Idea of Loneliness in video

In our music video, we have developed an idea, that our artist should be portrayed as homeless. This can be an indication as to why he feels depressed and is abusing drugs, as he feels lonely and it takes his mind off his loneliness.

A similar idea to this is Ed sheeran's A team song. His music video is about a homeless lady and how she sells herself for prostitution. This can be seen to take her mind off her loneliness which is similar to our idea of how our actor takes drugs instead. This goes along with Ed Sheerans star image of slow paced music with dark colours. This sells him as someone who writes music to help others and understands their pain. This is similar to our plan as our song is fairly slow paced and there are dark colours seen. This is how we want to sell our image of the artist, which is someone who feels pain and feels the pain of the others. This is what we want our target audience to see, who are between the ages 15-25 years old, who understand the emotions people go through and identify with the problems of going through changes in life, and how people can suffer from them.

Risk Assessment

Before we started filming, we compiled a list of risks that could occur when we went to film our music video.

Risk	Assessment
Equipment getting stolen	Our equipment did not get stolen when we filmed as we always had one group member watching over our equipment in order to prevent them from being stolen
Getting hurt from glass bottles smashing	The main actor (myself) did not get hurt during the scenes of glass bottles smashing as he threw it away from a safe distance and the glass did not ricochet off the walls, and we got a group member to request for a dustpan from a coffee shop so that we could clean up the pieces of broken glass afterwards
Getting cold during filming	Our actors and band members did not get cold during filming as we wore an appropriate amount of layers to keep ourselves warm during filming
Issues in regards to bringing equipment	The instruments of our group members were all brought with no issues during the filming day
Incoming vehicles	There were no interference from incoming vehicles since we filmed them primarily in tunnels or streets with no vehicles whatsoever

Star Image and similar artists

Research into locations

Mood Board

The picture showing the man sitting on a dock with his head buried into his legs represents our artist. It shows a man who clearly feels isolated and different from everyone else. This is because our artist is depressed. The picture showing drugs symbolises the drugs the artist in our music video takes to overcome the demons and horrors of his life. He takes drugs because it helps him forget about the life he so desperately wants to escape. The image of the lone man in London is symbolic of our artist who walks around London alone all day. This is because he doesn't have anywhere to be: he has no job, no home and no friends/family. The illustration showing a homeless man symbolises our artists because our artist is also homeless. It could be argued that his deep depression is due to this. The picture of loose change represents the amount of money that means everything to our artist, simply because he doesn't have any. He asks for money on the streets because he doesn't have any of his own. The man shown in the top left image is 'Kid Cudi'; the main inspiration for our artists' personality. Not only have we based our artists' characteristics on him, but we have also used his biggest song: 'Day N' Nite' for use in our music video.

Development of our narrative

Our narrative has developed over the course of the evolution of our music video concept. This is because certain problems have arisen, causing us to reevaluate our initial ideas for the video.

An example of this is that in the early stages of our notion our character was never homeless, he just strolled through London all day as he didn't turn up at work. However, we realied that if we made our artist homeless, the video would connect to our audience and viewership on a deeper level as they would feel for the artist. Furthermore, potential viewers who see homelessness as a personal issue would feel more inclined to try and make a difference and lower the amount of homeless people in the UK.

Additionally, we were planning on filming some scenes in Buckingham Palace to highlight how homeless people are right under the Queen and the Government noses and they do nothing to change it. However, we found filming at this location difficult to complete as it was too far out of the way and away from our route, therefore we wouldn't have made it in time to film our day scenes.

Originally, our idea didn't feature any educational side to the music video at all, however, after some discussion my group and I came to the conclusion that including an instructive ending would benefit the viewers of our music video. Therefore, the ending of our music video will feature a page outlining how many homeless people there are living on the streets of England and ways to combat homelessness.

Tips to film in the night

This has improved our filming in the night as it has given us different views of filming then we knew before in the night. It has also helped us get the perfect lighting as it has helped us to look out for the right locations e.g. streets with lampposts. It has also shown us how to position the camera under these lights to get the perfect picture on the screen.

White Lies

Synopsis is an overview of the narrative. It is a breakdown for the director to be able to inform the artists about his ideas when selling the product to them.

