Hi again! Now that my team and I have established the foundation for our music video, that being the research we conducted regarding the conventions of indie music videos, we can now begin to create our game plan moving forwards. In order to do so, I've chosen to break up each of the necessary points we need to cover into the following sections:
Props:
In music videos, very minimal dialogue is used, as mentioned in my previous blog. That then means that selecting the right props becomes of grave importance when attempting to convey a meaningful message in around a minute and a half. Choosing props did not prove to be all that difficult, however, being that our storyline is partially based on the lyrics of the song that we chose to use. Within the song itself, the term “phone” is mentioned multiple times, making it the obvious choice for being our central prop, which is essentially the prop that we will place the most focus on throughout the entire video. Since that was the only tangible prop mentioned in the song that fit with the vision we chose to follow, we needed to make some creative decisions of our own. With that being said, we also chose to include a pillow, a car and its keys, a milkshake with two straws, and finally, soggy fries to pair nicely with an equally as depressing burger. All of the items mentioned above are things my group mates and I have either access to on the daily, or are objects that we can purchase at a relatively low price, making it easy for us to reshoot flawed shots until we create our, mostly perfect, final product at a low cost, in terms of both time and money.
Costumes:
As with props, costumes are a vital part of music videos, especially since they can provide valuable hints to the audience before the true intentions of an artist or cinematographer are revealed to them. We plan on having our primary subject wear a hoodie, whose color we are still unsure of being that we want to either find something that reflects their state of depression and detachment, as in a dark blue, or use something that allows them to blend into their drab surroundings, like a dark grey. As for the rest of their outfit, because we are aiming to achieve the effect of our subject having an unkempt appearance, we can have them wear an unironed pair of black jeans with a dark pair of shoes to match. In our music video, we plan on having our subject walk by two blurred out figures, whom the audience will be able to make out as being a couple; therefore, in order to establish the contrast between their inherently cheerful state and the fallen spirits of our subject, we could have them wear bright colors, such as yellow, pink, light blue, and even red. We also want to include an image of them and their girlfriend on the subject's lock screen. In that image, their girlfriend will be wearing the same hoodie that the subject is throughout the entire music video and our subject will be wearing casual clothing with livelier colors, such as that of the aforementioned couple, to show his contentions and feelings of comfortability whilst with their girlfriend. In the backup plan that you will find below, we consider creating a diner set up of our own, in which case one of our group members could dress up in a short-sleeved, light pink or blue gingham,m dress, paired with a white collar and signature white apron. This same costume could be used even if we were to film in an actual diner as there is no guarantee that they will have the same uniform we are seeking to include.
Filming Schedule:
The dates listed below provide a general idea of the schedule we intend to follow in order to have our music video completed correctly and in a punctual manner:
On Wednesday, November 17th, 2021, my group and I will begin storyboarding for our one-minute and fifteen-second music video; we will have it complete by Friday, November 19th, 2021.
By Monday, November 29th, 2021, we will have begun to shoot our music video, if we have not started to do so already, and have filming completed by Monday, December 6th, 2021.
From Tuesday, December 7th, 2021, until Friday, December 10th, 2021, we will make necessary edits and revisions to our music video to guarantee that everything is in order by its due date on Monday, December 13th, 2021.
Location List:
Within our music video, we intend to transition between several different locations, which I will highlight below; however, I would like to note that none of the following places are finalized, but that they are our best options moving forwards. In the first scene, we would like for our main subject to be placed within an untidy bedroom riddled with garbage and dirty clothes, where they will be sitting on their bed in the midst of it all. Following that scene, we will then shift outside of the subject's home to show them entering their car. Depending on how pressed we are for time at that point, we may or may not choose to show some of the car ride, thus making the vehicle a location as well as a prop. If we do end up running short on time we will likely move directly to when our subject exits their car in front of a diner. With that being said, one can safely conclude that a diner, which most likely be either a Denny's or a local mom-and-pop restaurant, will be our next location, due to its close vicinity to the home of one of our group mates. We will of course ask for permission to film within whatever diner we choose to visit because it is a public place and, as such, must ensure that we respect the privacy of others. Upon exiting the diner, our subject will walk down the street until they reach a park. Our subject will then enter the park and seat themself on a bench, making that our final location.
Backup Plan:
Our music video and the message it intends to convey require very specific locations when it comes to filming, but if issues do arise, it's never a bad idea to be prepared. If we are unable to use the car of one of our group member's siblings, we can always just ask to borrow one of our friends' or parents' cars to film the scenes in which a vehicle must be present. As stated above, we will need to ask for approval when it comes to filming our music video in a public place, which is why if we are turned away from one diner, we can always find another one in the area that has more lenient filming policies, or if worse comes to worst, we can always create our own diner set-up within the home of one of our group mates, with parental consent of course. The weather is something we must also factor in as Florida has extremely variable weather conditions, but we need not fret, as the rain could potentially act as a pathetic fallacy, displaying the true inner feelings of our main subject. Having said that, we would likely need to update our props list to include objects like umbrellas, for instance. With this project, we are able to expand our overall reach and include individuals from outside of our class, meaning that if our subject were to fall ill, we could always use another person as a replacement. Regarding the filming itself, if one of us is asked to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure or were simply unable to attend one of our filming sessions, we could always have a fellow teammate temporarily take over whatever job they were in charge of, especially since our main subject will not be one of the members of our group.
Concluding Remarks:
Now that we’ve laid everything out, I feel like our music video is sure to be a real hit! As always, I can’t just leave you on a cleft hanger (you thought I forgot about my musical wordplay, didn’t you?), so just to show you how much anticipation I'm in, here are some lyrics by the ever-iconic Britney Spears to close things off: "I think I'm ready now" (Toxic 2003).
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