One Page Pitch

One Page Pitch



Here is our Video interview for our one page pitch.

Overview:

I know that for our music video I want to capture a wide range of vibrant scenes with high quality cameras. We do want to use actors and actresses to portray the idea of the plot however we also want to be able to catch many good quality shots of different scenes. We want everything to look cool and urban, and possibly would like to, experiment with colour during the editing process to make the scenes look brighter.

We want the song to capture vibrant scenes, perhaps getting ready to go on a night out, and the aftermath of coming home with mixed emotions of love. We want to capture both friendship and love, and how teenagers can experience a wide range of emotions through the stage in their life. We looked at the video for ‘ToVe Loves – Stay High’ and although we don’t like the concept of her taking drugs, we do like some of the shots used to show her confusion and sadness, which is something we would like to duplicate in this.

Song Choice:

Ideas for our song choice include ‘Desire’ by Years and Years, we feel that we can create a story line to go well with this. For example some of the lyrics include ‘Is it desire? Or is it love that I’m feeling for you?’ the confusion of the emotions would fit well with our idea and we could tell a story of the journey gone through in the song on the road to finding love.

Location:

We want to film around near where we live, particularly at night to make it more realistic and we wouldn’t film late – as it gets dark early now. We will also try and film at someones house to show the start and end of the journey.

Actors:

We would like to have possibly one or two actors in the music video, with extras to add to the song and the theme we want of friendship during teenage years. We would use the actors to lip synch words, and I would get shots of them doing various things relating to the music.

Theme:

The theme of our music video is going to be that of a journey, we want our music video to have emotions attached to it, and have some form of a story. It all depends on our song choice which we can apply the theme to. So for the song Desire by Years and Years, the theme would be happy, vibrant and there would be the theme of love attached to the video in some way or form. However if we chose a song like Kathleen by Catfish and the Bottlemen, the theme would be slightly darker, and more about a tumultuous relationship, and finding yourself.

Audience:

We are aiming my music video towards people 16-24, who are the age range that mostly watch Youtube and are more likely to take more of an interest into music videos with a story behind them, which I know due to being within this age range, and asking many of my friends if they are more likely to watch a music video again if it has a good story to it. As opposed to barely watching it, and listening to the song.

Skills I need to make the video:

The skills needed to make the music video would be good quality camera skills, we really want to test ourself with this video and research different tips and tricks to get high quality camera shots – for scenic shots that we want to capture. As well as this we will need to work well independently and be able to meet deadlines.

Music Video Regulation

Music video's can prove to be very controversial and cause a social media buzz. I've looked into some of the most controversial music videos to try to understand why directors create controversy. Five of the most controversial videos, In no particular order;

1. Elastic Heart - Sia

-  This video has been viewed as controversial for many reasons, such as the paedophile tone as Shia LaBeouf, a 29 year old man, dances around with Maddie Ziegler, a 13 year old girl. The video, although appearing wrong, Sia argues representative of her inner demons battling one another.  

2. Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke, Pharrell and T.



- This video arguably caused the most controversy as it featured two versions, one with women completely naked dancing around the fully clothes males, and another with the woman in minimal, nude-coloured clothing. The sexist video includes lyrics within the song such as 'I know you want it' which has been described as popularizing rape culture and many view the video as insensitive.

3. Call on Me - Eric Prydz



- Swedish DJ Eric Prydz made sure people didn't forget the video to his single 'Call On Me' by recruiting an array of gorgeous girls to enjoy an aerobics class in tight leotards. The workout routine caused controvery for the sexually suggestive routines. The popularity of the video ended up in a full dance workout DVD being released.

4. Dirrty - Christina Aguilera 

 

- This video, released in 2002, was Christina's comeback song, debueing a new image with her new, seductive song. The video is extremely provocative, showing Christina singing raunchy lyrics in minimal clothing.

5. Lily Allen - Hard Out Here



- The song 'Hard out Here' by Lily Allen, released in 2013, caused controversy for many reasons. It is clear the Lily Allen knew that the video would get people talking, however it was discussed for all the wrong reasons. It was immediately taken to task online and in the press for Lily's use of black dancers in the clip. The hip-hop 'satire' themed promo was slammed as racist, with the black dancers argued to be used as props rather than people.

Audience Theory: Male Gaze Theory

Star Theory

Music Video Practice

During my trip to New York I captured a lot of footage which I feel could potentially be used in the music video, the footage was captured on my phone and I edited together some of it using Premier Pro, downloading a Royalty Free song off Youtube to use. In order to upload the file to blogger I had to upload it to Youtube. I may use some of the clips within the music video, depending on whether they fit with the ideas I have.

Amy Winehouse; Case Study

Amy Winehouse; a defining artist of the 21st century. With her unique voice and interesting persona, making her unalike anyone during that time. I have chosen to study Amy Winehouse and her life, after watching the documentary 'Amy' in a cinema, with my media class.

 

As we are looking at music videos, and music stars, Amy is a crucial singer to look at, as she passed away so young but left such an untold story behind, with the drug abuse, the Grammys, the character and her past relationships it all entices me to look more into her story. 

