Planning

Finding a Song

The first stage of making our video is to find a track form an unsigned artist. We did this by asking each group member to go away and select a sing they found and then we pitched our songs and ideas around that song to the class. 

My Pitch: 

The song that I picked is called 'Name In Stars - Anthony Rankin'. 

The genre of this song is Pop, Rock, R&B

The idea of a music video I had for this song was to have it concept based. As it is a music which is based around romance I thought it would of the artist and his partner.

(A similar example of the music video I had in mind is the video by John Legend - All of Me)

The actor of the video should be the artist throughout the video he should be seen singing, and with his partner. 

The artist should a male, preferably a young white adult male, wearing smart casual clothes in terms of the costume. The actress should also be a young white adult female, and to be seen wearing pretty dresses or casual clothes. 

Costume Ideas: 

Throughout the video there should be a range of various locations of moments the artist and the girl are spending time together where you're able to see them acting like a couple and have nice romantic times together.

Some of the locations of these would be common places such as a park (field), cafe, bedroom, dinner table, streets etc. In these scenarios I would expect the weather to be bright and sunny however these may differ due to locations.

A more specific examples of shots could be in a field where the couple are laying down on the floor looking up at stars. Close ups of intimacy would be required as the couple should gently stroke and touch each other around areas of hands, lips, neck etc.  

There should also be scenarios where the artist is lip syncing to the song, this would be in places such as the bedroom, a piano room, and maybe in the different scenarios where the couple are seen spending time together. 

Feedback of the pitch: It may be difficult to find an actor and actress that are willing to act intimate, especially in front of a camera, therefore drama students or more of an experienced actors may be needed as it is more likely for them to feel comfortable taking on these roles. 

This Idea is going to be shared with my group and we will be thinking about what are good about the song and the ideas and if the song would be a good option to use to start making a music video for. We may also be taking some ideas from it and think about how it may help for our chosen video. 

Group Meeting (11/09/2014) 3:00pm - 6:00pm

In this group meeting, we had discussed the selected music we had chosen and went over the ideas we had for them in order to select one to progress with

Anthony Rankins - Name In Stars

(Aimee's) Michael McEachern - Easier as Us

(Rahat's) Jason Chen - Best Friends

We thought that 'Name In Stars' had the least potential in progressing with the music video so we had decided not to go ahead with it.

However as we liked both the remaining songs, it had seemed that it was difficult for us to pick. We had brain stormed ideas in detail for both the songs but still had gotten no where.

As a result to the group meeting we decided that we will be creating a brief storyline for both of the music videos and see which of these will be better for use. From this we will make a decision. 

Group Meeting (16/09/2014) 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Another group meeting was held as we had to make a selection both the music we had chosen.

After completing the storyline (shown below) for both of the songs, the two songs ideas were really good and strong with a lot of potential. 

Also after researching further into Jason Chen, we found out that we were not able to use his song as he was signed under his own record label.

This had lead us into picking Michael McEachern's Easier As Us

This is the brief story line for 'Jason Chen - Best Friend' by Rahat Hussain

This is the brief story line for 'Michael McEachern - Easier As Us' by Aimee Watson

Chosen Song Michael McEachern - Easier As Us

One of the main reasons why we decided to choose this song was because with the idea of the music video we thought that this song had potential in creating a really strong narrative based music video. The song ticked the box of being an upbeat romantic song which we was looking to head towards. We will be making the video as it was pitched.

Lyrics

Can't get my mind away from thoughts of you

Two weeks ago today you were just the girl I drew

Now I think it's time that we decide; lovers or friends

And we would be fools not to follow what our hearts suggest

So think it over

And let me know girl

'Cause you and I would be easier as us

We don't need three words when just one could sum us up

We're a couple; a pair, it's apparent when we touch

Oh, you and I would easier as us

Can't keep my hands away from holding yours

And your eyes like gravity keep pulling close inside of your world

Now I think it's time that together we find a life of our own

But together is hard when our title indicates we're alone

So think it over

And let me know girl

'Cause you and I would be easier as us

We don't need three words when just one could sum us up

We're a couple; a pair, it's apparent when we touch

Oh, you and I would easier as us

Straight to the point

Straight to the heart

I knew you were right

Right from the start

You and I would be easier as us

We don't need three words when just one

One could sum us up...

