In our group, we all created a rough timeline of how the video will be structured in the song. We listened to the song and nitpicked the different sections. We constructed a timeline of what we would want at the different sections.
The table below was created by Amr.
(We start at 0. 15 because the song intro is too long.)
Time (minutes : seconds)
What happens?
·00.15 - 00.28
Extreme Close up of Man’s Lips. Shots of his eye’s illuminated by the patch of light. Neon sign saying ‘Are You That Somebody’ cuts in-between the shot of the man.
·00.28 – 00.29
Singer grasps the neon tubes, close up on hand.
·00.29 – 00.57
She is inside the Neon Cube. This is the first element. Different angles used to keep it interesting. Quick cuts of the silhouette wheelwith no one in it. No light in the room only from the neon tubes.
·00.57 – 1.04
Silhouette wheel, she is posing inside of it, this is the second element. Performing
·1.04 – 1.11
It goes to her in the Neon cube, she isperforming in it, the cube is now in a lit room. She is fully visible.
·1.11 – 1.17
Silhouette wheel she is performing in it and dancing (commercial jazz)
·1.17 – 1.24
She is in the cube, the room is lit and a fan is blowing her mesh skirt dramatically around the cube.
·1.24 – 1.30
Singer behind the screen, this is our third element.
·1.30 – 1.32
Jump cuts of screen. The song says ‘Sleep, Sleep, Sleep’. In the first ‘Sleep’ the singer will be behind the screen; in the second ‘Sleep’ the dancers will be behind the screen and in the third ‘Sleep’ the singer and dancers will be behind the screen.
·1.32 – 1.39
Silhouette wheel she is performing in it and dancing (commercial jazz),The dancers are in the wheel too.
·1.39 – 1.46
Singer in the Neon cube, cut between the dark room and the lit room, her skirt is now blowing at full force.
·1.46 – 1.52
Back to the screens, with the singer and dancers, posing and dancing behind it.
·1.52 – 2.07
Close –up of the singer, shoulder up. She sings this part looking at the camera.
·2.07 – 2.19
Zooms out at 2.07, to reveal her dancers beside her, she continues singing as they all dance a choreographed commercial jazz dance.
·2.19 – 2.21
It comes back to the man’s lips rapping
·2.21 – 2.23
Cuts to the singer in the wheel
·2.23 – 2.26
It comes back to the man’s lips rapping
·2.26 – 2.33
Singer is in the cube again performing
·2.33 – 2.36
It comes back to the man’s lips rapping, however the singers lips are also shown besides the rapper. So there are two people now.
·2.36 – 2.41
Silhouette wheel, she is posing inside of it, Performing
·2.41 – 2.43
Back to the screens, with the singer and dancers, posing and dancing behind it.
·2.43 – 2.46
Close up of her singing, this part.
·2.46 – 2.54
Her dancers beside her, she continues singing as they all dance a choreographed commercial jazz dance.
·2.54 – 3.09
Recap off all the scenes, a compilation of all the elements. Quick cuts.
·3.09 – 3.15
Close up of her singing, this part.
We will then cut at around 3:15 at 'tell me are you that somebody'. The video will end with the flickering neon sign spelling out the name of the song. We would need to cut the song and edit it so that it runs smoothly and sounds natural.
Today we had the chance to fully pitch our idea through our treatment. We spoke about our updated version of the neon ball, now a neon cube.
However, we must consider the fact that this is a popular element to do.
Furthermore, when other lights are involved to light the room, the effectiveness of the cube will significantly drop. This is because neon lights don't work well in a lit space.
We discussed having the same concept but in a different shape. For example, having 8 neon lights standing alone in a row:
We also spoke about the setting around the cube. Although we were to have a pitch black surrounding, if we go forth with the lit idea, all we would see is the studio. We used this image as an example to say that although lit, the image is still interesting as it's deliberately set in an industrial environment with a lit table and chair. We must therefore consider how we will do the cube.
We also spoke about the wheel. We discussed using trace against the back of the wheel and how we may be able to build it.
With the screens, we may be able to have 3 screens together but most likely we will shoot one and assemble them together in post.
We also discussed the rapper element. We talked about perhaps shooting some footage of the rapper in a big leather chair with the dancers or the singer. We will talk about this in further detail. This is so that we have more footage than we think we need, and therefore, have more possibilities to play with in post.
We also touched on the pink background element. This may not be effective as much as we believed. The theme of the video includes mysterious neon lighting and silhouetting. This would be juxtaposed with a poppy light pink background and may look out of place. We will either develop this element or scrap this completely.
As a group, we all had separate elements to work on. My element was to work on the silhouette wheel. Saskia's was to work on the screen element, and Amr was to work on the neon ball. This is their improvements taken from their blogs.
Saskia's target:
Amr's Target:
Based off our feedback, we went away and considered how to develop each element further into a more solid idea.
I had the task of improving the silhouette wheel.
As this is a big build, needing a lot of time and money to create it, we will incorporate it more into the video.
