UPDATED Music video Pitch + representations

Pitch

Genre: Indie/alternative/rock. I feel as though the pitch for my music video will conform many conventions attached to this genre because it is cinematic and challenges popular music videos within the music industry. It is becoming more common for other music videos with the same genre to tell a story/include a narrative, as this can help to explain the lyrics to the viewer. Unlike a lot of indie music videos, mine will not include the band performing or lip syncing because we want ours to be enjoyed and appreciated like a film. 

Basic premise: 

• Someone anonymous puts a stimulant in a drink next to a sleeping male character. After he wakes up and drinks the liquid he begins hallucinating and his vision goes wavy and more vibrant - this will be created through effects. 
• A girl walks past him and he follows her, in an attempt of discovering who is behind the mask. The boy will not know that this 'someone' is the girl he loves, until the figure takes off the mask and reveals her identity. 
• The audience will find out half way through the music video that it was actually the girl herself who put the stimulant in his drink.
• Throughout the video, she will disappear and keep reappearing, making the male character confused. 
• The girl eventually takes off her mask and they meet face to face.

I am pleased with this outcome of ideas my group and I thought of, as I feel as though it is something original - especially for a music video. Although the representations are hard to follow, the outline of the narrative is not, so the props and characters can be interpreted in any way depending on how a viewer sees it. 

Representations

Love is the most importance theme in my music video, and it is represented through the stimulant. Therefore, the video is not about drug indulgence or drug abuse, but it will aim to demonstrate the complexity of love in a creative way.

• The stimulant: Love. As the male character begins to hallucinate in the bed, the 'sparks' of first attraction are produced. Love is produced by the combination of three neurochemicals - phenylethylamine, norepinephrine and dopamine. Therefore, the effects expose the bonding of these neurochemicals and the formation of love in a visual way.
• The male character: The target of love - has caught feelings and can't escape it easily because humans cannot control who they fancy. 
• The mask: A false identity. The phrase 'putting on a mask' to hide your inner emotions is a popular one, so by interpreting this in my music video, the mask has one solid emotion that cannot be changed, so the girl wears to to pretend nothing is affecting her.
• The girl character: Wanting to feel love (hence putting the stimulant in the drink), but not necessarily wanting to give it back - until the ending where she takes off her mask. She does this because the stimulant had proved to her it (love) happens.

Tidal Wave Initial Ideas (KA)

Planning Costumes (KA)

Choosing locations (CD)

Tempesst Artist Permission (KA)

We decided to use Facebook as a means of contacting Tempesst as we assumed they are a fairly 'current' and modern band, so we used to simplest means of contact. 

We are currently still waiting to hear back from the band.

Selecting Actors (KA)

(I altered the POV of this blog post from Katy to mine)

Actors

When it came to choosing who we wanted to act in our video, we decided to keep the actors in our group. We thought this would be easier as we knew, as a group, what we wanted to achieve. Therefore, instead of having to relay our ideas to other people who may not understand the kind of things we wanted do with our video, we decided to use Cody and Katy for the main actors for our video.

In a similar sense, we decided not to ask people to be extras for our video as all the locations we are using are city centre locations that are always highly populated with people. We thought this works well with the distorting concept of our video.

We chose to cast people of our age in the video is essentially about two teenagers, ones who is fixated on the thought of being in love with a certain girl, who may be a figure of his imagination. 

Male Character

Our male character is a seemingly secretive and closed off person. Cody can easily achieve this, with his costume; it’s extremely easy to create the representations we wanted.

Cody isn’t a drama student,and neither is Katy. This could cause issues, but we realised the roles are simple enough to easily create the images we wanted to, regardless of whether the actors are drama students.

Female Character

Katy is taking the role of the female character. This is a fairly simple role, and because she is not a drama student, it is easy for her to carry out.