It is clear from the music video that the narrative was about, which was a young female based in East London trapped in a warped relationship that is doomed.
The use of dark colours gives us a sense of the tone of the music video, additionally through the concrete environment we get a sense of the band taking themselves seriously. The use of the instruments means that we can tell the band is organic.
Throughout the narrative of young people working out and the use of council estates as a backup we get the sense that the band's star image is one of an edgy one, selling themselves as different then the mainstream. Furthermore there are inter-textual references to film, such as Clock Work Orange. This is England 86 the TV drama as they both feature high rise council estates.

Updated Shooting Schedule

timings	location	description
10:30	Stanmore station	Meeting at the train station and plan to be in town by 11:15
11:15	Brixton station	Walk out the station towards Brixton O2 Academy
11:25	Brixton O2 Academy	Film around the academy showing his poor lifestyle
12:25	Lunch	Went for lunch so that I was energised ready for more filming
13:10	Convent Garden	Walking around the location figuring out where we were going to film
13:25	Convent Garden	Filming at location
14:25	Covent Garden/Trafalgar Square	Walked from Covent Garden to Trafalgar Square
14:40	Trafalgar Square	Filmed
17:00	Stanmore Station	Made our way back home

Review of first filming day

We started off following the schedule, by meeting at stanmore station at 10, taking with us the camera and tripod. We arrived at Brixton station around 11, so that was also in time with the schedule. We then walked to Brixton O2 academy and started filming around that area. However, instead of going to Shoreditch for our next location, we decided we should go to Covent Garden as the location looked more vibrant and more realistic of the area our character should be in.

We were very successful in filming in the locations, as we filmed all the camera shots we wanted. We also found very good locations to use for our actor, as it fits perfectly to the story he's involved in. We chose to film a lot of our shots in Brixton as the streets there were perfect for the urban image of our artist we wanted. The streets were filled with graffiti on the walls so we thought it'd be perfect to film most of our shots in Brixton. Filming went very efficiently and we got a lot done in the day. However, because we spent a lot of time getting the perfect footage for the video, we didn't have battery percentage in the camera to film in the night, so therefore we have devoted the night filming to another day. We also filmed in a train station of the actor looking at the train tracks which represented his depression and the thoughts that were going on in his head. We then moved on to Covent garden where we knew the perfect location to get the best extreme close up shot of our actor which then zoomed out to show the area he was standing in.

We made changes to the type of shots we were using in the locations. We did this as when we saw the locations with our own eyes, as we thought that different shots would suit the storyline in which we are telling. Some shots we kept the same to keep up with the schedule e.g. the Extreme close up, but in order to get the filming perfect, we had to make changes to make the filming look better. We realised a clip in the underground would suit our storyline very well, so we had to adjust our camera shots, as we used a wide shot for this scene and then replaced the wide shot which was meant to be used for another scene, with a close up.

Overall the first filming day went very well and was very successful as we got a lot done and got some very good locations in our footage. The target for the next filming day is to try and follow the shots we have planned to do and to finish off filming so we can start to edit!

Our Album Cover Draft

We chose this album cover as the title states 'The Kick Inside' which represents the pain he is suffering inside his body. We see the same with the picture as he is expressing his depression with music and we can see with the scruffy clothes that he may be homeless or doesn't wash. There is also the slogan 'sometimes creativity is a compulsion, not an ambition.' This shows that he may not really have an ambition for music he just does it to cover up his depression.

However, we got feedback from this album cover and have since decided not to use it. This is because the feedback told us that the colours used don't represent the narrative of our actors dark emotions, so we decided we will use a black and white theme instead. The feedback also told us that the image is more suitable for a rockstar and not a rap artist like ourselves. Therefore, this would confuse our target audience and wouldn't represent his star image well.

Idea feedback

Transcript:

Q: What do you like about our idea and why?

A: I don’t really like music videos that much, so it’s not something that I’d watch. I think it will probably work but it’s not something I’d watch as I’m not the target audience.

Q: is there any way it can improve?

A: yeah, I think you can have more of the singer lip synching in a studio.

 

Q: What do you like about our idea and why?

A: I like how it incorporates modern social problems like drugs, and mental health issues. I think that it’s going to approach the audience in a really good way.

Q: is there any way it can improve?

A: I think it can improve by stating more of the range of shots you are going to use, how you are going to do them and what they are going to connote.

 

Q: What do you like about our idea and why?

