Music Video Treatment

05/11/2014

Camerawork

In our music video we are going to produce, we want to use various camera techniques and shots to help make the video look professional and engaging to the audience. To do this, we will use similar camerawork and camera techniques that are commonly used by Alternative Rock music videos, to help attract our target audience. Camera shots such as tracking shots will be used to follow the characters in the video, and give the audience a sense of surveillance, as they can follow the characters and will feel included in the music video. Other camera shots and techniques that we are planning to use in our video, include panning shots that will be used to show the locations and characters, especially panning up towards the sun, in which we want the sun to be incorporated in the video due to the matching song title, 'Blaring Out The Sun.' We also want to use handheld camera shots for some of the footage, to make the atmosphere to seem more organic and original, and will make the audience appeal more to the video, as it won't be as formal as typical music videos. Extreme long shots will also be incorporated in the video as we want to establish the different settings that will be located in the video, and also establishing shots for each member of cast we use, to help separate each character, and will help the audience understand the difference in characters. We also want to use high angle camera shots to show the characters and portray their innocence, as high angle camera shots are typically used to show a character's honesty or innocence. In comparison, we also want to use low angle shots as well as high angle shots, as the low angles have been typically used in most alternative genre music videos, and we want the audience to be informed that the alternative genre is the genre of music we are trying to portray in the video. Other camera shots and techniques we want to use include close ups in which they will be used to show the main characters in the music video, and will help to portray their facial expressions and emotions to the audience. Reaction shots will also be used for the same reasons, to allow the audience to view the characters' facial expressions and reactions within the video.

Themes

We also want our music video to include certain themes, to make the video more enjoyable for the audience, and to portray the song we use in a creative manner. The kinds of themes we are wanting to use within our music video include a set up of four to five people who are all good friends, sitting around a campfire talking and laughing, with the camera circling around the group. This concept would be a good idea to use when introducing each character in the video, as the audience would get a chance to see all the characters spending time together and therefore realise that the video includes these characters. We also want our video to be heavily narrative based, but presented in a conceptual manner. Another key theme that we are planning to use in our music video is a love story, of a person trying to get over a past lover and wanting to move on. Due to the different elements of mise en scene that we want to use, we thought that this concept would be a suitable one to use, and has also been used many times within the alternative music genre for music videos. This is another reason why we want to use these concepts; to attract our target audience of people who like to listen to alternative music, and like to watch alternative music videos. Another concept we want to include in our music video is the actual band of the song we are using, The Puppeteers, if they are available, as then we could use the band members as the main characters in the video. It would also be beneficial to use the band in the video, where they are playing along to the song used. If not, then we would just cast other people to pose as the main characters.

Mise-en-Scene - Costume

In our music video, we want to incorporate costume to emphasise the reality of the characters within the video, and also to emphasise the reality of the concept of the whole video. We are planning to use mostly casual clothing throughout the video as the video will have a more relaxed and informal atmosphere, and the costume pieces will include jeans, t-shirts, jackets and skirts of a wintery colour palette (reds, whites, blacks and greys). We feel that these colours will represent the meaning of the song, as the sun in the song is blaring out, in which we use red colours to represent this. Plus, several different emotions will be portrayed throughout the video, including love, lust, jealousy, danger and anger. These emotions are all represented through the colour palette we have chosen, which will help represent these emotions to the audience. In addition, as the song lyrics speak about a break up, there are different emotions that will be shown, and the use of dark colours will also support the dark and meaningful emotions that are being portrayed.

Editing

We also want to use editing techniques within our music video to help make our video look clean cut, professional and creative. We have decided on editing all of our footage, and inserting the song to go with the video, through an editing program called Sony Vegas Pro 11. We have had some experience with this editing software beforehand, with my year 12 Action/Thriller film opening I created, and my preliminary tasks, in which our group used this program to edit those pieces of footage. Some of the editing techniques that we are planning on using in our video includes straight cuts, in which we will use them to separate each piece of footage to allow the audience to easily follow the concept of the video. We also want to use fades within our video, in order to make the video appear more mysterious, and also to prolong the footage to make the audience fill with suspence and want to continue to watch the video more. Both fades to white and black will be used, with the fades to black being used to show the passing of time, and fades to white being used to show reflection and looking back into the past. Another editing technique that we are planning on using in the video is overlaying text, where we will place text over the top of the footage we collect which will state the name of the song and artist at the beginning of the video, to allow the audience to understand what the video is going to be showing. Cross cutting is also wanting to be used throughout the video, along with match-on-action, which will also help the footage to create a smooth transition and will not disrupt the video for the audience.

