Presentation from Polydor

During yesterdays lesson, Emily from Polydor visited us as she is in charge of commissioning music videos and discussed with us how this is done and what it involves.

She began by telling us the process of commission a music video, which is very quick:
1.  They are given a track from a band
2.  She discusses with her team about the budget they should spend determined by record sales they think the band/artist will sell
3.  Together, which they prefer is with the artist, they talk about what to do with the video
4.  Emily then puts together a brief based on their ideas and sends this to around 5-10 directors.  The directors are given a week to produce their treatments on the music video, which they then send back to Polydor (Emily and her team)
5.  Emily and her team then choose the best treatment with the label management and the artist.  Then they produce their budget and sign off the video
6.  Within a week or two they will then shoot the video and a week later the edit will be delivered to them, which they will look over and then send to the label management and the artist

What I found particular interesting during this presentation was the treatments that Emily showed us of real music videos she had commissioned.  She showed us Cheryl Cole - Parachutes, Lana Del Ray - Born to die and Take that - The Flood

Here are the music videos (unfortunately I can't show the treatments that went with these):

All the treatments were very similar to the music videos, which taught me that my treatment needed to have been much more particular with images and summaries:  therefore a group should have discussed further exactly we what we wanted at the time.

Tips for a treatment:

1.  Lots of visual references that are as close as possibly to what you want to achieve

2.  Needs to be very clear and simple

3.  Begin with a short summary that will present the concept of the music video

4.  Treatments should include things such as:  the tone/look of the video, the location, editing, styling hair/makeup, set design and performance

5.  Mood films are also a key thing to use in a treatment, which the director used for the Take That music video treatment (this essentially got him the job)

Set Design

While Mina and Sarah focused on costume, Chuffy and I were busy organising all of our set design.  We began by discussing each set and what would be included and then collected images that represented each set the best.



Planning our set design:



(image)






We decided our first photoshoot would be very girly.  It would involve things, such as hanging balloons from the walls, flowers, possibly petals on the floor, et.c.

Even though we didn't use this image, I believe it very much reflects the sort of colours and mood that we are wanting to represent in this particular photoshoot with Emma.









We then concentrated on the cafe and bar sets because our whole group were still very unsure about what we wanted to do in our final photoshoot.  Here is an image we used to represent our ideas for the cafe:

We discussed that would need to have a fake backdrop that the workers could move during the music video to change the cafe into a bar.  We thought that our first backdrop would include hanging this on the walls, very much like this and then we could change this backdrop into lights on the walls for our nightspot.

The chairs and floor in this picture are also exactly what we would want in our music video.





Chuffy and I had trouble deciding what our final shoot was because Sarah and Mina really wanted a burlesque shoot but we knew this would probably be too much.  We discussed using the silhouette idea as one photoshoot instead of using this idea in her dressing room.  This still needs to be decided properly and in our next production meeting on Monday we will have to decide what our decisions for our final photoshoot will be as on Wednesday we will present our ideas.

Consequently, I have learnt that our group does need to face our problems earlier in our production meetings instead of avoiding them as Chuffy and I had to deal with it on our own and if Sarah and Mina aren't keen on our ideas, we will not have long to decide what we will do with the final photoshoot.

Here is a picture of our set design ideas:

Costume

While Chuffy and I worked on finishing our set design, Mina and Sarah began looking at costume for our music video.  As we decided our style for the music video was 60's French Style, they began looking for vintage 60's on the internet to help them come up with some ideas.  They then printed their favourite images that reflected our music video ideas the best and annotated what they liked about them:

I thought this was a very effective idea as it allowed our group to review it together easily in our production meeting at the end of the lesson and discuss if this was the look we were going for or not.

We all agreed that fur coats should appear in the music video, preferably on a rail in her dressing room and discussed about finding her french 60's style dresses to wear. 

Mina and Sarah thought using smokey eye make up as it would make Emma look more sexy (to fit in with the theme of the song) and also loved the idea of the 'short socks' look with heels, which I think would look good but not entirely sure if it would make Emma look sexy. 

Therefore, I believe this lesson was very successful as Chuffy and I worked very hard on our set design, finalising all the ideas of our sets and how they would look and Mina and Sarah made a breakthrough with costumes.  I believe that at the moment our group are on track with our organisation and hope this stays the same as it will help us to produce a successful music video. 

casting extras

We decided that the rest of our cast in our music video should be male as it supported the idea that Emma was the 'centre of attention' teasing and flirting the boys.  The males would be casted as: cameramen, photographer, make up artist e.t.c. in our music video.  For example, we would need her to interact with the men while they are trying to do their jobs like moving the sets around.

