Requesting Permission

In order to make sure we were allowed to create a music video using Spooky Black's song 'Without U', my group and myself had to send an email to his manager and record company requesting permission. 

The Email that we sent can be seen below: 

The Lyrics

As our shoot day is in three weeks, Today I have given our confirmed artist the lyrics so he can learn them in plenty of time. It is essential that our artist learns the lyrics as else it will make the shoot day very difficult. 

PROPS LIST

Below is the prop list for our set. I have attached some images to show the set designer, so he can really picture what kind of furniture we want and the kind of look we are going for to make our set look like a realistic hotel room. 

Props List: 

Double bed 

White Bed sheets 

4 large white pillows (big/fluffy) 

Bed side table (minimalistic)  

Minimal Wall paper

Lamp 

Alarm clock 

Black Carpet 

The Dancers Costume

As my group and myself want our dancer to be in very minimal clothing we asked to have a meeting with her so we could discuss what she would be happy with to make sure she is comfortable enough to dance in it. Together we found an outfit on the clothing website 'Boux Avenue' which Hannah was happy with and so were our teachers.

The outfit we chose for our dancer costume is a red camisole and a red pair of shorts, however as the shorts are very 'short' we have chosen to put a black pair of tights underneath them which makes the outfit more sophisticated; although still very sexy.

Whilst looking at outfits we also considered shoes, however we then decided that bare feet would be most appropriate for our dancer as she is in a hotel room and we want her to be comfortable.

Below are some images of my group member Kai and Myself with our dancer Hannah, choosing an outfit.

Costume List:

1. Red Camisole
2. Red Shorts
3. Black Tights

Images of the costume: 

The Artists Costume

Fortunately we are very lucky that our artist dresses in the way we want him to be dressed for our music video so he can wear all of his own clothes and we do not need to buy anything which helps as we have a low budget. The costume we have chosen entails brands such Supreme, Nike and Ralph Lauren which most teenagers like to wear. By our artist having a 'cool' costume it will create a larger target audience as teenagers will aspire to be like him as they will be able to relate to him. 

Below is a list of our Artists costume:

1. Black supreme Jacket 
2. Black supreme Jumper
3. Ralph lauren cap 
4. Black jeans 
5. Black trainers

CONFIRMED PERFORMERS

Today my group and myself were told that we are allowed to have our first choice Artist and Actor, which we are really pleased about. Our shoot day is confirmed for November 10th 2015, so we have just over 3 weeks to get everything sorted/arranged.

POLYDOR RECORDS TALK

Today,  Emily and Helen who are both Video Commissioners for Polydor Records came in and spoke to our media class.

Emily and Helen explained to us there jobs as Video Commissioner and what it entails:

• They oversee the whole shoot and production of the video
• They are given a brief and a deadline/delivery date so they can then speak with the artist to see if there are any specific requirements they may have. However, sometimes the artist may have no idea of what he/she wants, so it is then the Video Commissioners job to help them create an idea. After this a very open brief will then be sent to the director, which leaves the director with many options/idea to develop on.
• As Video Commissioners they make sure everyone knows what they are doing so the shoot day will run smoothly. 
• It is there job to make sure things like the storyboard, the timeline and the cast list etc are all done. 
• Any issues about the shoot need to be resolved a week before giving everyone 7 days to prep.
• After the shoot, the Video Commissioners get sent a copy of the first cut roughly a week later where they can change anything they want. 
• Vivo is the best for commercial artists as it generates the most income and view count. 
• Most directors are signed to one company, however some are individually represented. - Polydor particularly like to help new up and coming directors. 

Treatment

• They reiterate the main points of the brief. 
• They write a short but detailed concept 
• References to choreography and movement 
• A break down of the video
• Use lots of visual imagery - photographs (artists do not have time to read lots of writing)
• Detail about the location/set
• Detail about costume/hair/makeup
• Give a description of the look and feel the music video will have 

After the location and concept is confirmed a story board is drafted. 

Facts:

• Views are vital 
• Vivo make there money through advertisement; the best place to show your video is on the side. 
• Artists change things all the time 
• Overall the artist has the final say, however the director may try to change things 
• Low budgets range from £5,000-£10,000
• An average budget is from £10,000-£15,000
• A high budget is from £100,000-£200,00
• Polydor has a 'brand girl' who deals with the product placement 
• There are many guidelines to making a music video but they take it as it comes
• Too much controversy can become pointless
• There is an online version of the video and a television version
• The most used locations are LA and South Africa
• Sometimes they have a great idea but not a big enough budget so they go for something simple; less is more. 
• There favourite music video is Lana Del Ray - Born to die

Here are some other videos that Emily and Helen have helped to create: 

LOCATION/AND OR SET DESIGN

After a meeting with Luke last week where we discussed where we would be filming our music video we have now decided to create the hotel room in the studio. By doing this it allows us to film for as long as we want, we will be able to play the music as loud as we want and it also allows us to rehearse before the shoot day with our dancer and artist so they are both aware of the spacing.

