The First Pitch

There are certain key conventions in a Pop Video:

• The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption

• The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)

• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement

• Many Short Shots: High Ratio

• Repetition of reoccuring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)

• A possible narrative structure

• A possible performance element

• The flexibility to disregard Realism!

• Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track

• Use of special effects (lighting, annimation, CGIs, in-camera effects)

• A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track

• High impact instantly! (Don’t forget that competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense)

• Discontinuity Editing


Our Pitch, 2 Main Ideas, How they did/didn’t work:

Idea 1:



Artist: Goose
Song Name: Black Glove (The Bloody Beetroots Remix)
http://www.goosemusic.com/

Idea: There are very few lyrics in this song because it is a Bloody Beetroots remix however as a group we have chosen this song to be our main idea that we pitch, this is because we would like the to subvert the stereotype of music videos just being all about the pop star or rock star showing how glamorous, amazing and cool they are. Instead we would like to show how disrupted life has become showing this in an out of control rebellious rave with cuts of videos clips of war or poverty (eg: Soldiers and then at the end a nuclear explosion). Our video is not portraying our artist in the same way as others he is more like an unknown hidden artist but with meaning in his videos and songs. This idea is quite like the way Bob Sinclair is never in his music videos but gets chilled to perform in them, another example would be the Gorillaz using cartoons. To keep the audience watching we will following people running, causing problems in the process, to this rave I also envisioned starting of filing the road in a car to make the video look more fast placed and racy.



What Doesn’t Work: The main problem with our video is the rave because it would be extremely difficult to get that many people and with the style of the music it is quite obvious at the end there will be a rave.


Idea 2:

Artist: RoomService
Song Name: Queen Of The Radio

Idea: RoomService is unknown French band, who have done some recording but have never made a music video before therefore this would be there first music video. Out of the 4 band member 3 of them are French so there clothes and look would be a very cool indie French style. Unlike the other idea we are imitating the conventions of the music video. The clothes of the band will represent them as slightly rock n roll therefore giving them the “cool” factor. The idea is very simple it will just be the band singing in an all white and then an all black backround and we will be coping Jamiroquai’s idea in his Virtual Insanity music video.

What Doesn’t Work: This is the best, simplest and most affective idea because they are a real band and we would not have the get lots of cast members in this video. However, seeing as 2 of the band members are in Switzerland and they are all in boarding school getting them all there on the shoot day would be tricky.

Research and Development-First Ideas

My group will work through the five stage of production. We began by researching pop videos and there conventions and how the industry works. We look at many music videos of different genres and artist and the development of artist threw there carers. In class we did a case study on Kylie Minogue watching her first music video to her most recent and watching the way she was represented and the way she has changed they way the viewers look at her. Her first music video she was represent as a “girl next door” type character and in her last she is represented a superstar with lots of low angle shots and close ups of her lips and body giving her sexual magnetism.
To come up with the RoomService music video I look at many music videos mainly ones by the Artic Monkeys and the King of Leon. The 2 music videos which generated my idea was Jamiroquai- Virtual Insanity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REfDCPhPQQ4&ob=av2e and Kings of Leon- On Call http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DK_8VZm_Dg&ob=av2n I found that by mixing those two ideas together I could come up with one genius idea. As for my Goose idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-IaNAw4G8s I did some music video researching on Mike Snow and Bob Sinclair http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7re_u5m4wMk and the prodigy. However all the ideas in that one was not taken from any music videos. As for my third Idea, The Pretty Reckless- Make Me Wanna Die I watched a few of there other songs, some old videos by Metalica, Pink Floyd to come up with there perfect and most suited look and was of representing them in there video.

