Proposal

Brief

For our A2 media studies coursework we have been asked to produce a music video. However we are not allowed to use music that has already been produced and well known. The video has to be no longer than five minutes. Our chosen target audience is mainly people roughly aged between 16 – 25 years, therefore we have to consider certain aspects we could in the video to meet their expectations. We have key deadlines in which we have to deliver our work on and our lecture expect us to do so. The whole project including the paperwork and video has to be completed by December 14th. After this we can begin on the creating our DVD cover and magazine advertisement. The deadline for this is on 25th January. By February 8th we must have our blogs completed and finally by the end of March we have to hand in our audience feedback findings & complete evaluation/blog.

Research findings

In conclusion from our group research document, we found that the majority of our target audience prefer to watch a music video based on the theme of love, which includes settings such as romantic islands, clubs/dance floors, the city. This is because it creates excitement and adds a positive vibe to the video. We also researched on technical codes such as the camerawork, sound, special effects and editing as well as the symbolic and cultural codes involving mise-en-scene and graphics/sound effects. We concluded that the characters in all music videos were casually dressed, the males; jeans, t-shirts, trainers. Similarly, the females in tight jeans, low cut tops, which also represents them as promiscuous. Overall, our research indicated that we need to consider the settings, costumes, and camera positions in the video. As we are using a love song, the settings we should consider using, should be in the city at night, or on a hill with the sunset. We also consider to use, simple and modern clothing to compliment the season- winter, so they must wear warm coats and scarves. Also from our genre conventions that the main conventions of a love music video includes a young couple and passion, this could either be about sexuality, dance/music or the setting.

Initial ideas

Based on the above findings, each member of our production team came up with an initial idea in response to the brief.

1. Amina Diwa Saadat

Focusing on our target audience research, my idea was to explore what our target audience mostly expected in a music video. The ideas I came up with to use a live band and make the video into performance as well as a narrative driven. I came up with the idea of having a band playing on stage, cross-cutting to a couple together illustrating the story the band is singing. I chose to use a couple and make it into a true love story because the song is about someone singing about his feelings towards someone he loves. Another idea I came up with based my target audience is that the majority of the scenes should be set at night. Many of our target audience preferred to watch a music video set at night because they believe it makes the scenes more romantic and tells the story better.

2. David Goodwin

I came up with a different idea compared to the other group members. It is set in a college canteen in which there is romance accruing between a customer and a new, young member of staff in the canteen which then leads the couple to a break up because of their differences they have between them. This then leads on to the canteen staff member going off with another staff however of the same gender.

3. Imran Bashir

According to the fact that our audience liked to watch music videos based on a relationship, my idea involved Romeo and Juliet as the love story, it involves an undercover love. Instead of two different families it is going to be two different religions, a Muslim and a Jew. We can incorporate both performances and a narrative of Romeo and Juliet idea as we are also sending out a message showing the conflict in both religions and to find peace and love within both faiths.

Final idea

Our final idea is a development of Imran’s and Geoffrey’s idea, with a modern twist. We decide that it is going to start off with the band performing on stage all dressed in white to symbolise peace. It then fades as the main singer looks to his right and we see a loving couple holding hands on the Harrow view point, at this stage we don’t reveal their faces too much and only see a close up of them holding hands and an establishing shot to show the audience the romantic setting. It then cuts back to the band performing and the singer turning his head forward again from his right. It then fades into the girl praying in the mosque and the guy praying in a synagogue which reveals their identity and tells the audience more about the characters. As the drummer plays the drums we see the dust from the drums forming the lyrics of the song as it rises up into the air. Then we see the Muslim sign of the moon and the star and the Jewish sign of the Star of David blending into each other which cuts into the fireworks bursting out in the sky. In the end of the video we see a close up of the man walking but we don’t know where he is or where he is going and then we see a close of a rose and a medium shot of him standing in front of a grave throwing a rose on it and then it fades in to black.

Production team roles

Planning

Amina Diwa Saadat & Imran Bashir

Responsibilities:

- Create a project schedule
- Plan out who will do what in the group research document and conclude the target audience research
- plan out the proposal and get each group member’s ideas together to write up the final idea
- Write up the script the development, making sure the timings of each scene match up to the timings in the actual video

Construction

Amina Diwa Saadat & David Goodwin

Responsibilities:

- Shooting and making sure the camera shots and right
- Editing including adding the special effects, i.e. the lyrics appearing on the drums.
- Completing misc production paperwork