We tried to choose charismatic men that teenage girls (our target audience) would be attracted to.  Here is a list of our cast options:

Mina and Chuffy wrote an email to the cast (as I wrote the last email to the girls) asking if they would participate in our music video:

Props

While Chuffy and I worked on completing the storyboard and Sarah researched about costumes, Mina began working on what props we would need for out shoot.  Here is the list that she came up with:

Props List

gramaphone
table of sweets and cupcakes etc
camera
photography lights
light reflectors
dressing table and mirror
lights on the mirror
lots of make up kits/brushes/glitter/lipstick etc
feather boas
1 clothes rack + clothes (including tights shoes etc)
jewellery (like pearls) hanging from the mirror
1 screen for her to get ready in front of (White Cotton)
Backlight
Small round tables x4 (+chairs to go with tables)
Cafe till
Flowers and vase's
wine glasses + alcohol bottles
Juke box (if possible)


It is very important that we finalise our prop list as we need to know to be able to do our set design.  After reviewing Mina's list, I am almost certain that we won't be able to get a Juke box.  I understand that this would look very good on a set but it is almost impossible to get hold of one so I am considering other ideas to replace it, such as having things hanging from the walls like many cafes do to make the set more interesting.  We also need to ensure that all of our props look 60's style, including things such as the mirror and especially the dressing room.  I am not too sure that the sweets and cupcakes would work but I thought we could use this kind of idea in one of our photoshoots that can be very girly and pink. 

Here are a few images of my ideas:

1.  In the props list, Mina mentioned that we would need tables and chairs.  I also think that we should put red stalls on our set as they very much fit in with the 60s style theme.  This could be very successful when turning our cafe into a a nightspot as these would be infront of a bar.  

2.  During our production meeting, we discussed that we should make the dressing room in the music video filled with 60s style clothes and makeup to make it realistic (this is the only set we use where we present it to be real and not a photoshoot)

Mina wrote in our props list that we should have a rail of fur coats, which I like the idea of but I think we need others clothes such as hats/shoes/lingerie to fill the dressing room even more like the image on the left.

3.  In an earlier production meeting when our group were making the timeline, Sarah suggested that we could have fake flowers in  pots or vases in the cafe.  Furthermore, as part of her troublemaking, Emma could grab the flowers, pretend to smell them and then throw them away once she realises they are fake.  I think this could me a very effective idea, which is why we should try it at least on the shooting day to see if it works, if not before in a practice shoot with Emma. 

4.  When getting bottles of alcohol and wine, we have to consider that we are setting our photoshoots in the 60's and that our props realistically fit into that time.  We don't have to find alcohol from the 60's, we just have to make sure that labels, which would give it away are hidden or are shown in a wide shot where an audience wouldn't be able to notice.  

storyboard research

After writing our storyboard, we began researching on the internet to see if any ideas for our photoshoot came up as we wanted to use pictures to represent our storyboard and not our own drawings.  This website 'photo shoot ideas' we found really useful and we used some images from this to represent shots in our storyboard.  We love the idea of using one of the photoshoots as something very girly, including things such as flowers and mirrors and then use the other shoot for something very glamourous and maybe 60's style.  These two photoshoots will be only focused on her whereas the cafe and bar sets will be Emma interacting with other people, such as the waitors and men. 

Here are the pictures we used from the website:

While we were working on this, Sarah was looking at costumes and Mina was researching props (we had decided this in a production meeting beforehand).

continuing with sets

Our group went through the Dior Addict Frangrance Advert and wrote down all the locations used and all the actions the model takes.  This helped us realise how many locations we needed to make sure the audience would remain interested throughout.  We loved the idea of the model turning up the radio and developed that to the model using a vinal at the start of our music video to begin the music.  After analysing this advert, I have realised that our group needs to ensure that our model is doing lots of various actions otherwise it won't be appealing to our audience.  In addition, we have to consider what sets we will use as it is key we pick the right sets and enough sets for our  music video to be successful.

After we completed our timeline, our group made a more detailed list of what our music video would entail to help us for when we would write our storyboard.

Chuffy and I began working on the storyboard in todays lesson and used this as a basis to help us start it.  While we were doing this, Mina and Sarah carried on researching and exploring ideas for sets.

