Costume and Make-Up Research

In our music video we have 2 main characters and a group of 'extras'. This is the male protagonist, the girl he is pursuing, and the band.


Male Protagonist:
The boy is the main character of the video. He is focused on finding the girl and sees her as something to 'worship', his 'new religion'. He wears monochromatic clothes to seem less important than her.
- Dark, monochromatic clothing.
- Black distressed jeans and white t-shirt.
- Messy hair.

Girl:
The girl is a carefree and rebellious character, and is seen as a mystery throughout the video. She is the only person who wears bright colours, adding to the mysterious vibe she gives off. She wears all yellow and glitter, with connotations of being treasure and a 'prize' for the boy to pursue. 
- Yellow dress.
- Sparkly eye makeup, yellow lipstick.
- Messy natural hair.




Band
The band members are seen at the start of the video, standing around on the street. They wear dark clothes to blend in to the background. They also feature in the lip syncing/performance cutaways.
- Casual dark coloured clothing.
- Blend in with the background as not main focus.

 

Props Research

These are the props we are planning to use in the music video. We don't have many props, as we want to focus on the acting and the narrative of the video. The props used are only those that contribute to the storyline.

Polaroid Camera

The storyline of the music video follows a polaroid picture. Therefore the polaroid picture has to be taken, so we need a polaroid camera. We initially wanted to use an original polaroid camera, used mainly in the 1970s-1990s. However, these are hard to find nowadays and expensive to buy. 

Therefore, we will most likely be using a modern polaroid camera, which still takes the same photos so would be suitable.

Polaroid Picture

The polaroid picture is the main part of our video. It is taken in the opening scenes, and used throughout the video. The theme of polaroids is also common across the rest of our promotional package. We will take our own original photograph for the polaroid, but it will look like this picture, and feature the same writing on it.

Post-it Note

These are used to give messages throughout the video and are important to progress the storyline. They will be handwritten, in the same style as the note on the polaroid. 

Instruments

For the performance cutaways we will need instruments for the band to play. This includes a guitar, a bass guitar, and a drum kit. We have got permission from our school's music department to use their instruments; a drum kit and two guitars that we will be able to borrow for a couple of hours to film.
These aren't the exact models we will be using, but these are the type of instrument.

 

Casting Research

To choose our actors for the band, we are going to conduct auditions. We will ask them the following questions;

Full name:

Age:

What previous acting experience do you have?

Do you have any experience performing either in front of a camera or performing in front of an audience?

Do you play any instruments?

How will you channel this musical knowledge in your performance?

How will you, as an actor, convincingly perform/lip-sync to the song, in order to make the performance seem believable?

Following these auditions, we have cast the following actors in our music video;

Will Palmer, 18

Ben Cox, 17

Sean Franks, 17

Zoe Whyte, 17

Amy Green, 17

Location Research

When finding our locations, we need to ensure the following things;

• We get permission from the owners of the locations to film there.
• We choose a relatively empty location so we don't get members of the public in the background of the video.
• We don't have any brands or copyrighted material in the background of the video.

For the music video, we need 5 different locations:

Location 1 - Street.

The video opens on an empty street at night. So that we don't have to use too much artificial light, we will film these parts at dusk so there is some light but it doesn't feel like daytime. We can also colour correct to make it seem like the night. 

Location Requirements:

• Street that will be empty when we film there.
• We are allowed to film there.
• A long street that will fit with our concept for the video.
• Matches the aesthetic of our video.
• Straight road, to give a leading lines effect.

Possible Locations: 

Windsor 

This is a street in Windsor that we are considering for a location in our video. It is small and relatively empty so would be easy to film there. 

Location 2 - Bedroom.

The protagonist's bedroom is seen in the start of the video, as he wakes up after a night out and finds the polaroid. The bedroom should be simple, and not have any posters or copyrighted material that could be in the background of the video. 

Location Requirements:

• Simplistic bedroom.
• We have permission to film there from the owner of the room.
• No posters or copyrighted material.

Possible Locations: 

Location 3 - Somewhere the band will be lip syncing to the song.

Throughout the video, there are cutaways to the band lip syncing the song. We want these shots to be completely about the singing, and so a simple location that highlights the performance is important.

Location Requirements:

• A performance venue that highlights the performer.
• Simple as to not draw attention away from the singing.
• We have permission to film there.

Possible Locations:

Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead 

Norden Farm has a large stage with a variety of different lighting options that would be useful for our video. Filming here would give us a versatile space that would allow us to highlight the performance and the lyrics of the song.

Location 4 - Train platform.

The video ends on a train platform, after the actor has spent the video looking for the girl. He gets to the train station, and sees her on the other platform for a second before a train passes in between them.

Location Requirements:

• Train station with multiple platforms.
• We have permission to film there.
• Relatively small station so the platforms aren't busy.
• We time our filming so that we have a train come past in the shot.

Possible Locations:

Twyford Train Station

This is a small, local train station which has two platforms. This would allow us to film the shot across the railway. The station is small and rarely busy, meaning we would be able to film there without getting people in the shot. They have published train times so we would be able to get there at the right time to have a train come past in the shot.

Location 5 - Multiple locations the actor will be running through.

The main body of the video is the protagonist looking for the girl. This will feature him running through and searching through multiple locations. These locations will only be seen for a couple of seconds each and we will need lots.

Location Requirements:

• We have permission to film there.
• The locations don't feature any copyrighted materials.

Possible Locations:

Carter's Steam Fair

This is an old fashioned fairground with bright lights and busy crowds. This would fit the mood of this part of the video as it provides a panicked atmosphere and the lights would give an interesting effect that matches the aesthetic of the video.

Magazine Advertisement - Final Idea

This design was the most popular with our target audience, so we have chosen to use this. However, to make it match our chosen digipak design, we have to adjust a few parts of it. This design is monotonous in colour and this fitted well with our simplistic video idea, however our digipak has a yellow theme. Therefore we need to add some yellow elements to this poster to add colour synchrony and continuity across the promotional package.

Final Design

This is the final version of our design. We have changed the font colour and added a yellow smoke effect to give the design more colour. The images used in this design are ones we found on the internet but for our final version of the advertisement we will take our own original photographs.

This design features a hand holding a polaroid picture, which is the main focus of our music video. It has the name of the album and the band, and a 5 star review of the album which will help to promote it. The record label's logo is also in the corner of the advertisement, providing brand loyalty.

Digipak - Final Idea

After getting opinions from our focus group, we have chosen this as our final digipak design. It has a predominantly yellow theme, which is the overall colour scheme of our promotional package. It features the same polaroid image as on our magazine advertisement and in our music video, continuing brand loyalty. The track list on the back of the digipak is also in a polaroid, highlighting these as a motif of the promotional package. 

Music Video - Final Idea

Establishing shots of a city at night, the male protagonist walks aimlessly down a street. As he passes he sees a variety of people having fun and enjoying themselves. Everyone is in muted colours, with a dark mise en scene. The he sees a girl at the end of the street who is wearing bright colours. There is a montage of them together, before he ends up in bed the next morning not remembering anything. He gets up for the day and finds a polaroid from the night before with instructions written on. He follows these instructions to find the girl, and eventually sees her at a train station, where she waves before vanishing.