I pitched my 3 ideas to my group and 2 of my ideas we pitched to everyone else as our First Pitch. I have written out my other two ideas in Blog Entry 3 so that I could show the comments and what works and what doesn’t. My idea for the Pretty Reckless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYeGw-bo430 consists of giving them that rebellious, Rock n Roll and cool factors. In this rock band there is a female lead singer so I could also have some “sexual magnetism”, as Richard Dyer says, in my music video which these days is the best way to sell anything and make it big. The band will have values of music stardom such as rebellion, anger and disregard for any social values. In there music video there will be a lip singing element on stage making them look like a new band with a large audience. The rest of the music video will take place in a broken down house with alcohol bottles showing that the band had a heavy night last night.

The Five Stages Of Production

The 5 stages of production consist of:

• Research and Development: We must research our target audience, whether it is a niche or a mainstream, we must know the age, gender, social class and interests of this audience. For the development side we must produce a time line, a treatment, pitch, practicalities, storyboards and cast which have all been camera tested to make it certain they will look good on screen.




• Pre-Production: Pre-Production is getting everything ready for the actual shoot day. The most important part of this is producing a Call sheet, the “bible of the day”, which caries all the information which is vital for the day of the shoot. During this stage we prepare the storyboards, the casting, the costumes, the makeup, the locations, the props, anything in the Mise en Scene. For pop videos in particular it will include the shooting order and lyrics of the song chosen.

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• Production: This is the day of the shoot. This is when everything is filmed although there may be pickups later if they are needed. Without the careful and specific planning of the pre-production there would be no production because nothing would be organised and ready for the day. Things may go wrong on the day of the shoot, like a member of the cast not being able to turn up however we must be prepared to improvise and must have a back up plan which should be on the Call sheet


• Post-Production: This consists of the editing and after effects of the production or any pickups needed. This part may take up to a year for big movies. It is also one of the most important parts because if the post-production goes wrong somehow all the work done in the stages before will not be seen as well as it should.

• Distribution and Exhibition: This is the stage when movies are soled to television or are placed in cinemas with either a blanket or platform release. For our pop videos we would distribute and exhibit through television outlets, CD, DVD, Internet and social spaces, marketing sites, mobile phone, posters and lots more publicity.

Pop Video And Marketing Campaign Our Brief

THE BRIEF

You have to create:
- THREE MULTI MEDIA PRODUCTS
- TO ESTABLISH THE IMAGE AND BRAND OF YOUR SINGER AND GROUP and
- HELP SELL THE SONG FROM THEIR FIRST ALBUM.

The group or singer must be a NEW GROUP (even if they are doing a copy of an existing song).

The song is a SINGLE from their FIRST ALBUM.

The actual products to be produced are:
- THE POP VIDEO
- A DIGIPAK for the ALBUM
- A MAGAZINE ADVERT for the ALBUM.

Evaluation Of Post Production

In our preliminary task we used basic shots such as over the shoulder, wide and close up however when shooting our thriller we used more complex shot such as panning which are much harder to shoot espeacialy with panning because you need to get the timing exactly right.

The editing in the preliminary task was relitively simple because all we had to do was follow the storyboards so it was not difficult to figure out the order all the shot had to go in and there was a scrit which made editing also much easier, however in our thriller we did not have a script and the storyboards were simply a guidance. In the preliminary we just had to cut directly into another shot which is not hard to do and we did not have to use titles. In our main task the editing was more complex because we had to use fades, lots of sound effects, not to mention adding in the sound that we had recorded on the day of your shoot like the table falling over and glass smashing. In the thriller you had to cut in a certain way to build tension to keep the audience at the edge of there seats where as in the preliminary the cutting did not have to be in a scecific way because you were not trying to build tension.

Sound are important in our thriller because we do not have a script. We used sound FX to double up sounds to make some sounds sound like real objects, for example when our main protagonist falls into the other room the shoot is pitch black and the only reason the audience knows what is going on is because you can hear a table fall over and pins and glasss smashing on the floor this sound is diegetic.