Our female character is a very illusive and, in a sense, mysterious character in that we, as the audience don't know if she actually exists.  
However, Katy is 17 and Cody is 18 - we felt this would fit perfectly with what we were trying to achieve with our portrayal of our characters. Like many teenagers, we are showing them to be extremely closed off and secretive people who are extremely susceptible to ‘love’ even when it doesn’t really exist.

UPDATED Shooting Schedule (+ Prop list) (AW)

I concluded a shooting schedule for our group, which lists all the shots our music video needs in the order we film them in. All of the shooting days require the same actors, crew, props, costumes and transport. This is because our music video only involves 2 actors (2 members of our group) and the events within it happen in one day, so the actors are wearing the same costumes for every shooting schedule.

Prop List

• ·      SLR Camera
• ·      Tripod
• ·      Mask

For the final shooting day (Additional):

• ·      Photo Frame
• ·      Photo of the two actors (for the photo frame)
• ·      Glass of water
•  Intoxicant 

Despite that our prop list is very short, it means that there is less to remember when it comes to shooting the footage. I like it how our idea for our music video is creative and unique, yet it only displays the use of one prop – the mask – which behold significance in the video.

The last shooting day requires 4 additional props as it is when we are filming the introduction of our music video/narrative. Because the setting of this is based in a house, it is easy to access a photo frame, glass of water and a drug. The picture for the photo frame can be printed off at our school by connecting the mobile to a computer using a USB cable. Therefore, all of our props are essential to create the narrative, yet they are easy to access.

Our group was also planning  to use a GoPro camera to film some hand-held shots, as we thought these would add realism to our music video so the audience can see from the actors’ perspectives.  We experimented with Katy’s tripod but the footage was blurry and lacked good quality. Therefore, we decided not to use a GoPro for our video.

Shooting day 1

Location: Market Place, Norwich

Date : 24/10/2016

Start/end times: 10AM-3PM

Transport: I can easily access a bus to Norwich due to frequent bus timetable and a bus pass. Katy and Ben can either get a bus or a lift to the city and Cody can cycle into the centre.

Actors Required: Cody and Katy

Crew required: Ben and I

Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod

Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. The set does not to be decorated as we are filming the actors walking through and around the Norwich market.

Shot numbers (from storyboards): Shot type 2 (1-5)

Shooting day 2

Location: The abandoned prison and the top floor of St Andrews car park, both in Norwich

Date : 30/10/2016

Start/end times: 12-4PM

Transport: Bus, car lifts and cycling (Cody)

Actors Required: Cody and Katy

Crew required: Ben and I

Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod

Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. The set does not need to be decorated as we are filming in a public area.

Shot numbers (from storyboards): -

Notes (things to remember): This is the time to film shots that have different angles e.g. high angle shot, close up

Shooting day 3

Location: St Andrews car park, Norwich (and the Norwich market to film transition shots)

Date : 1/11/16

Start/end times: 2-4PM

Transport:  Bus, car lifts and cycling (Cody)

Actors Required: Cody and Katy

Crew required: Ben and I

Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod

Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. The set does not need to be decorated as we are filming in a public area.

Shot numbers (from storyboards): Shot type 8 (1-5)

Notes (things to remember): Consider the possible reflection of the camera being shown on the door (whilst filming the shot of Cody opening the door), and give plenty of time for filming this scene as time will be wasted waiting for people to walk through the camera shots.

 Shooting day 4 

Location: Ben’s house, Poringland

Date : November 9^th

Start/end times: 3.30 – 4.00PM

Transport: Bus, car lifts and cycling (Cody)

Actors Required: Cody and Katy

Crew required: Ben – I am not required for this scene as Ben knows how to use my camera and it will take less than 30 minutes to film. Poringland is a long car journey from where I live.

Equipment needed: SLR Camera, Tripod (as well as the additional props)

Costume, Set dressing:  Our actors are required to wear all black. More consideration needs to be taken with the set than the other shooting days because it is inside a bedroom – therefore, it is important that the bedroom suits the character it belongs to.  
Shot numbers (from storyboards): Shot type 1 (1-5)