BSA 131 (Digital FIlmmaking I) Week 5 : My Proposal Presentation

This week we pitched out ideas to the class with the use of a power-point presentation, below I've broken down my presentation:

The music genre is pop, with a funk flavour, so I've decided to go for a more high concept idea that strives to be fun more so than communicating important themes or emotions. Her identity and brand is still very undefined and she'll probably start forming it with our music videos. In that sense I've decided to base the tone of the video mainly on the music I've been given, it happens that this particular song is a bit more upbeat and fun than some others. That along with the lyrics is why this was my first pick. During my research for the idea generation process I found that some of the best music videos are those that are simple with strong conceptual ideas – these fit a student filmmaker such as myself because it doesn't require a lot of locations or actors but it still interesting.

Some example of what I consider high concept music videos are:

George Ezra - Listen to the Man: This music video is very simple, the singer is interrupted by Ian McKellen who insists on helping him sing the song. Even without such a big actor this would still have been a fun, interesting and engaging video because of the dynamic and development between the two actors.

Gotye – Somebody I Used to Know: Everyone remembers this one, very cheap and works well with the song. It's interesting just because of how visually appealing it is and has a nice metaphorical meaning. Once again there is development as the paint slowly covers him from head to toe and then a second actor is introduced.

These examples also serve as good examples of how I want to stage my video. 

 All of the good examples I looked at had development of the idea, mine will have this in the new methods of communication that pop up, and how those are represented. For example she might write words on a whiteboard and show it to him – which would later in the music video become like a lyric video. New imagery is very important in a music video, even a simple one. The drama sequence preceding this will set up this idea, where the two are having an argument and the guy places headphones on his ears – this action by him will also be how we lead into the music.

One colour backgrounds: This is a staple of music videos which works well with brightly coloured clothing to produce professional looking production design. When we did that production design activity in class I thought it would be cool to take it to the next level, something which no one seems to have done in previous years. I would like this video to look somewhat professional and be something that the artist can actually use for her channel. The main reason for me going this direction is that it's an easy and inexpensive way of making a music video look professional – take this music video for example (Chores – Away) it's simple, cheap and looks good enough to be played on TV. 

I think this style fits with my idea and I can even see how these filmmakers achieved it. It won't just be the actors and background like in the example though, I also intend on using some props – of course the whiteboard, marker etc. but also like a chair in which the male actor can sit (which will be seen on screen).

In general I want bright colours, especially in the clothing.

Colour Grading: I want the picture to be a bit darker and more atmospheric than in the Chores example

I looked at a student example from the past to demonstrate what I didn't want, the video was claustrophobic because of the small interiors and use of mainly close-ups and over the shoulder shots. My staging will automatically avoid the shoulder problem but I want to ensure that the viewer keeps their bearings. I included this last example because I felt like I needed to have another artist model and the marking schedule said that I could use an artist I either like or dislike, unfortunately negative examples don't have such a good impact and it wasn't very effective in communicating what I did want. I seriously contemplated whether or not this was necessary, I included it nonetheless and I don't believe it was needed. 

Conclusion:

I think my proposal presentation was effective in communicating the basic ideas, although there are some things I would do differently if I was given a second chance:

- Some other presentation had better visual examples - wherein they displayed their vision with pre-viz artwork and storyboards. I'd have liked to have something similar to this.

- My PowerPoint wasn't very visually appealing and could have been more thematically appropriate.