The Death of Ophelia ("Dead in the Water" - Ellie Goulding)
***Highest quality (1080p) please!! We worked hard to make it HD, so I'd love for everyone to see it the way it's meant to be seen!***
This music-style short film began as a crazy idea for an English project on Hamlet.
After trying to write a short film delving deeper into Ophelia's psyche to learn more about her thoughts and emotions leading up to her death, we wound up deciding on making it music-oriented. "Dead in the Water" by Ellie Goulding was so fitting.
The video's concept is about a modern-day Hamlet. Ophelia is contemplating her suicide as she has flashbacks of her relationship with Hamlet. At first, she is numbed by the memories, but slowly she begins to lose her mind as she remembers her father's death, Hamlet going crazy, and Ophelia herself beginning to lose her mind. Ophelia decides to drown herself in her bathtub. We wanted to do something outdoor, but seeing how it was about 30 degrees outside on the days we filmed...that didn't work out. We also took a bit of liberty with the plot (the fight that kills Laertes and Hamlet occurs AFTER Ophelia's death in the play.)
We threw in several fairly hidden things. Such as the clip of Gertrude reading "Hamlet." And Polonius being shot in a shower to foreshadow Ophelia's death. This IS meant to be an interpretation. We felt it was tragic how Ophelia lost her mind and sang herself into madness. That's why we had her sing all the way until she drowned.
Days and days of filming and weeks and weeks of editing paid off. Sure, there are some continuity errors, some bad shots, some crappy slo-mo, and you can see my ear plugs in a few shots, but overall, we were pretty happy with our result!
"Dead in the Water"
Ellie Goulding
Halcyon
"Dead in the Water Instrumental"
Five Star Beats
No Copyright infringement intended.