 

I really enjoyed watching the documentary, although it was very sad, as I learned about the tumultuous life of Amy, and how being a pop star in the public eye, inevitably led to her excessive drug abuse and eventual downfall and death. Seeing Amy's muse, Blake Fielder, and their love story - although revolving a lot around drug and alcohol - made her lyrics clearer and the songs now have a deeper meaning to me, knowing the story behind her writing them. My favourite sequence was showing her relationship, the flashing lights and the speech in the background such as "we would've died for each other" emphasizing the amount of love she felt for Blake, and could've blinded her senses and he could've potentially pushed her to try all the class A drugs she did.

There was a big impact of using archive footage, of her life before she was famous, contrasting with footage from her life when she was famous. It showed her in a way he public didn't know her, giving us more of an insight.

 

I read an interview with Justin Bieber for NME in which he compares himself to Amy Winehouse and her mistreatment. He has been ridiculed and mocked by the press, facing a lot of backlash for his actions, which led to him spiralling out of control. He now has gotten back on track. But says of that time "I watched the Amy Winehouse documentary on the plane and had tears in my eyes because I could see what the media was doing to her, how they were treating her...People thought it was funny to poke her when she was at rock bottom, to keep pushing her down until she had no more of herself. And that's what they were trying to do to me". I found this intriguing as it shows how the media can respond to celebrities, and how they can lead to their downfall in some respects. Its interesting how the media can manipulate the public image of celebrities, which is unfair and cruel and it is still happening in the society we live in today.

Overall, I feel her life had the potential to be amazing, and from the music aspect it was amazing - winning Grammys, achieving a wide recognition for her work. However her personal life, despite being madly in love, began to spiral out of control with her drug abuse. Unfortunately, the consequences led to death. With her passing so young, it is heart-breaking as it could have been stopped with more help from those around her. What confuses me is the fact that her dad didn't insist that she needed to go to rehab, when everyone else did. The only persons opinion she listened to was her father, and that's where the inspiration for the song 'Rehab' came from, with lyrics such as "My daddy thinks I'm fine, but they try to make me go to Rehab and I wont go,go,go". Which is interesting, she was a character definitely, her behaviour and attitude as unalike any pop performer at the time which is intriguing.

Mitch Winehouse, Amy's fathers comments on the documentary interested me for many reasons. He spoke to the guardian about his views and said "it was horrible..I told them (the film-makers) they were a disgrace. I said: 'You should be ashamed of yourselves. You had the opportunity to make a wonderful film and you've made this". The comments got me thinking about the documentary, and why her own father would think this way; encouraging me to read on the article. Mitch says that the depiction of how she went to rehab was completely inaccurate saying "She wasn't drinking every day. She was like a lot of kids, going out binge-drinking. And I said 'she doesn't need to go to rehab" In the film it is shown the he says "she didn't need to go to rehab at that time".

 

Audience Mindmap

Here is a mind map of how I will target my video towards a specific audience. I have included many different aspects of an audience within this.

Lip Synching Task

Here is a video that I made with my sister and my stepsister, practicing lip synching techniques and filming them lip synching. I decided to become creative and combine the lip synching task with the preliminary task - to create a short music video, as I thought I wanted to make the lip synching in a creative way.

New York; The Concrete Jungle and Meeting Ne-Yo

I visited New York over the week off in October, with my family, and whilst I was there I also captured some time lapses and video clips of the busy vibrant city to inspire me and also to possibly use within my music video.

I did a lot of things in New York, and as the city never sleeps, I was able to see a stark contrast from that location to where I live, Chesterfield. By exploring New York, I was able to see why so many music videos and films have been created there, and what it is that draws artists to the area.

I visited, Central Park, Times Square, SoHo, Ground Zero, The Empire State, The Rockefeller Centre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grand Central Station and many other places. They all inspired me, and made me realise how important a setting is for a music video, and how it can intrigue viewers and also capture the essence of a song. The city inspired me and I would love to live there some day, not permanently, as I feel you could really discover yourself in a city so big and full of opportunities.


One of the amazing things that happened to me whilst in New York was meeting Ne-Yo, an R&B singer with numerous hits. For example his song Time of Our Lives with Pitbull, released in 2014, was an instant hit all around the world. He has also had hit songs such as Closer, Let me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself), Beautiful Monster and So Sick. By briefly meeting a popular music star, and seeing him surrounded by adoring fans it made me realise how music is all about the performers persona and how they interact with fans. For example, Ne-Yo stopped to have photos with everyone waiting for him to come out of the Good Morning America studios. This shows his kind hearted nature, and is one of the reasons I admire him. I also saw Ne-Yo up close at the Radio One Teen Awards (in 2013), and he smiled with fans and interacted with them on the Red Carpet, which some artists at the awards did not.

Bands Using Promotion: Reverend and the Makers

Reverend and the Makers are a band I came across at Y Not Festival, in Pikehall, Matlock over the summer. At the festival, I would say these were one of my highlights simply because of the electric and slightly chaotic atmosphere that ensued once they arrived on the stage. Reverend and the Makers are a band from Sheffield, so a lot of my friends were aware of them prior to the festival. Once they took the stage their catchy rock hit "Heavyweight Champion of the World" was a massive success and I immediately became a fan.