Timeline

During our next group meeting, we made a timeline for our music video.  Firstly we decided what sets we would use.  Our group chose three different sets:  her dressing room, photoshoot and a cafe/bar and discussed the model possibly walking through  'behind the scenes' so through the cameras, lights, cameramen etc while they are try to film her.  Consequently, currently the idea of the music video is that the girl is a model who is messing around during her photoshoots:  everyone is making a fuss about her while she is messing up the sets, flirting and not listening to anyone.

Timeline work

screen testing continued

Our group decided that Emma Hodgson would be the best model for our music video because she was the most confident and was a lot more able to move around the set when we asked her.

During the casting, each person in our group took turns to take part playing different roles:  in charge of sound, director, cameraman and photographer.  This allowed us to gain some more experience and practice before our shooting day.  

Reflection

When our group arrived at the studio to begin our casting, no one had brought the music and therefore, it took time off our first audition with Emma while we were trying to download it onto Sarah's phone.  I thought sarah was bringing the music as I was organising the camera set up but we should have had a more structured meeting before hand with our group to confirm this.  Consequently, I have learnt that when our group organises important things, such as auditions we need to have a structured meeting beforehand to sort out what each person is incharge of to avoid this happening again.

Another mistake during the casting was that Georgie walked in while Emma was auditioning.  Looking back on this, one of us should have apologised to her and asked her to wait outside the studio until we called her in.  As a result, Georgie decided not to audition after seeing Emma and therefore, as a group we need to consider how to deal with things more professionally in the future to avoid situations like these.

I believe our early casting however, was a great success and it taught all of us that planning and organising ahead will be a huge advantage for us thgoughout the process.  We were able to secure Emma as a model for our music video for example, which now means other groups will not be allowed to use her.  I also think giving the models props during the casting was successful as it showed that these will be very important for the real music video and that our group have to focus on what props will be the most suited:  significant for the success of our video.    

considering sets for our music video

After screen testing for our first music video idea, our group decided that this would be the music video that we will develop further for our promotional package.

In a group discussion we decided that the next step was to consider sets we could use in our music video.  Here are my thoughts:

1.  A boutique dressing room:  this won't be part of the fake set, it will be the actual models dressing room that she will get ready in before going on the set
2.  Idea that she's on a photoshoot

3.  Boutique room/salon

Screen Testing

With each model individually, we began by playing a section of the song to them and asked them to do three poses (which we took photographs of) to show how they believe the girl would be represented in the video:

Emma Hodgson

         

 Leah Chapman

                                   

Anne Sophie

Emma Hodgson was our first model and therefore, we also film her dancing behind the sheet to see how successful our shadow idea was.  We really like it and will definitely use it in our video:

We then asked our models to use a chair and a jacket as a prop separately:  this included them posing and dancing to the music.  We tried to make them come up with there own ideas as we want a girl who is confident and independent infront of the camera  (will work better on the shooting day if they're like this)

Here is a clip of our cast screen test of all our models:

Final search for music video song

The following day we carried on our search for our song

After a lot of research on french songs we finally found our final option for our song:





After a group discussion we decided that we would choose the song 'Anti love song' by the artist Stereo Love (shown in previous post)

After this, we decided to do a screen testing of the possible models for our music video.  Are options were:

1.  Emma Hodgson
2.  Leah Chapman
3.  Anne Sophie

We wanted to do our screen testing earlier than the others group so we were able to get our first choice of girls:  (only limited amount in our college) our music video requires a very charismatic and confident girl and therefore, our casting is very important. 

trying to find our song for first music video idea

Our feedback for this music video suggested that a French 60's pop song that is girly, cheeky and fun would be most appropriate for our ideas.

We began searching on google '60's french pop song' to see if any suitable songs came up:

The problem was that these songs were very old fashioned and therefore didn't have a fun, cheeky side to it that would be vital for our music video.  Therefore we looked at the Dior advert on Youtube that influenced us to see if there were any suggested songs that were similar to the one used in the advert:

We found that the song used for this video was called 'Stereo Total - I love you, ono', so we searched this on youtube and looked at their other songs:

Finally, we found the first song during our research that we thought was a step closer to sort of song we would want for our music video:

This is the sort of song that we would want for our music video as it is fun and cheeky and has that french 60's pop style/german retro style that our music video would be presenting

Here are a list of other music videos from the same artist that we thought were similar to what we wanted:





This was the first big step we took in during our development when looking for our song.  At this point we are still looking but we are a lot closer to finding the right song soon