(Pre Production) Research Survey- "What do our target audience want and expect?"

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BKFGMTH

(Pre- Production) Beachcombing Ideas

Actors 

Due to our artists music being almost indie urban like we've decided to give our artist an indie yet vintage look. We want the artists style to represent their music and how they really are so we've decided to present the artist with some basic ideas to work from like the 11th doctor and fashion from areas like Brick Lane (where he regularly shops) to create an image that is what we think the audience will appeal to while also having the very unique look of our artist.


For the actress in our video we've decided to go for an attractive girl from the target audience so to allow the female members of the target audience to relate to the character and for the male target audience to be interested in her because she's attractive while also looking like someone they could know because they're all from the same target audience.

Locations

As far as locations have been considered we decided that due to the fact that our video occurs in multiple locations that we would want several easily distinguishable locations whether that be by color or architectural style. We want Robert to be in a basic school assembly hall which will play on the idea of him being young while also giving the idea of a person giving a speech about something to an audience, something that he is doing with his music giving awareness to Sea kelp.


For the scenes with the girl we know we want a scene in a bathroom where it would be her moment of realisation, as a visual link to her and Robert we feel that every other location should be slightly more cluttered and urban while the scene in the bathroom signifies her awareness of Robert we feel that perhaps the bathroom should look more plain,empty and sterile like the school hall Robert is in singing.


The bedroom the girl wakes up in will be the most disorganised and cluttered set so that as the song progresses and she gets closer to Robert each set gets plainer,emptier and more sterile; almost like a cleansing of her mind.


Scenes on the street should be done up in London to help attract a wider audience and also show how confined the girl feels, specifically in tourist attractions to show the negative side of her emotions however we will also show areas of Brick Lane to make the audience relate to the character and also give the character a fortress of solitude where she can feel happy.

Narrative

For the narrative we had decided on the idea of Robert receiving a letter from a fan talking about how she feels uncomfortable in her skin and then seeing the girls day to day routine through her eyes where we see how she starves herself,takes dieting pills and is bullied and influenced by the media.

Myself and my partner came up with the idea that the dual narrative between Robert and the girl should be visually heightened with the girls narrative being the fake side of the world with her being fat and having her bedroom floor covered with beauty magazines and cut outs of models while the floor around Roberts pianos are covered with articles about girls starving themselves and shows the negative side of the media.

Ideas we had for the narrative included a scene of the anorexic girl looking in the mirror to reveal her reflection being several stones larger than her self and shot transitions like her downing diet pills and having a smooth transition in Robert looking from the ceiling to piano or her throwing up in a toilet and as the camera tracks the vomit we transition to Robert skidding his fingers down keys on the piano.

Props 

We intend to use a piano, preferably a classic standard piano (,nothing too extravagant) because we want to keep it looking rather average and not out of place for our artist. We like the design of classic standard pianos because even without our artist they are already very iconic.

We would also like to have hundreds of magazines littered along the girls bedroom floor while for Robert we have hundreds of news papers to show contrasting imagery surrounding the idea of weight loss and dieting.

The only other major prop I can think of is the stage lights which will surround Robert and give his scenes a studio like atmosphere so we can clearly connote to the audience that this is the performance side of the narrative. 

Shots/ Influential products

I like the image of Alicia Keys on her piano because it's simplistic and iconic and instantly draws attention to the artist.



Further looking at pianos I really like Kanye Wests' video "Runaway" because of a high angle shot of him standing on a piano because it looks so powerful and gives a clear view of all that is occurring around him, it's a camera shot I'd very much like to create.

In Adele's video rolling in the deep I like the cutaway shots of the glasses of water because it's visually engaging while being beautiful simplistic. It was this shot that gave me and my partner the idea to do a visually interesting cutaway shot; this later became the idea for the magazines and newspapers on the floors of our artist and female character.

I like the music video for "Runaway" because it uses interesting imagery of ballerinas and simplistic staging to create a beautiful majestic video while the lyrics of the song and the footage captured from Kanye's performance make the song feel like a dramatic monologue or story. I would like to replicate the feelings this song creates with Robert's song.

(Pre Production) Permission For Song Use

(Pre Production) Reflection Post- Summer and Week 1

Summer Work


During the summer break I have been trying to discover possible artists that I would like to use in my music video and marketing strategy. 


I originally had intended to use the website "Unsigned" to discover unsigned musical talent who I would be able to work with and whose music also appealed to me so I would have a better understanding of how to market them to their target audience. Sadly I was unable to find any artists who grabbed my attention and the few who did catch my attention had now gotten signed or I was unable to get in contact with.

Fortunately I know a few musicians who were happy to be included in my work such as "Ed Alston", Robert Staines and Khalia. 


I experimented with various ideas for the artists video and managed to narrow down my ideas. For each artist I did research into not just how to make a video that would be suitable for the artists song but also how well I could market the artist to the audience. 


