mainly only be used at one short clip in the music video in order to make the appearance the shot will only be the passing over of the drugs to our character. Other than that the music video shots will only be a reference of drugs. 

Another prop which I think would be important in our scene of a public transport, would be earphones/ headphones, this is because I think it would be able to display the key stereotype of anti-social teens. This wouldn't be a vital prop however I do believe this would help us display this stereotype quite well.

I personally think a good prop to use would be a noticeboard with lots of gig tickets and festival wristbands because I think that would suggest our character likes music and it also shows the always going out aspect, going out on nights out. I think if we were to film this prop and then go on to the night shots of them on the streets, I think it would fit much better than if our shots went straight from daylight to night.  

Drinking is also strongly associated with youth so therefore I think if we were to make reference to drinking, it would fit better in their music video. As stated before, there will be no drugs or alcohol on the scenes when we film, therefore, I think if we were to use props of beer bottles, we can add water at different levels, implying they've been drunk. These props would be used in the location of the bedroom scenes with few characters.



Another prop which I think would be important within our music video would be to include shot glasses, even though there isn't going to be any alcohol on set, the main aspect of a teenagers bedroom is that it is messy, we could use shot glasses in the implications that there was a party there the night before. Shots including the shot glasses may be intertwined with the noticeboard.