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.