New Track Proposal

We have a new track that we all want to do. We've moved away from indie rock and more towards boy bands/ pop. Here is the track we've chosen:

BLK message to group

Hey guys can you post your new song proposal to this blog? Jazzi wants to hear it; she knows the track but I wasn't sure what it was called so have given her your blog address so she can log in and have a listen on here.

She's also going to post up her playlist of potential tracks which might be worth a listen even though I know you have pretty much settled on the Nsync track . .

We have talked about the choreography, which she is fine to do :-)

Possible dates for the initial learning of the dance routine are:

Tuesday 12th Oct - she could be around all day, and also evening if there is a timetable problem during the day. We could book the studio out and you could learn it in there. She may be free Mon 11th afternoon too, but can't confirm that one yet.

Another option is the weekend of 9th and 10th Oct

Finally, she could also be around in half term, maybe for a pre-shoot final rehearsal - the Monday is good for her, possibly the 1st weekend and the Tuesday (but Monday looks best).

Hope this helps!
Miss B x

GROUP PROPOSAL

Once your group have chosen a track, you will be able to start planning your production in more detail. Before you go any further, make sure the teachers have heard your chosen track. They will probably want to hear your other choices as well.

You may go ahead with the development of your idea if the teachers are happy with your choice of track, and the basic practicalities (where, when, who, how) have been broadly agreed. Please do not go any further with your idea if the teachers are not happy with any of these key aspects of your idea.   

When you have refined your ideas, you will need to pitch your ideas to the class in order to get feedback and take your ideas further.


Firstly, agree and post the following as soon as possible:
1 who the band/ artist are, their name, their image/ identity
2 an outline treatment for your early visual ideas for the music video
3 Detail on the target audience; who are they and how you plan to appeal to them – see below to help you with this
4 Your ideas for the marketing plan
5 Which ancillary tasks you plan to create
6 The practicalities in more detail - when, where, who, how
7 Your Plan B if it all goes wrong - brief notes on the back-up track and idea

As soon as possible, ask the teachers for feedback/advice on the above and develop your project with this in mind.


THE PITCH
For the pitch, you will need to present on the above points to the class. You will need to produce your treatment as a hand out - see past examples for ideas. Make sure your blog is up to date and you have posted the track ready to play an extract. Approx 10 minutes would be ideal; make sure you are also ready to make notes on the feedback you are given. This can be posted afterwards.


HELP WITH AUDIENCE PLANNING
Take your track selection one stage further by developing your ideas on the audience for this kind of music. Answer the following questions:
1. How would you describe the target audience for this kind of music? Is there a core and secondary audience?
2. How would you describe the tastes and attitudes of the target audience? What other media do are they likely to consume? Outline their media consumption profile
3. What function/pleasures does this kind of music serve to its audience (uses and gratifications)?
4. Music fans often use music to help them construct their own cultural and visual identity – do/ how do fans of your artist or band do this?
5. How/ when/ where is this kind of music consumed?

Our new group idea

We have decided as a group that using Tom's band ' Indecisive' would not work due to a number of reason, mainly the styling and band image would not look right and Tom would not be happy to change group memebers as the track we were going to use has not been released yet. We also felt with Tom's emotional connection to the band it may not be for the best and could cause issues down the line.

So instead we have scrapped that idea completely and have moved on to the idea of a pop boyband. We want to go for a really classis boyband image, with obvious moves, 'the look', matching outfits and something really new and fresh. We have also taken into consideration the overall image and look of the boy band and proposed boys that we think could make it work and look good together. This is our first choice for the band members:

We think they work really well together and really look the part and we also showed Ms Blackborow who thought it could potentially really work and were really excited about it as a group.

However Ms Blackborow told us we obviously first of all need to talk to each member individually and see if they are willing and really interested in taking part in our project.

Apart from Hugh who will obviously be ok to feature in the band we must inform the other boys of the full commitments they must make and then they must sign a contract. We need to inform them of:

• Timing- we need to add up the amount of hours and days that we will need them to take part in
• There will be dance routine rehearsals
• Band rehearsal
• Shooting days
• Possibility of Re shoots
• They will also need to learn the song lyrics
• Turn up on time to every rehearsal and shoot
• They need to be commited and understand this is serious and we want it to look as professional as possible.

