My Music Video Pitch

Reflection on my Pitch

Are there any areas of the presentation you would like to give more detail on?

Creativity
In terms of how creative my idea was, i felt that my idea need some more clarity of the beginning. As i wanted to create a very conventional break up before the first verse starts, i felt like it needs to be more developed. I wanted to have the 2 characters on the beach in a clear shot with a sunset background as their hands break up and one is left crying on the floor. In terms of my idea throughout was very strong, it was more the beginning that i had to build up on.

Practicality 
As my idea was very simple there weren't many logistical problems as such, many of my locations i wish to use, eg southbank, Trafalgar square, southend beach doesn't require any permission for me to film. There is only 2 characters for the whole music video which meant that meeting up for filming i felt would be easy as well.

Technicality
The use of equipment i feel that was crucial for my music video. As the idea was very simple with a limited cast, it meant that i needed to be creative with various camera language, this would not only keep the music video interesting for the audience, but it would connote the intensity of the flashbacks and really show the extremities of emotions i want to show within the video.

Music video theory.
From Goodwins theory i wanted to explore his idea of amplifying, and the convention impressionistic, the use of very bright lights, in a night setting i felt would give the video a very contemporary feel which would complement the actual song. When the video would then cut to a black & white flashback i feel it would be a very interesting difference, perhaps with some slow motion, which would slow everything down as there would be many cuts throughout.

What did your audience identify as the strengths of your music video idea?

Creativity

The main strength for my music video was the relationship that i have used. The fact that it is a homosexual relationship which breaks tradition and convention of a music video, was the stand out thing. Many music videos have been based on a break up and incorporated flashbacks, but i felt like there were very few, serious music videos that portray a relationship with 2 females. 

Practicality

The main strength that was fed back to me, was the simplicity of the video. The fact that it does only contain 2 characters 2 was very interesting in how i was going to create the emotions and keep it interesting with out many characters, but it also did make logistics very easy. As well as none of my locations needing any permission meant i can just 'point and shoot'  

Technicality.
One of the main strengths was the fact that i was using multiple cameras, which ideally would be used in all scenes when following the artist around. It meant that when editing i had loads of footage to chose from, and with many different angles it would always allow me to keep the video interesting through the verses.

Music video Theory
The strengths i received was from the narrative side of the music video, it was a very strong developed idea, that is very clear in my mind. It seemed that whilst a very simple idea, it could be developed into something that was very moving and interesting to watch.

 

What did your audience identify as areas for improvement?  

Creativity
To improve on the idea as a concept, the main thing was the beginning, whilst i want to have a very conventional break up scene on the beach. I realised from the feedback that i really needed to focus on the actual shots and how i was going to really denote the scene, in a very short space of time.

Practicality
The improvements i needed to take in to account was the timing of filming. London is constantly busy. Whilst i wanted to denote the character alone in the locations, it became apparent to me that the locations eg, Trafalgar Square constantly have busy, so i need to make sure that when filming i have minimal amount of people and i also needed to think more carefully about the different camera angles that i'll use.

Technicality 
An issue that did arise was lighting problems, as i did want to film at night i would need to think about the positioning of the character in order to have enough lighting to clearly show her. To much lighting and i think that it may connote a more star persona, which i don't want to create. However obviously too little and the video wont look very professional.

Music video Theory
A criticism that did come up in the feedback was the performance side of the video. It was more the case of what parts my character was going to sing, i knew that the performance will tie into the narrative but its more the case of where i will leave the scene going for her to sing and where i will be adding more cuts.

What changes will you make to your music video concept based on the feedback you received?

Creativity

I feel that the main things to improve on is getting a clearer image of the begiining to the music video, and also think about how the flashback scenes will work. Whether to constantly cut between a fight scene and a happy time together, or to denote one after the other in separate sections of the music video. 

Practicality.

The main issue with the logistics of the music video was the timing of filming in the london locations. Ideally i would still like to be filming at night as that was a main concept for the video, but i need to think about how late i should be filming or how early in the morning i should be filming. 

Technicality.

As my feedback was mainly to think about the lighting, i thought i would change that by adding a portable box light, that sits on top of the camera stabilizer. Its made up of 160 LED's which produce a very bright, white light. I think that would solve the problem as it would project the light directly on to the character and would hopefully make many of the darker shot brighter to really give a more professional look to the video.  

Music video theory

I felt that to help improve the performance side of the video, i felt that perhaps if she sang at the start of the verses and then towards the end of them i would have more time to cut to the flashbacks and portray that a little more. I also had the idea of filming each scene & shot with her singing and her not singing. That way when editing i would have a lot of choice as to what points i want her to be performing, whilst that would be time consuming i feel that this way i have total control and i wouldn't be feeling like i made a mistake if i had only filmed certain points of her singing.   

Group Rationale

Creating My Artist's Identity

Eliza Roe

Basic Info

Record label: Unsigned artist
Ethnicity: White
Age: 20
Location: Burlington, Vermont, US
What artists doing: college student

Clothing they would wear.

i felt like my artist would wear clothes that were more regular, less expensive and things that could be bought on the highstreet. i felt like if this she did that, then she appears to be more of an average person as opposed to a big global star.
 By doing this perhaps the audience would be able to connect with her more because she wouldn't be seen as a little rich girl but rather a more down to either human being.