You and I would be easier as us

We don't need three words when just one could sum us up

We're a couple; a pair, it's apparent when we touch

Oh, you and I would easier as us

You and I would be easy as us (x4)

Contacting the artist

Proof of us contacting Michael McEachern

The message:

I am currently studying A level media for college (Sir John Cass Sixth Form) and I am in need of a song to use for my music video. I came across your song 'Easier As Us' on Jamendo and would love to use it and create a video for the song. Of course, your permission is required for us to use your song, and it would be greatly appreciated if you would grant us the permission needed. The video would be used for educational purposes only, but we would be required to put the video on YouTube in order for the examiner to view it. We would take no credit for your track.

Yours faithfully, 

Aimee, Rahat and Maajid

Developing our ideas further. Our animatics

Now that we have our chosen song and some initial ideas, we wanted to develop them further. Here is our animatics video that we made.
It is basically our storyboard edited together alongside the track to demonstrate how we roughly envisage our music video to be. We will be following the animatics for our filming as a storyboard.

Locations Research and Plan

Here I will be talking about the possible locations that I feel that would be good to use. It has been gathered through the conventions of pop that we identified in our research and consideration of our story board.

1. Bedroom
This location was selected, as we thought it would be a common ideal place for a POP genre music video to take place as we found in our research that they often use domestic settings. I think this is to identify with average people/ audiences.





EXAMPLE: Olly Murs - Dear Darlin'

As our artist is a young male, we thought to set a bedroom location which as it would usually be a place where a young male would do most of his thinking. In addition to this, within the video our idea is that he would be shown sketching scenes of the video from this location and most of the lip syncing would be set in this location.
Challenges: We need to find a masculine looking bedroom that doesn't have too much clutter.  Ideally we want somewhere that the decor is quite sophisticated. We also need someone where that the parents will be happy/ give permission for us to film in.

2. Park: St James Park

London SW1A 2BJ

This is a location we found during our location hunt which we would like to use. This was one of the places that we found and felt as though it would be a good place to have our opening scene, where the artist is seen sitting on a bench sketching the girl he likes. We thought that the location is very peaceful and natural, a place where a person could come to relax and sketch like the character in our music video would.
 In addition to this we thought the location matched our music genre research as parks are a very common convention in the pop genre that we found.

EXAMPLE: One Direction - Night Changes

Challenges: we will obviously have to arrange for transport and will have to take all the kit to this location. It is not local so this will be difficult. We will need to ensure that we plan at a good time so a to avoid rush hour tube congestion. Finally we want it to be sunny so we need to check the weather and plan carefully. 

3. Ice Skating: Somerset House (Ice Rink)

Strand, London WC2R 1LA

Another location which we had come across was the Somerset House, we thought this would be a ideal location to choose for a date scene between the artist and the girlfriend. It looks bright and romantic, which is also a common POP/ romance genre convention. We found in our research that date scenes tended to be bright and well lit, often with fairy lights and in busy locations filled with people's fun and laughter. 

EXAMPLE: One Direction - Night Changes


Challenges: This will be expensive, not just the travel up the west end, but also taking all the kit. And then the actual cost of ice skating is quite pricey. Also there are the safety limitations of skating and filming and the technical issues of do we take the camera on the ice or film form the side. These are all issues that we will have to explore further. 

4. Cafe: The Gaslight Lounge and Bar 

4 Duke Of York Street, St. James's, London SW1Y 6LA

In the music video, one of the locations we had chosen to have was a cafe, and during our location hunt we came across this place. We thought that it may be one that we may use as we thought the shop looked romantic and may be a place where a couple would go to. A Cafe/ dinner location was also a genre convention we found in our research. 

EXAMPLE: Justin Bieber - Mistletoe







Especially POP songs which feature topics of 'love' and this is what we were intending to do, so we felt this would work well. 

Challenges: The biggest challenge will be have is going to be gaining permission to film within a cafe like this. We will need to be professional and contact the owner, maybe with a letter from our school and our student passes as evidence. We may also need to pay for a meal so this is an additional cost that we need to consider. We will nee dot be considerate of other diners and may need to schedule at a time when they are not too busy.  

                                          Cast Planning

We found early on that casting was important and because of this we wanted to ensure that we took this aspect very seriously. 
 Here is a calling for audition listed on a website called 'StarNow'

Applicants will be replied to via email or phone number informing if they were successful or not. 

Photoshoot 1: Ted

On the 6th November we ran a practice photo shoot for the digi-pak we were planning to create. We took some photos in reference to other albums of male artists that we found in our research and tried to use their style of poses for our artist. Here are two photos that we edited in photoshop, aiming to remove the spots on the face of our artist (as he is a teenager and we found that all the prints we looked dat in our research had flawless skin) .

Final Casting decisions: 

Maajid


Pelin