As our music video also involves a scene in a hotel corridor we have decided to use one of the corridors in our college's boarding house. This corridor is very simple with doors on either side which is exactly what we wanted. As this corridor is in our college's boarding house we are able to play the music as many times and as loud as want which will benefit us on the day of shooting.

The last location our music video entails is a street, which we have not yet decided on as we are having another meeting with Luke about it next week.

To help the set designer build what we would like we have drawn a set design. On this drawing of our preferred set, we have labelled exactly what we want. For example we want the the lamp to have a red bulb, we would like a back sofa, a red lit head board, thick white head sheets/pillows, red lights on the ceiling, black flooring, a black bed side table, and a black door.

As well as giving the set designer these drawing we are also going to give him some pictures so he can clearly visually see what kind of look we are going for.

Ideally we would like our set to look like an American motel room, with 70s-80s style furniture.

Photos From Our 1st Rehearsal

Rehearsal With Our first choice Artist & Dancer

Above is our rehearsal with our chosen Artist and Dancer. From this rehearsal it came apparent to me that the dance I had choreographed for Hannah, needed to be a lot slower which would make the movements flow more and become more sexy. As well as this I am going to have another rehearsal with our dancer, so we can go through the dance again, to make sure she really knows it for the shoot day and to add some more to it. For example more movements involving the artist and more movements when dancing around the chair. 

When we did this rehearsal my group and myself did not direct our artist, Joe, as we wanted to see what he would come up with himself. We did this on purpose to give us an idea at how relaxed he would be behind the camera whilst under pressure; as this was our biggest worry. 

After looking at the footage from the rehearsal I feel I now know what I need to work on with the choreography but overall I believe these two actors look great together and fit with what I had in mind. 

AUDITIONING JONTY

Above is our audition with Jonty. When casting the boys we got them to do exactly the same thing so we could see the difference between them. Jonty's audition was good, however I feel it is a little bit awkward, I don't believe he is totally relaxed which is something we would need to work on if he gets the part. The aim is for our artist to have little to no facial expressions which Jonty did well.

AUDITIONING JOE

Today we auditioned Joe by getting him to walk outside and in a corridor. The reason we made Joe walk outside is because we wanted to make it as much like the video as possible as he will be walking down a street. We also got him to walk down a corridor as thats another thing he will be doing in the video. From this small but effective audition it became very apparent to us that we want to use Joe for our music video as he came across as much relaxed than our second choice Jonty. Our main priory for this role is for the actor to be relaxed with very little facial expressions to depict the theme of the song which is why I feel Joe would be great for our video as he did this perfectly.

As well as taking a video of Joe we also took some pictures from four different angles in order to clearly see what his face looks like.

AUDITIONING HANNAH

Organising our 'Artist' audition

My group and myself have asked people in our college, who we feel fit the part to come to an audition this afternoon, so we can see who looks best behind the camera and who fits what we have in mind the most. 

Above is a picture of the lyrics that we gave to each of our boys auditioning, so we could see what they looked like mouthing the words and to see how quickly they could pick up the lyrics.

Organising our 'dancer' audition

Below is the email I sent to Hannah and Anjuli, asking them if they would like to be in our music video. 

CASTING OUR ARTIST

FIRST CHOICE:

JOE HELLMAN 

Our first choice for our artist is Joe, who is exactly what my group and myself had imaged our artist to look like. A boy aged 18-19, who had blonde hair, blue eyes and a distinctive look about him. Joe is use to being behind the camera as he is a model himself, so we know that he definitely won't be camera shy when it comes to the day of shooting. However we have the same problem with Joe as we do our first choice dancer, Hannah as they are both A2 students who have a lot going on. After speaking to Joe about possibly being in our shoot he is keen to be apart of our project so hopefully we will be able to use him. 

SECOND CHOICE: 

JONTY HARRISON

Our second choice for our artist is Jonty Harrison. Jonty is an A1 student which means we would defiantly be able to use him. Similar to Joe, Jonty matches what my group and myself had in mind for our artist, he has blonde hair, blue eyes and a strong/distinct look about him. Although Jonty is only 16 he looks much older which is great as we want our artist to look from 18-19. However because Jonty is new to our college my group and myself do not know how he will be on the day of shooting which causes concern as we want our music video to look as professional as possible.