We discussed scaling up the wheel to a life-size structure (6ft) so that the girl can dance and stand in it. This will allow us more flexibility in terms of shot ideas and angles, which will give us more footage to use in post-production.
We will have the singer being more interactive with the wheel. We discussed having other shots where the wheel is lit from the front as well, so we can see the singer lip syncing while in the wheel.
We also discussed the dancers joining the singer in the wheel for some of the shots. As this is expensive, we want to make the most of this element.
We will continue with our original visual idea of having the wheel backlit and the girl striking poses. The viewer will just see the wheel and her silhouettes.
After pitching our treatment, we received some constructive feedback to help develop our ideas further.
We were told that: the neon ball would be a difficult structure to build. Perhaps we should consider creating the ball physically or in post production.
for the wheel: how would we turn the wheel, physically or in post production? If physically, this would be a very expensive as it is an interactive tube and would have to be incorporated more into the video than we planned.
If via post-production, if we turn the entire image, there would be sections of the frame missing as the ratio is not a perfect square. However, I suggested using the photoshop technique called cinemagraphs, where one part of the video moves whilst the rest remains still.
I looked a bit further into this method and how to do it. I found that this would be easy for me to do on photoshop.
We would also need to be very careful with our casting. We would need a confident, sassy girl to be able to pull it off. We will perform test shootings with girls to access their performances before shoot day.
We should also incorporate the male more into the video
Finally, the 3 screens next to each other would not fit in the studio, therefore we must shoot them separately and put them together in post production.
I made a moodboard to reflect our target audience's (16-21) potential interests. This includes makeup, fashion, movies, parties, sports, celebrities, tv shows, and more.
For my groups artist, we have decided the target audience to be 16-21 females. The artist is a confident, feminine figure similar to present artists such as Beyonce and Ariana Grande. She carries a sassy and rebellious attitudes in her song and in our video concept. The artist also is good looking and young, similar to the age of 16-21. We believe that this particular audience will like her because she is popular, young, confident and a modern figure to look up to. Although the music is from the late 90's, we are bringing the song into a modern context and setting through the video. Our idea includes modern features such as commercial dancing and neon lighting.
Our artist also appeals to males, as the media has constructed her as a very sexy and feminine image. However, her feminism and empowerment attracts more to females, as they can see her as a role model.
Audience Profiling is a very important factor to consider for the success of our music video. It simply defines the audience by segmenting them through demographical and psychographical methods.
Defining the audience is useful for institutions and companies to metciulously see how audiences are constructed. So that rather than viewing audiences as a mass or number, companies can find a way to separate audiences into 'categories'.
The first approach is called Demographic Segmentation. This is where audiences are split according to various social factors such as gender, class, race and sexuality. The most common approach is through the JICNAR scale. This scale is determined by salary, skill and education, and regularly used by large companies such as John Lewis and Warner Bros. An example of it's application onto the media is that adverts shown on TV mid-day will be suited to housewives, and not high end business men.
However, the JICNAR scale has been distorted and oudated. Manual labour jobs sometimes make more money than academic jobs. Plumbers, electricians etc. acquire a skill in which very little people can do at all. This means they can charge more, knowing that customers would have to use them. Furthermore, jobs such as sewage and skyscraper window cleaning are highly paid, as no one wants to do them.
Additionally, the JICNAR scale isn't useful for certain products. For example, it doesn't take the younger generation into account.
The second approach is called Psychographic Segmentation. Also known as Lifestyle profiling, this approach places various attitudes, values, beliefs into categories in order to predict consumption. The system they use is called VALS (values and attitudes lifestyle classification system). One example of this is the batman vs superman (2016) poster shown in I AM LEGEND (2007), Warner Bros knew that consumption would be best in 2016 from back in 2007.
Polydor is a British record labels and company, working under Universal Music Group. They remain as one of the strongest labels in the country - producing music videos for a range of artists from Ellie Goulding to the 1975
Two ladies from Polydor came in to talk to us about making music videos within the industry. Their jobs were to commission music videos - meaning to oversee the process between the artist and director, and to predict any problems down the line. This process includes meeting the artist, discussing the video, developing artists on how they see themselves and how a marketing team can present them.
They explained that producing the music video begins with a brief of the themes for the video. They will then go to 5-10 directors for the video (depending on the budget) and match the artist with a director who they think will deliver the treatment to screen the best. This treatment should be very visual so that everyone should be really clear of the end product. Polydor claimed that they would work with any director who executes the final end product well. They believe that what makes a great director is someone who is always developing. The company is constantly looking and working with new directors to give them opportunities, as well as bringing a fresh style and taste to the table.
The ladies stressed that on shoot day, communication is very important. The shoot lasts normally around 1-2 days, most shot in London. However, they have shot a few in LA, Bulgaria, Denmark etc.
A shot list in particular is an important communication tool, which is most beneficial to the artist/director and gives a structure to the video.
Polydor's advice to us when producing music videos is to make sure that everything is covered. Make sure to take lots of different angles and shots.