Pre-Production: Casting

After making some strong but effective changes to our concept for our music video, my group and I are determined to begin planning the process for our new and adapted elements. For example, we wanted to commence by casting our ‘girl group.’ As I understand, casting can either make or break one’s product, for example, it is crucial to cast the correct actors depending on the video. Therefore, my group and I carefully and considerably went through the school’s online register, noting down potential girls for our video. This was effective as we could clearly see which girl looked right for our product through one simple head shot. As well as considering which girls would be suitable, we also thought about which girls would work well alongside our main actress, ‘Juli Vadera.’

The following girls were picked for casting, ‘Louisa Binder, Victoria Vanbreugal, Emma Bokken, Eleanor Shand, Maddy Rees, Charlotte Penrice and Daisy Jelley.’

In order for this to be possible, we sent a few girls an email arranging a casting. During this casting, we will be able to see who looks best, who works well with others and whom most fits our video and concept. We emailed about eight girls but we are only thinking of casting four. I am passionate for our casting as we are gaining more hope and realism towards our final product.

We also emailed Paul, the man in charge of studio to see if the time we allocated for casting is available.

Pre-Production: Updating our idea

Further developing our ideas and reality towards our music video, my group and I felt it was of huge importance to pay particular attention to this question,

‘Is our idea interesting and engaging enough?’

We understand for this question to be answered, developing changes and alters need to be made. For instance, many queries fall into our heads and many questions our bought to the surface in order to make our video more interesting, alluring and visually fascinating, including; Elaborate the set? Add a third location? Include more cast? More costumes and makeup? Further props? This was crucial to constantly be thinking of the problems to our video as our teacher Phil, Luke and class members constructively mentioned previously, that our idea lacked elements and struggled to not become repetitive or tiresome; therefore, we made a strong decision to change these views.

Firstly, we began by effectively considering a specific visual theme or a video arc for our video but we struggled to generate ideas which corresponded with one another. However, our primary agreement was one of the biggest decisions made throughout our pre-production to cut concepts in our second element, consisting of the gangster idea. We made the choice of dropping the gangster concept as we felt it didn’t work well with our track or other elements in our video. As a group, we also understood it didn’t fit within the stereotypical conventions of the genre, indie pop and therefore fell messy and out of place.

As a group we came to a holt as we were confused about which direction we were to go in as we lacked crucial elements for our video to be successful. However, we began researching into sources falling into the same genre, indie pop as ours and as a group stumbled hugely across the singer ‘MØ.’ Although, we have previously researched the Danish artist, today we were thoroughly inspired by her successful and effective video ‘Walk This Way.’

The video ‘Walk This Way’ includes several inspiring elements. For example, the effective and unique product is full with impressive elements and locations and this video strongly helped and encouraged us to include a ‘girl group’ within our music video. The girls included in MØ’s video construct basic high attitudes and bold structures which inspired us to follow this idea. As a group, we are also hugely fond of the girls used to support our lead singer.

Similarly, we appreciate the use of space in MØ’s effective video as she uses one big location, such as a sports hall for her whole product. Coincidently, we had previously discussed this, by using a derelict building in which we will have many rooms to experiment within and therefore this will contrast with our clean, crisp black studio. The congratulated artist, MØ, also inspired us to consider furthering our second location by using an actual abandoned house instead of a derelict building. As a group, we are also considering possibly shooting our whole video within this abandoned house as it will build our specific visual theme; however, we are undecided. We understand, by shooting our whole video within one building, it beneficially provides us with many different ‘small’ locations and therefore we don’t need to think about including of a third location or element.

As my group and I are falling more excited about our video, we immediately arranged possibilities for our new and adapted concepts. For instance, I made a bold decision of instantly contacted my mum about possible abandoned houses as she works in this business and knows of contacts to make this possible. In response to this, my mum said there are a few houses we could potentially use, consisting of houses soon to be knocked down. Therefore, moving this concept further, my mum and I are going to visit these sites very soon. When visiting these areas, I will be sure to capture as much material as possible, returning with new information, pictures and further videos.

In comparison to our second and third location, we recently visited the studio, which covers our first element. However, considering our new adaptations and concepts we are thinking about shooting our whole video within the house and therefore moving our first element to the abandoned location, following the specific visual styles. Although, as we are not sure we are still exploring potential studio ideas as we feel the juxtaposition of the warehouse/studio could add themes of industrial and derelict elements and could make our video more interesting.

Pre-Production: Treatment

After asking ourselves some important and advanced questions, as a group we wanted to address or attend to them. For example, previously from making colour a prominent theme throughout our video, we felt we could build our video arc through the colour red, allowing the theatrical red ribbon to become of relevance in our video. This will similarly work as the build could happen on the words “When all of this blood has run.” However, after further response from others and discussions, we beneficially agreed this element of the ribbon, doesn’t successfully fit within our concept, song or genre, indie pop, therefore falling random and out of place.

We similarly understand we need to add additional elements to allow our video to be more interesting and engaging as we feel dancing and lip syncing isn’t enough to meet this demand. Therefore, we constructively and carefully listened to our song and noted any ideas that came to mind, constantly remembering the song was about truth and ideas of visual styles or video arcs throughout.  Moving further, we felt it was important and helpful to create a treatment, gathering all our elements and concepts together so far, allowing us as a group to visually see and meet on the same wave length.

Pre-Production: Asking ourselves questions

Questions:

During our time today, my group and I decided to gather all our ideas and elements together to visually see what we had. However, we felt we were lacking some aspects and we also agreed some elements didn’t successfully work. Therefore, we sensed asking our self questions was hugely appropriate.

For instance, we began by each noting down queries we each had and therefore these were the final questions:

- How can we include our theatrical ribbon idea?

- Is our idea interesting and engaging enough?

- Will our element of dancing become tiresome and repetitive by the end of the three minutes?

- Do we have a specific visual style or a video arc throughout?

We understand we need to address these questions and possibly alters and changes need to be made in order for them to be answered.

Pre-Production: Dance Example

For further work into our pre-production, we understand the crucial aspects of completing test shoots and the vitality presenting visual sources of what we want our concepts to look like. Therefore, an aspect of our first element consists of two male dancers; my group and I felt it was necessary to create a short visual representation of our intentions.

For example, we used ‘Matt Steffanina’s’ choreography of ‘Cold Water’ and successfully timed it with our music, ‘Pray (Empty Gun)’ through a screen recording. However, this is not a completely accurate representation as we are using two male dancers instead of a girl and boy but the style of dancing will be similar to ours.

My group and I have agreed to arrange a test shoot with our male dancers for a further and closer representation of our product, however we are pleased the style and choreography of the dance fits with our music. In the meantime, we have emailed our dancers, ‘Callum Henderson’ and ‘David Heal’ with an attached example of the dance to give them a clear idea of what we are looking for and so they can begin practicing. From this, we have gained closer excitable hope and further realistic visuals towards our video.