Camera Angle Positions for Performance

Original Performance Shot
I decided to film the performance section of my video in a vocal booth. I wanted to reflect the independent nature of the band through the video, so I didn't shoot in an exotic location which would require a big budget. Filming in the booth gave a grounded, natural, organic feel to my video. I shot several takes from both inside the booth and from outside, looking through the glass of the door. I wanted to get shots through the glass so that I could get reflections in front of the actor. These reflections felt similar to bokeh or lens flares, they added more interesting layers to the shot which prevented it from appearing flat and boring.

I also shot from a low angle on the actor, with the light in the ceiling of the booth casting a large lens flare over his head. I wanted to film this shot because it obscured the face of the actor. This made the shot more interesting and would lead the audience to want to see behind the glow of the light. This ties back to the theory of stardom, how a star must be simultaneously present and absent from the viewer. By obscuring their face, they are unreachable by the audience.

Performance by Narrative Actor
In my final cut I decided to re-shoot the performance section of my video using the same actor from the narrative in order to simplify the video and provide emotional resonance between the child's story and the lyrics. I shot the actor sitting against the floral wallpaper of his character's bedroom and mixed close-ups of the face and extreme close-ups, changing framing for different parts of the song. I had the actor lip sync looking directly into the camera, creating a strong connection between his character and the audience and bringing gravity to the lyrics he sung.