BSA 131 (Digital Filmmaking I) Week 7 : Director's Manifesto

This week we did our director's manifestos for the music video, this is an assessment for BSA 133 (Pre-Production), but considering that we don't have a blog for that class and because I thought this was an important activity, I am putting it here.

I tried to infuse my manifesto with an aesthetic fitting for the music video I'm pitching. I actually really enjoyed  making the manifesto, it was a good way of getting my ideas out on the page, in a way where I can see them clearly. I have a lot of ideas for projects in my head, but even when I write them down they never come as close to being real as this idea did when I wrote my manifesto. The manifesto made the idea seem concrete, I refined it during this process and it became real. The biggest problem I have with practical art mediums like drawing and painting is that I never manage to appropriately communicate what I have in my head, my ability is simply not up to scratch. The cool thing about this manifesto is that it was a good representation, something that I felt was accurate. I remember thinking that I would like to make a manifesto for every idea I have in my head as it really is a very effective tool, not only for the person you're pitching to, but also as a way to prove the concept to yourself.

Genre and demographics was something I didn't even consider originally. During the conception of the idea I was thinking simply about what music videos usually are and how I can emulate what I see on TV. For this reason I found it hard to define these categories. Even now, after thinking about it, I am unsure of who this music video is really made for. Audience is important and thinking about it during the idea generation process might have actually been helpful. When I was coming up with ideas the Tone and Style was very much in my mind, so the next section was really quite easy to verbalize:

I think artist models can be a very effective tool in communicating what you want for a potential customer. I learned that earlier this year during the interviews, one of my class mates contacted multiple hair salons and gave them a reference video of what he intended to do. This got him more than one response, as someone who had trouble acquiring a subject to interview this is a technique I will definitely employ in future.

I think diagrams can be very helpful in placing a sense of trust in the person you're pitching to. Showing that you know how you will approach the actual production of a video is something I would definitely see as a good motivator in giving someone the green light.

The biggest thing missing from my manifesto is the talent pre-viz photos, this is because I don't actually have talent yet. I looked at some of the example manifestos and realize I could have used pictures of other people to communicate the type of look I'm going for. Unfortunately I don't have anything specific in mind for this video and didn't want to create extra constraints for myself in choosing some random models online.

There wasn't a lot I could add to technical notes, since I had already covered some of it in the Production Design section, but once again I think having more detail here can create a sense of security in the person reading.