Research: I Took A Pill In Ibiza Mike Posner Official Music Video

We have started to look at more specific areas of our narrative footage, and are trying to find ways to improve upon scenes that we struggled with. For example in our night club scene we are dealing with an empty club, but need to create the image that it is really busy and lively. For inspiration we have been watching music videos which include club scenes to see how they use camera work, editing and lighting to create the illustration of a busy club, when we will probably only have as much as 10 extras.

We particularly liked the Mike Posner 'I Took A Pill In Ibiza' music video. The use of lighting, shots, camera movement and editing in these areas of the video create lots of interesting effects. In particular we really liked the use of the slow motion editing as it created a really interesting atmosphere to the video and just generally made it more interesting to watch. This slow motion editing was sometimes followed by normal speed shots which then went back to slow motion. This created two effects. The first being it matched with the intoxicated, dancing, non-stop atmosphere of a club and the second being that it was syncopated with the music.
Very slow and smooth camera movement on zooms clearly done using a dolly etc. are also really effective here and this is all things that we can really easily replicate with the equipment we have available to us.
For camerawork, the way the video uses close ups creates the atmosphere that the club is busy. We can easily replicate this in our own video by using 2 or 3 extras who walk closely by the camera. If we use this technique throughout the club scene we will be sure to create the effect of a busy club, especially once paired with quick cuts in editing.

We asked our target audience how effective they thought the club scene in 'I took a pill in Ibiza' was and here are some of their answers that can help us in creating out perfect club scene -

'The use of the slow motion works really well, it creates an alcohol or drug induced environment.'

'The red lighting and huge amounts of people makes it really clear that it is a club, but I think there could possibly be even more strobe lighting included, still in slow motion, but just to communicate that club environment even better. I can see that there is some, but this is not as obvious as I think it could be.'

'I think it works really well, it is all really well shot and the combination of the editing and the shot types really helps to tell the story.'

'The dark environment creates a really eerie effect and works well with the contrasting red lighting'

Looking at these things that people in our target audience have said, we are really confident that including a club scene to show drug abuse is a really good idea, if we can be as successful as this video. We are going to take on board some of the things that we have seen here including the lighting and the slow motion editing in order to create a really effective scene that communicates the fact that our main character is a drug user and is having a "bad trip".