I like how it’s relatable as a lot of people deal with mental health issues.

 Q: is there any way it can improve?

You can explain why he’s homeless.

Disclaimer

We've been advised that we need to put on our blogs that we will be using paracetamol to represent the drug/pill we are going to use in the shoot. We want to represent our singer as fragile and taking pills to escape his loneliness. We don't wish to make it look like he's taking illegal drugs, equally we don't want the audience to know exactly what it is he's taking. We're using paracetamol and going to hide the label so people won't know what it is. However, we want to let the examiner know that the images they are seeing in the video are paracetamol from a chemist and are only showing 1 or 2 that are being taken.

Shooting Schedule

timings	location	description	props
10:00	Stanmore station	Meeting at the train station and plan to be in town by 11	Camera, tripod
11:00	Brixton station	Film in the station
11:45	Brixton 02 academy	Film around the academy showing his poor upbringing	vodka
12:30	Electric Brixton	Walking around the setting
13:00	Shoreditch underground	Walking around the station drinking and tripping out	vodka
13:45	Waterloo tunnel	Walking through the tunnel lonely
14:30	Waterloo Imax	Find grimy areas and film
19:00	Piccadilly circus	This will be the start of the night time filming	hat
20:00	Buckingham Palace	End our filming here	soldiers

shots to lyrics

DURING BEAT TAKING DRUGS

[Verse 1]
Day and night – WIDE SHOT
I toss and turn – MEDIUM CLOSE UP FROM WIDE SHOT
I keep stress in my mind, mind
I look for peace
But see I don't attain
What I need for keeps – LOW ANGLE SHOT
This silly game we play, play
Now look at this – CLOSE UP TRACKING SHOT FROM FRONT
Madness the magnet
Keeps attracting me, me
I try to run – OVER THE SHOULDERR
But see I'm not that fast
I think I'm first
But surely finish last, last

[Hook]
'Cause day and night – WIDE SHOT
The lonely stoner
Seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone – PAN SHOT
Through the day 'n' nite
The lonely loner
Seems to free his mind at night
At, at, at night
Day and night – WIDE SHOT
The lonely stoner
Seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone
Some things will never change
The lonely loner - TRACKING
Seems to free his mind at night
At, at, at night

[Verse 2]
Hold the phone – EXTREME CLOSE UP
The lonely stoner – MEDIUM SHOT
Mr. Solo Dolo
He's on the move
Can't seem to shake the shade
Within his dreams
He sees the life he made, made
The pain is deep – HIGH ANGLE SHOT
A silent sleeper
You won't hear a peep, peep
The girl he wants – LONG SHOT OF ACTOR AND GIRL FROM LONDON
Don't seem to want him too
It seems the feelings
That she had are through, through – CLOSE UP

[Hook]
'Cause day and night – WIDE SHOT
The lonely stoner
Seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone – PAN SHOT
Through the day and night
The lonely loner
Seems to free his mind at night
At, at, at night
Day and night – WIDE SHOT
The lonely stoner
Seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone
Some things will never change
The lonely loner - TRACKING
Seems to free his mind at night
At, at, at night

[Verse 3]
Slow mo- MEDIUM CLOSE UP
When the tempo slows up
And creates that new, new- WIDE SHOT
He seems alive
Though he is feelin' blue- HIGH ANGLE SHOT
The sun is shinin'
Man he's super cool, cool – PAN SHOT
The lonely nights
They fade away
He slips into his white Nikes- TRACKING
He smokes a clip- EXTREME CLOSE UP
And then he's on the way
To free his mind in search of- OVER THE SHOULDER
To free his mind in search of
To free his mind in search of

[Hook]
Day and night- WIDE SHOT
The lonely stoner
Seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone- PAN SHOT
Through the day and night
The lonely loner
Seems to free his mind at night
At, at, at night
Day and night- WIDE SHOT
The lonely stoner
Seems to free his mind at night
He's all alone
Some things will never change
The lonely loner - TRACKING
Seems to free his mind at night
At, at, at night, night
At, at, at night, night – HIGH ANGLE SHOT

[Outro]
Na-na-na-na-na-na, Kid Cudi-i-I – LOW ANGLE SHOT
Cleveland status, grind all day
Cleveland status, grind all night
Cleveland status, grind all day
Cleveland status, grind all night