Personnel Details

Costumes

Most of my costume ideas were outlined in my mood board, where a lot of the pictures were of clothes, jewellery and make-up. The sort of costumes that I want for my models are short skirts, high heels, lots of make-up, etc. - essentially just the kind of clothes worn when going out at night. Here are some examples of the style I am looking for...

Props

These are the props that I am aiming to use in my music video, based on my shot list. Some of the props are a bit unusual as I'm not using them because they're stylish or pretty, but because they are visually representing the lyrics. So, for example in any other music video, I would not feel the need for a biro or a drawing pin, but I need them for the lines "we'll start to talk when she borrows my pen" and "sharp as a tack" in this song.

I am going to use bank notes at 02:19, when the lyrics are "I want a girl with good dividends". I thought hard about how I could visually represent dividends, and in the end I decided that I could just use the idea of money by having the model fan out a wad of bank notes. I can get these easily by just asking all the models to bring some money, and because obviously I don't have to spend it, they can have it all back after the shot has been done. 

I plan to use a biro at 02:23 where the model writes the words, "we''ll start to talk when she borrows my pen", which are the lyrics. I will speed this up in Adobe After Effects so that it covers just the length of the lyrics.

Using shots of instruments, particularly guitars, are often common in indie music videos. Because the bassline of the song I am using is quite loud and important to the song, have chosen to use a bass guitar. The bass guitar will feature a few times in my video - I plan to use shots of the bassline being played during the intro, the instrumental and the outro.

During the line "eyes that burn like cigarettes", I have storyboarded a shot of lips blowing out smoke. Obviously this shot will have to be filmed outside, whilst the rest of mine will be shot indoors. Also the model I aim using for this shot is eighteen.

I will use a sped-up shot of a clock twice in my music video, once for the line "I want a girl who gets up early", where I will reverse the footage so that the clock hands are moving backwards, and once for the line "I want a girl who stays up late", where the hands will be moving forwards, though still sped-up.

I aim to use a takeaway paper coffee cup (not necessarily from Costa) for the line "she wants a car with a cupholder armrest", where I will film a model's lips in extreme close-up taking a sip from the cup.

I will use a small diamond-type gem for the line "I want a girl with a mind like a diamond", where I will have a model toying with it in her fingers, filmed in extreme close-up. Hopefully the light bouncing off the different sides of the diamond, especially when filmed so closely, will make for quite an interesting shot.

In the lyrics, the simile "sharp as a tack" is repeated, so I wanted to accompany this line with a simple gold drawing pin, having the model lightly prick her finger against it to draw attention to the sharpness of it, hence representing the simile.

For the line "who uses a machete to cut through red tape", I want to have a shot of the model snipping through red tape with some scissors. The scissors are easily obtained, and I managed to find some red tape in the sound department at school, which is used for taping wires at school productions. I will use two chairs on either side of the photoshoot backdrop to secure the tape to, and then have my model cut it in close-up.

Floor Plan

Risk Assessment

Call Sheet - Video Shoot 1/12/11

Actor Release Forms

Location Contract

Audience Feedback - Proposal

Screen Test

Location Recce

Shot List

This is my shot list for my music video, which briefly outlines all the shots I am planning to use along with their timings. Whilst I have tried to be as detailed as possible, there are some timings where I am not looking to film something that specific, for example in the instrumental of the song I would just like a variety of shots of the models dancing, or singing, or the bassline being played, and so at that point in the shot list there is less of a clear-cut plan. I will show this to all of my models before shooting to ensure that they know exactly what they are required to do, and then use it when filming so that I stick to my original plan and do not miss any shots that I require.

Diary Post Ten

Since my last diary post I have put up the storyboard that I mentioned, as well as a mood board that I created based on the themes, design inspirations and overall look of my music video. I have also completed a shot list, which briefly describes every shot I plan to use in turn along with the timing of that shot. Although I could just begin filming with a basic idea of what I wanted, and then use whatever footage I had from that to create the video and still end up with something very successful, in the case of my video (because of the song I'm using, the fact that I want visual representations of the lyrics, and also the way I work) I felt it would be much more effective if I knew exactly what I was going to film before I started. I have also got my models to sign their model release forms and I plan to film next week.

Digipack Cover Sketch

This is my draft for my digipack front cover. As the name of the band is Cake, I thought that an interesting design would be to bake a cake and ice the name of the album and band on the top. The name of the album is called Shadow Stabbing, so I had the idea of putting a knife in the cake and then using red icing to look like blood dripping from the wound. I really like the idea of using a cake for the cover, but I am unsure yet as to whether I will use the knife idea as I'm not sure it really reflects the tone of the song and the band.

Animatic

This is the animatic of my music video, which I created by taking the pictures from my storyboards and placing them on a timeline on Adobe Premiere Pro along with my song, and then editing them so that they fit in time with the music. Although this and the storyboard do cover most of the shots I plan to use, there are some parts of the song where I did not have a picture for what I am planning to film. However I have a more detailed description of the shots I want in my Shot List.

Storyboard

For my storyboard, I took the shot ideas that I knew I definitely wanted to use and sketched them out roughly with colour, so that I had a basic idea of what they would look like, even though they were not detailed. Then I scanned these in and pasted them onto a blank storyboard (like the one I used for my reverse storyboard), adding a short description of the camera angle/movement and type of shot, along with the lyric or music playing at the time of shot. Although this doesn't cover every shot I am aiming to use, it gives me a basis of what types of shots I want to use and it made me think more about the visuals of the video.

Mood Board

This mood board represents the overall tone, look and style of my music video. For example, the colours are mainly red, black, white and grey, with a lot of dark eye make-up and red lipstick, which is the kind of make-up I want my models to wear. I tried to include images of the sort of costumes I would want them to wear too, although this is harder as we are somewhat restricted to what people own, so I found photos of short skirts, high heels, ripped jeans, etc., as these reflect the sort of 'look' I want the models to have.

Diary Post Nine

Over the half term I have been working on my sketches for my storyboard and digipack cover and turning the sketches into an animatic. These should be up here soon, with a little description of the camera movements and why I chose these shots, etc. 


As well as this I have begun working towards my audience profile by getting some feedback from peers. I began by putting up polls on my blog asking about people's attitudes to music videos, and then showing some friends (who are not in my media class, so as to give me a less biased view) my proposal and asking them what they thought of the idea. I will write up these results and post them soon.


I also began discussing costume ideas with some of the models I will be using, mostly the sort of colours I am looking for them to wear, as well as the style of make-up, jewellery and hair. Additionally I briefed them on some of the things they will be required to do in the music video and at what part of the song they would be shown. I am hoping to show all my models my proposal, storyboard, animatic, etc, so that when it comes to filming they are fully aware of what it is I am looking to achieve and I know that we are all on the same page.