Typography i will use.

I have chosen these types of fonts as, they are very aesthetically pleasing, from feedback i received, these fonts were the ones that were particularly chosen. i felt they were more conventional to females,and it seemed to fit my artists identity which is to be this normal, average girl.    

Sample of mise-en-scene i will use.

In terms of locations i would want to be using these for the music video, pace in london at night where it was very brightly lit up. its contrasting to have the bright places at night but i think it will really work well with the song.
with the actors i am only going to have 2 as i dint want the music video to be overcrowded, instead it will only feature the girl for the most part as it puts all focus on her and all emotion i try to evoke from the audience would solely come from her. 

Samples of colours i will use.

i have chosen these colours as they are very bright. i wanted have very bright colours bounce off the night locations, i will incorporate a black and white in some areas of my music video. But i wanted to create the brand for the artist using bright colours to make it seem like she is a very happy and joyful person, and fun to be around. i wanted her to represent a more understated young artist that has lots of talent and potential, rather then create someone that was very self- involved and thought they was a very big star.  

Through the ideas i have presented, i felt that they all connote how i wanted my artist to be presented in a more average way eg, ed sheeran and Adele. i wanted to create a persona that was very bright and joyful, someone that didnt take themselves particularly serious. instead i wanted my artists brand to be more down to earth  and almost shy in some ways.

Analysing My Song

Target Audience

I felt that my song really appealed to a younger audience. The feel of the music which has a very chilled tone could allow for a wider age range, however the sounds that the music contains are very contemporary which narrows the age range to 16-30.

for me I thought that the gender would be more specifically aimed at females rather then males. The lyrics really sway the gender for me, as they feel more about a break up that’s happened, and you can really hear the emotional hurt in the song. I felt that females would be able to emotionally connect more, rather then males that tend not to unravel their emotions.

In terms of interests, I think that the audience will really be a normal girl, for instance she would love to shop, be interested in relationships and boys. I feel like their interests would revolve around a normal late teens life, because ultimately there the sort of things that I want my persona to like, and that’s how this emotional connection between the persona and the audience would intensify.

I didn’t think that there would be a particular location for the audience to be in. Much like ethnicity the song has a very wide female audience, anyone, anywhere that perhaps have been through a bad break up can relate. Whether that’s in the country, or people are more urban.

I felt that the song didn’t have a specific ethnicity towards it. I felt that anyone could connect with the song and if they had been through a similar situation or ever felt that type of emotional hurt then anyone can relate to it.

Analysing Lyrics

The lyrics denoting, ‘begging for a thread that you had severed long ago’ implies this sense of a relationship that perhaps never happened, the lyrics doesn’t explain what really happened but they do connote this sense of a fight that led to a break-up. The lyrics were very conventional in the sense that it was just another love song, but the way in which she expresses her pain makes the difference between a bad love song and one that’s engaging.

The lyrics further talked about ‘I’m the only thing you need’ which almost contradicts the first verse, the lyrics are teasing which we constantly want to work out who we should feel sympathy for and who really was wrong.

I felt that as an audience the lyrics were confusing because she contradicted herself, but I thought that this was a good thing as we wanted to listen and really think about whether the artist was portraying this broken girl or was she the one that broke a mans heart. 

Analysing Music

The music I felt was well tailored to her voice, I thought that the sounds were very contemporary, it gave off a very chilled vibe, however it did make me think and actually listen to the lyrics. I thought it would have been easy for her to use some more upbeat sounds and be more conventional, but where we hear the beat drop at the start it slows the song down which for me made it more interesting. For me the music seemed very experimental, and it was only until the last 25 second that it seemed to lose the audience with the vinyl being scratched.

Analysing Tempo

The tempo was very interesting, it denoted when the beat dropped at 0:11 seconds the song slowed down but sped up half way through the verse. I felt that the tempo was very ‘jumpy’ it was constantly changing which I felt was interesting but it would have been good to have some stability in the song where the tempo was the same. It did have that relaxed tone that it intended to have, and the constant change of tempo was very engaging to the audience it didn’t bore you when listened too. However I did think that from an audience perspective the tempo jumped too much and sometimes it felt unnecessary. 

How would you communicate this in a video ? 

I felt like this song could have many different interpretations and there were many ways that a music video could have been created. For example it would have been ‘easy; to create a interpretive video, however I felt like creating something a little more abstract, impressionistic would have suited the song better. I decided to use this basis of a conventional break up song and really try to evoke the emotions out of the audience. I didn’t want them to just feel sympathy or understand why it was sad. But rather I wanted the audience to really find the deeper layer, which I understood would be a hard thing to achieve in such a saturated topic.

My music video in short worked on the basis of a loving relationship breaking down. The music video would follow the girl as she walks endlessly alone, with flash backs in black & white of the good times they shared together. . I really wanted to emphasise this sense of loneliness and how the break up has left her at the lowest you can possibly be, having that feeling that nothing else mattered she was alone and she is to stay alone all the way to the end of the music video.