Our group decided not to put the titles during the sequence of our thriller but to put them at the beggining and at the end because during our film we want there to be a build of suspense and tension and we felt that the titles would ruin that. Our opening sequence titles were slow however when the naem of our thriller comes up at the end the cut from to the shot because to that is fast making the audience want to know what happens next.

All of our choices have been chosen to appeal to our audience. The whole point of our thriller is draw in thrill seekers, so hopefully we have rewarded with our opening sequence, the sound and editing reflects our target audience directly as it is for horror junkies, and we edited the sound and edited the whole sequence with this in mind. We want this to appeal to the fans of Saw and Hostel, therefore with having a series of close-ups, POV shots and keeping it in a claustrophobic setting we were able to mkaintain the tension and drama which are a prerequisite for the horror genre.

Task 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

The sophistication of the planning and preparation for the Preliminary task was much simpler than the main task. In the preliminary we were already given storyboards with the script on them, there were only a few shots we had to do, close up, wide shot and over the shoulder. In the preliminary task everything was very specific it just gave us the chance to get acquainted with the camera and how to film. However, when planning and preparing the main task we were not handed anything and had to do everything ourselves, we had to figure out what worked, what didn’t, how we would film things, if everything made sense, would our target audience like our thriller etc… We had to make sure that our thriller would be appealing to our target audience, for example we had to make sure that we were casting people who would appeal to a larger audience. We were creating our own film therefore every group member need an equal amount of task that needed to be done. Storyboarding was a long process because we had to be as specific as possible so that we film everything needed so that one editing comes we will not be stuck. In our main task we didn’t not stick to a few shots we did many and experimented which took us all out of our comfort zone, the hardest were the pan shot and the over head. Editing the preliminary task was relatively simple we just had to follow the story boards exactly however the main task was more difficult for example we didn’t not have a script and all sounds came in during the editing process.
For making a successful thriller storyboarding is a key element however it is not the only element, casts lists, prop lists, set design, costume lists, lighting requirements etc.. Firstly we needed to figure out exactly what we needed, who we needed, when we needed it and how we needed it. Then we needed to find where to get everything and how much it will all cost. In our preliminary tasks we did not need to worry about any of this because it was a very simple set and there were no props. Then we needed to think about were we would be filming our thriller, we decided on the studio because it would be easier to manipulate sound and lighting. The main task took a lot of preparation because the more we planned and the more specific and organised we were the easier are shoot day will be and then we would not have to change lots of things and we would not have to worry about anything else apart from making sure our filming was good and that all our camera shots were good.
There was a major improvement in the use of camera from the preliminary to the main task. In our preliminary we were still learning how the camera works how we need to film where as in the main task we already knew how to use the camera and how to film however we push past our boundaries and experimented with shots like panning, major close-ups and handhelds. Since our preliminary task we have been able to be more confident in our filming and we have also been able to apply the rule of thirds to a lot of our shots. In the beginning of our thriller our shots do not give away the narrative to much so intended to builds tension and make the audience want to know what happens next to keep them at the edge of there seats. It was more difficult to make sure that everything made sense in our thriller because the audience does not have any help from a script because there is no dialogue only sounds effects. The main task is better in showing off our skills in filming because every single shot has a meaning behind it, every close up was picked for a specific reason. We kept to the 180degree rule so that our audience would not be confused.
The use of sound from the preliminary to the main task has improved greatly, in our preliminary we did not have to add any other sound apart from the recorded dialogue however in our main task we did keep the heavy breathing of our main protagonist but we added in sounds by using the soundtrack pro. The soundtrack of our thriller, much like the thriller in general, was to build tense atmosphere. We also added in the sound of bricks clanging together to attract the audience’s attention towards the window to make them believe that our thriller would be based around what it outside that window. Our main protagonist then falls threw a door into a room of pitch blackness by using the sound effects of smashing class and a table falling, which we had recorded on the day of out shot, we made the audience believe that when our main protagonist had fallen threw the door he had smashed into things on the way making them fall of and break.

Task 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?