Therfore there is a lot to do before we can even realy get started, track selection is under way and we have found a potential track which we all really like which we will get posted on here soon. Any updates on the band members we will post on the blog.



Styling of Band and Actors

After showing Ms Blackborow our track idea she really liked it, however she had a few issues as to actually using tom's band as she does not feel it would work for band identity.

She suggested that we should perhaps put a band together but still use the track. We therfore held a meeting and talked about different options which we feel would really work:

• We could find a new band, however we feel it could look very staged and would not have the connection a real band like 'Indecisive' have.
• We could use the band and style them as we like which tom is happy for us to do. Therfore we were thinking of having the band smartly dressed : white shirts, black skinny tie and black skinny jeans

• 
  
  We want to use circular motions when filimg the performance side of the band, therfore this makes the band equal and there is no main singer( all band members singing chorus) which takes focus of just one member of the band.
• We were then thinking that for the narrative we want to use completely different actors and not use the band therefore we can create a whole new image and the band would be seperate from the narrative.
• We were thinking of having 60 per cent narrative and 40 percent on performamce therefore more attention on the actors and not the band.
  

Reasons for using Tom's band

After all pitching our tracks to each other, which were all very different  as the boys and the girls have very different music tastes.

Tom: Story Without Words - Indecisive

Ciara: Shy Fx - On The Run
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq_JOeo3tKw

Jess: Katy Perry - E.T
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCbvGtxeleI&feature=fvst

Hugh: 30H!3 - I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8s7fl8WmKg&feature=player_embedded

• In our group meeting we all agreed and decided that 'Story Without Words' was the best track to use.  There are many reasons why using Tom's band will be perfect for a music video.

• Having the band is really good for the performance part of the video as seeing the band together will really make the song stand out, they could be all in a circle and we could shoot from inside the circle and around the outside of the circle and maybe also from above.  We could pan around the circle and cut into close-ups of all of the band members and all of this would look really effective technically.

• The lyrics have a really good story to them so there are many ways in which we could interpret them.  We could interpret them literally matching lyrics and visuals together on screen or we could interpret them not literal at all with a much deeper meaning behind it.

• Having one of our group members in a band is so helpful as it means that we can rely on the band to turn up for shoots and they won't let us down as they know how important it is and we can style them however we want to for our music video.

Narrative Ideas

I (Hugh) have had an idea for a narrative that could form the basis of our video if we get final confirmation to use Indecisive. I saw this video and used it as inspiration, developing it and twisting the idea a little bit to make it fit with the lyrics of 'Story Without Words'.


Jason Derulo - What If on MUZU.

The characters are a man and a woman who are in a serious long term relationship, but have stopped communicating as much as they used to and as a result are drifting apart. The narrative is each character thinking about the other one, which we cut up with flashbacks and memories. The group seems to like this and we can develop it as a group until we have an idea to use in our final treatment.

Group Meeting 2 - 24/09/2010

We had our second meeting at lunch today, and discussed:

• Jess' track choice - Katy Perry, which the girls really liked and the boys not so much. After some discussion we decided that we thought that her voice was too distinctive to use, and that Indecisive was still our first choice.
• Hugh suggested an idea for a narrative, which we liked and can develop if we use Indecisive. See separate post.
• Tom came up with an idea for the performance set up in order to include all of the band equally and make sure that the focus is not just on the lead singer. See separate post
• We discussed some actors we could use for our narrative section.

Band Performance Ideas:

During our group meeting today we came up with the idea of shooting the band performance in a circle instead of the traditional line with the drummer at the back.

Here's an example of the look we mean, with the band set up in a circle facing towards the centre...

This set up allows for lots of interesting shots technically and artisticly, and places each band member as an equal, allowing us to focus on each member of the band individually. This would work really well in our video as all the band members sing the chorus.

We could achieve this set-up really well in our school's Seeward Studio, with plenty of lights from above and lights we could set up around the perimeter of the band.

First (full) Group Meeting

We have now officially been assigned our group for the music video project. It has been confirmed that Jess is now also joining our group and our media class.
In this meeting we discussed:

• Potential Music Tracks
• Customised group blog
• Music tracks that we like and could use ideas from
• Meeting times for next week
• Narrowed down tracks that we can show to Ms Blackborow