Although initially I wanted to have no character in my music video and have a more symbolic/ through their eyes approach, I have used one to help in some shots. Because this was just a bit of an experiment I used myself rather than finding an actress, however, I really like some of the shots I got and have used them in my final production.
I filmed the majority of shots with a tripod in a forest after being inspired from Phaeleh's video "Tokio". See my post about the video
HERE
Like Phaeleh, I wanted my character to be barefoot as this is a symbolism of innocence and childhood and therefore will symbolise her journey from childhood.
I chose to wear a simple red dress, I knew I would be editing in black and white so the colour wasn't a massive priority for me, however, I did want to stand out from the greenery of the forest. I chose the dress due to the chiffon layering which made it flow in the wind.
I chose not to show my face until the very last shot at the end of the music video, when the character is supposedly in heaven, this was one of my ways of keeping the ambiguity as the audience never really sees who this music video is about until the end. Throughout the video parts of the character is shown (my eyes, nose etc) but you never seer my face till the end. I also didn't really want to characterise the video as being aimed at a particular gender and therefore didn't feel the need to show my full face, although of course it is evident I am a girl from my dress and hair, I didn't want to have an effect on my audience who are both male and female.
Here is a picture of the costume from the shooting day.
I filmed shots of scene eight - the university scene - in the study of my house using a white cupboard. I wanted to have a panning shot of lots of books to depict university so knew I wanted to use a bookshelf. However, I also wanted to keep with the white background like I used in my stop-frame animation, so I opted to use this one rather than I wooden or metal bookshelf.
I used a variety of methods to try and create different textures to my shots and achieve my abstract vision.
Here I also filmed shots of the sun as it beamed through the trees. I filmed this on a different day but at the same location when the sun was slightly lower and so at a better angle to film. I used these shots in the opening and closing scenes. To portray the cycle of life, a new day (for the start) and the ending of a day (for the end).
The next shot was just up the road. It was a T junction like layout where two pathways came out of the original one I was following. I thought this with be perfect in portraying the choices the character must make in their life - particularly as they find and look for work. Originally I planned to film the T junction type shot of a road, but I thought this had a much nicer look to it and was more fitting in the piece. 
I have filmed twice in this field now for two different scenes. Scene seven - lost teenage years - and scene 16 as the character is dying.
I've created a logo for my artist, Bonobo, which I can use in my ancillary texts on my website and DVD case. A lot of artists have their own logos which they can be recognised by. I have looked at artists similar to Bonobo to inspire my logo. My logo is to the right. 
