After a busy week of prop building, scripting, filming and editing – segment five is now complete. If you haven’t read my previous post regarding my planned Structure of Content then please take a few minutes to read that now. If you already have but need a little reminder on what segment five is, well it’s:
“A short advertisement break that advertises The Penfield Mood Organ. A fictional device from the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick. The device essentially lets you dial for any emotion/mood you wish to feel.”
Firstly I created a script for the advert, here’s a snippet:
Introducing the all new Penfield Mood Organ
With the Penfield Mood Organ, you will no longer have to wonder what type of mood you should be in…
Utilizing the latest advances in both waveform and cerebral sciences, we have found a way to alter your mindset to a more appropriate mood, whether alone or in a crowd.
Though when it came to recording the script, I didn’t really have a vocally suitable candidate. After listening closely to the voices of friends and family I came to the conclusion that I’d need to find somebody online, who has that advert style voice.
After browsing Fiverr (an online marketplace offering services beginning at a cost of $5, hence the name) I found a voice over artist offering to ‘deliver a British voice over in a rich tone to fit your exact requirements for $5‘ with a fitting voice for my advert. I sent him across my script and 2 days later I received my voice over. But rather than post it now, I’ll let you wait and hear what it sounds like!
When it came to creating the prop I went straight to my housemate James (who has a knack for building things out of nothing) and explained to him what I wanted created. As I talked to him about what I had in mind he jotted down this rough sketch:
A few days later he came back to me with the complete Penfield Mood Organ. Made from an old radio, some red LEDs, an old cable, cardboard, old knobs, switches, a pressure gauge and an old microphone headset. Here is a picture of James plugged in to the Mood Organ before the advert shoot:
The film shoot went well. I predominantly used close up shots of each component, as well as a few mid shots. My favourite shot was a pan, pull focus across the mood organ to a mannequin wearing the headset. The choice to use a mannequin in the advert rather than an actual human was to imply that in this dystopian future, the human race is regulated to the point of which we are all equivalent to mannequins.
In post production I chopped the clips to match the voice over, added a royalty free soundtrack to act as a sound bridge between clips and make the voice over flow smoother. I also added some basic text to the end which sync with the voice over.
Here is a picture of me with the mannequins, they were the quietest and most obedient cast I’ve ever filmed with:
Video Art 