One of my friends at the festival, was scrolling through Twitter with me one afternoon when we came across a Tweet from Reverend and the Makers official twitter account "Anyone want this at theres?" with a clip from a performance that the lead singer, Jon Mclure, did at someone's house.

Immediately my friend was desperate to get in touch with the band, and after a few messages back and forth he was told what he needed to do in order for it to happen. All that Jon Mclure wanted was 40 pre-orders of his their new album "Mirrors" and it to be proved by screenshot and messaged to the band on twitter. The way we were able to tell this was legitimate was the fact it was the bands official twitter page, and it was verified. As well as this, they are not as big as bands such as One Direction, and are fairly local to us so it seemed more achievable to get them to perform for us.

A venue was arranged in Pilsley, at the Star Pub, and when Jon Mclure arrived, he brought lead singer from Sheffield band 'The Sherlock's' with him, who performed their hit song "Escapade" to an electric crowd.
Jon performed hits such as "Heavyweight Champion", "Open Your Window", and a few others. The reception was amazing and he had many photographs with people after his performance, sticking around for a few drinks.



I feel that the fact Jon promoted Reverend and the Makers new album Mirrors in this way, made more people feel close to him, and them as a band. Therefore they will feel more passionate about the album, feeling it is from a 'friend' and word of mouth will spread about how good their set was etc. I think this form of promotion is amazing, as it reflects how artists can give back to their loyal fans in a way that is fun for both.

Here is a video from the night of Jon singing "Heavyweight Champion", taken on my phone. Speaking as a fan, and from my experience, being that close to a singer of a band you admire and being within that atmosphere, shows how vital artists being close to their fans is if they want to sell records, and also get a reputation as being a "nice guy" in Jon's case. As word quickly spread of everyone's night in Pilsley, sparking a lot of interest for potentially new fans - which is brilliant for Reverend and The Makers publicity.

Music Video Storyboard

Here is the storyboard we created as a rough draft for our music video plans.

 

Key Music Video Director: Joseph Khan

Here is a PowerPoint I created about the music video director Joseph Khan, and why he's inspired me when creating my own music video.

Key Music Video Director; Joseph Khan from amberneedham

Pharell 'Happy' Music Re-Creation Video

Me, Georgina, Ellie, Ryan and Calum all worked together to produce a 'Happy' Music Video inspired by Pharells' famous song. We had a fun time producing it, and it was done to show we know how to loosely follow conventions used in music videos - like close ups and dancing, singing along in some moments also.

Analysing my groups choice of Music Videos.

My media group all chose music videos that they felt were good, or creative and I have chosen to analyse a few of these to help me pick out key features and techniques used in successful music videos, to help me when creating my own.




Lana's video is one I admire, not only does the vintage feel of the video match the song perfectly, the way the video tells a love story is something that appeals to me and that I would watch again myself.

The quick cuts between shots of Lana, then the video of a rose blooming could show how Lana and the rose are similar, both being beautiful and associated with love. I love the quick cuts between the shots, and it is something I would use myself in my own music video, because I feel if it was too long a shot of Lana singing, some people - not myself as I find her fascinating - could potentially get bored.

As well as this I love the positive shots, of girls swinging and dancing together, showing friendship. Which does contrast the sad tone of the song, however it is done very cleverly and works well. Lana could have chosen to be sat down, use dark shots to reflect the dark meaning and tone of the song, however her light coloured clothing, and bright floral type cuts, represents how she's different to other artists.

Finally for this video, I admire the shaky shots, showing that she is not trying to be perfect with this music video. Despite her gorgeous looks, and impressive voice, the video could reflect her individuality. She knows not everyone will appreciate the style of the video, it differs to typical singers videos like Beyoncé, Nicki Minag and Taylor Swift, however we get the impression that Lana is okay with this, and accepts and embraces herself as an artist.





This video tells the story that the song itself tells, and perfectly fits the lyrics which I think is good as some songs don't relate to the lyrics at all - such as the Lana Del Ray video I just analysed.

There are lots of close up shots of the lead singer, looking mysterious and lip synching the lyrics. This creates the mystery that is later revealed within the song by the lyrics "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door!"  and we learn that there has been an affair, which the lead singer shouts at the wedding of the groom and bride. I think this shot is useful as we don't see the lead singers eyes, and are solely focused on his lips and the words he is saying.

Another shot that is used within the music video is the two shot, of the lead singer and the bride, this shows the singer taunting the bride, as she has cheated on her soon to be husband. The stern look in the brides face shows how she's angry at the fact she's been discovered. I like the two shot and how its used to convey two different emotions, disgust and anger.     















A final shot that is used in the music video is a shot of a haunted style house, with an establishing shot and loads of zombie style characters surrounding it. I like this shot as it shows the house and the dark side of the song.

 

Album Cover Analysis: Taylor Swift '1989'