Mise-en-Scene - Location

Mise-en-Scene - Props

Mise-en-Scene - Characters/Cast

In our music video, we want to use characters that will help reflect our target audience and also attract our target audience. By researching existing music videos of the alternative genre, we decided on using specific characters. The first character we want to use in the video includes a main character which we want to have the conventions of a white, British and good-looking male due to the heroic stereotype that this character typically portrays in existing music videos. We also want another character to play the main character's ex-girlfriend, with the conventions of a white, British and good-looking female, for the same reasons of the typical conventions of typical main female characters in existing media texts. Other characters that we want to use in our video include a happy male and a happy female that will be in a strong relationship and will be featured in the music video, sitting by the campfire together. These two characters will foreshadow the heartbreak story of the music video. Another character we want to use in our music video includes another male who will also be sat around the campfire with the other characters, and will be happy and laughing to himself. We also want to use a another male to be featured in the music video who will play the role as the ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. We want to use few different cast members to play the roles of the band, if we are unable to get in contact with The Puppeteers regarding their involvement within the video. If we do not hear from the band, we will then therefore cast a few people to pose as each band member, and have them featured in the video instead.

Mise-en-Scene - Lighting

Mise-en-Scene - Make Up

In our media music video, we also want to incorporate make up and hairstyles to again emphasise the reality of the characters and ovrall video. The kinds of make up that we will use are smokey eye make up for the females featured in the video, as we want the smokey make up to complement the mysterious and dark relationship that the lyrics describe, and the look would also complement the sunset and hazy locations such as the campfire and forest locations. We also wanted the female characters to have natural hair styles, to emphasise the originality and individuality of each character, which will then portray the same traits of the music video altogether. We especially want females to have quite dark hair colours, to again complement the darkness and mysteriousness of the song and video. Another use of make up we ant to use includes dirty face make up on the main male character, who will be featured in a forest area, and in a cellar. The dirt make up will emphasise the grittiness of the locations and also make the effects of being in the locations seem as realistic as possible.

Locations are one of the most important aspects of a music video, as it can help set the scene and make the atmosphere appear a certain way. In our video, we want to use locations such as the bridge going over the River Great Ouse in Downham Market, as we think that a few camera shots would look nice here especially at sunset. Other locations include the train station in Downham Market, Kingston's Plantation which is a forest area in between Downham Market and Wimbotsham, the Willows which is a peacefull lake area near Downham Market train station, Pur Fleet which is along the River Great Ouse in Kings Lynn, The Walks which is a large green area with old brickwork located in Kings Lynn, and finally, along the River Nene in Wisbech. All of the locations have been carefully chosen out to be used in our video as we believe that we will use all of the locations, and they will benefit us as they will look professional and exciting when we incorporate them with other mise en scene, camerawork and themes. Plus, all of the locations are of the surrounding area of Downham Market, which is also beneficial to us as we can all easily get to the locations to film, and each member of our group know these areas very well.

We also want to use different props in our music video, to add to the realism of the video, and to make the whole video seem as normal to the audience as possible. To do this, we want to incorporate props such as a burning campfire that would be used in the throughout the video where the characters are all sitting around, and the main character is featured. We also want to use a guitar, which will be played in the in the video by the singer, to which we can cut to when a guitar can be clearly heard in the song. If we can arrange to have The Puppoeteers in the video, then the lead guitarist will be playing the guitar in the video. We also want to use the drum kit for the same reason, and we will incorporate these musical instruments when the instruments can be clearly heard in the song. Another prop that we want to use includes a bottle of beer that we want the main character to drink whilst reminiscing about his ex-girlfriend, and will be a popular prop within the music video. To also make the effect of a break up more realistic, we want to have the main character to pull out an old handwritten letter from his ex-girlfriend from his pocket, which is common in most music videos about a break up.

We also want to use elements of mise en scene to make our music video seem more realistic to the audience, and to also portray the song we have chosen in a creative and individual way. To emphasise our video, we want to incorporate different lighting styles such as low key lighting. We are choosing to use low key lighting in specific pieces of footage, where the music video will be located in the dark or indoors and we want to illuminate the features of a character's face or an object. Low key lighting is also commonly used in most typical alternative music videos, and is used for a similar purpose and complements the mysterious storyline of the music video. Another mise en scene lighting style we want to use in our music video includes backlight, in which a light is positioned behind a character or object to cast a shadow over the subject or charcter and illuminates the outline of the subject. We want to use this lighting technique as this could be effective at creating a mysterious vibe towards a certain character. For some of the outdoor shots that we are planning to film, we want a light but yet natural light, to make the footage that is set outside, seem perfect and harmonic, to contrast with the dark and eerie low key lighting.