Week 1



I decided on using Robert Staines' "Sea Kelp and Cigarettes" because I felt his music was appealing to myself ,a large audience and because he is in close proximity to my academy which in turn means that we can have him in our music video which will add to the verisimilitude. 


Immediately on choosing Robert I began an extensive creative process on developing his music video which including writing rough music video outlines and sketching album covers, I also did some market research and began viewing artists like Adele who are branded in ways similar to how I would like to brand Robert. 

(Pre Production)Initial Ideas Pitch and Feedback Video

Initial Ideas Pitch:


Feedback of Initial Ideas Pitch:


Evaluation Of Feedback For My Initial Ideas Pitch:

(Pre Production) Initial Ideas Pitch

Rob Staines- Sea Kelp and cigarettes

Content-I will create a music video, DVD cover and magazine ad for my artist . I would constantly throughout all three media products depict a icon for the artist which would be him playing a piano. This symbol/image of Rob Staines playing a piano in desolate areas would be on both his DVD cover and ad so the audience have something to associate him with much like audiences associate Lady Gaga with her vivid and original fashion sense or Bruno Mars and his hat/hair.


Products I would brand for my artists store to have available for purchase would be unique vintage looking blazers which is often a key part of my artists apparel. I would also have shirts,badges and posters available because they're cheap to manufacture and easy to distribute. I can almost guarantee they would sell because other successful indie bands and artists do the same.


Audience-I would aim the song primarily to females from the ages of 15-35 but I would not limit this as the artists target audience because he is capable of appealing to a mixture of both men and women of this age. I would however keep the age bracket of 15-35 because the artist much like artist Adele has a universally appealing voice and musical style however the songs tend to refer to women with issues so I think he would be better marketed primarily to women. Showing the artist as a very ordinary person who has their own home studio and plays their piano from their home I think would help the artist because the audience can relate with him having to deal with ordinary problems as they try to achieve the goals they wish.



Performance- For the debut singles music video I want to immediately show a large audience what our artist is like and how popular they are, with this in mind I intend to shoot the video in HD to give a documentary like quality to the footage so the audience feel like they're there as our artist performs. To make the audience feel more closely connected I would have the artist perform with only a piano in the centre of an easily recognisable location (school playground) in the centre of a crowd with people filming to show that the artist is your average person by performing in an existing location instead of a set and showing the crowd responding positively to his music so the audience can denote that he is a good performer.


The idea of making the artist seem like an average person isn't a new idea and artist Adele did something very similar by filming one of her songs in her living room to show she is just an average person.



Using a mixture of camera types like HD camcorders and phones will give the video and raw and documentary approach which has benefited artists like Fat Boy Slim because it interests the audience because it is out of the social norm.

Genre,style and form- Although there are many other indie artists who make music similar to my artist I will try to stray away from visual style of these artists by taking a much more documentary approach with his music video and then with his dvd cover and magazine ad they will be slightly abstract to grab interest and tell the audience our artist is different. The magazine ad and dvd cover will both feature the same image to show branding continuity and make the audience familiar to "The Boy With The Piano" (<name approved by artist). The album covers mix of standard photography and animation will let the audience denote that although he may look like your average performer there is something different because of the animation all over the cover. I would like the album cover to be similar to this film poster for "500 Days Of Summer" or "Napoleon Dynamite".


Representation-To make the artist seem likable in the music video I would have a side narrative of the artist speaking with members of the crowd,joking around with young members of the crowd and showing peoples positive reactions to him. All of this would represent him as a positive role model going against the image of most young people who in light of the London riots are shown to be violent and aggressive. I would focus subtly on his fashion sense with ideas like him fixing his trouser braces at the camera so you can see his style is different to most young people who wear tracksuits and nike trainers while our artist wears formal shoes and vintage jackets.

(Pre Production) 25 words For Possible Artists I Could Brand

Rob Staines- Sweetheart
(A prelude before the start of the song of the artist sitting in his recording studio at the end of the night listening to answering messages from a girl talking about how unreasonable her parents are being about their relationship.)
The video will have a three part narrative, one with the artist playing a piano in his studio (or home), one with a teenage girl packing her bags and arguing with her parents and finally a narrative showing the girl making her way to an unknown location which will be revealed to be the artists studio.








Ed Alston- My Shoes
Abstract video consisting of 43 people miming the lyrics of the song showing a pair of shoes of some kind. The mise-en-scene and layout of the shot will denote the lyrics of the songs. Cutaways of the artist in a room full of shoe boxes will be shown so the audience can recognise the artist.



Khalia ft Lady Leshurr- Rodeo
Inside the toilets of a theatre, the artist is psyching herself up in front of a mirror before going on stage trying to boost her confidence. The video would have a three part narrative one with her on stage with confidence, one where she is in the bathrooms of the venue psyching herself up as she lets out all her stress and finally one where it's her pursuing her chance to perform at this venue.