Costume and Prop List with Justification

Location recce

Location recce photos with description and justification

This is the first location we thought of for our music video, the street is called Josephine Avenue and is in Brixton Hill. As you can see this street is empty which means that it is a quiet place to film which is also a benefit to us whilst filming. The main appeal to this particular location was that it was filled with nature, especially trees. Overall, it had a great scenery and the connotation I interpreted was that it signified peace. However, the impression I also got was that if we used this scenery that portrays nature and peace and positioned the protagonist in the centre of this environment, this would demonstrate juxtaposition. I believe this to present juxtaposition because the protagonist herself is conflicted, her attitude is the opposite of peaceful and therefore her jealousy and anger comes out more and so it demonstrates enigma.

     

                                                                                                      Second Location: Central London, bus journey towards Knightsbridge

This was the second location within central London, whilst in Knightsbridge we took a short tour on the high road and found several locations that looked suitable for our music video. First location was a sophisticated little garden in the back of the Tommy Hilfiger, located in Knightsbridge, London SW3 1DB.  We came across this location by accident however we thought it would be great to portray the couple together and it being ‘their special place’, this would be a non-linear narrative to show the good times between the couple. After these non-linear scenes the rest of the narrative will be present based and the same location will be used to show the difference between then and now and how she was left alone in ‘their place’.

The next location is also set in Knightsbridge, London SW3 1DB, however there is no exact address for this scenery as it was gated and in-between stores. This location like the Tommy Hilfiger garden is very luxurious and perfect to demonstrate the couple’s ‘special place’ where they feel most comfortable with each other.

 

Target Audience Profile

Target Audience Profile

The target audience for the music video are demographically aged between 16-22 and predominately female with a black ethnicity. Furthermore, I would suggest that the psychographics of this target audience would possibly be from an interest in dance to being an aspiring RnB artist themselves. The reason for a younger target audience is due to the fact that the protagonist herself is very young and is between the age barriers of 16-22, using a young protagonist creates a direct relationship towards the audience and therefore the audience can sympathise more with the character. Also, the choice of clothing’s gives the impression of young culture especially in RnB and therefore would attract an older audience who would listen to early 2000 RnB and it’s legends who shared a similar style. Moreover, the demographics of the target audience would predominately be female because the narrative as well the protagonist are feminine, the narrative reflects on a manipulative love/ relationship and is based on a females point of view which would also reflect on the female audience therefore it would be easier to connect with a female than a male. The target audience would as well be mostly black because the genre itself became very cultured around the black population, according to www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/, ‘rhythm and Blues (R&B), combines soulful singing and a strong backbeat, and was the most popular music created by and for African Americans between the end of World War II (1941-45) and the early 1960s’. This statement is evident that the genre of music is actually based on black culture and from my opinion became extremely successful around the 1980s- 2000 due to artists such as Aaliyah, R Kelly, Destiny’s Child, SWB and many more influencers.

Andrew Goodwin- voyeuristically

Despite, the constant theme of Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory, the MV also features Goodwin’s theory of a media context being of a ‘voyeuristic’ content. Present in the video, is the five women working in construction with minimal clothing and working/dancing seductively to catch the attention of the men. It’s as if both genders are watching each other secretively. However, in this context, it can be argued that it is ‘voyeuristic’ due to the fact that while the men are spying on the girls, they don’t know that the girls do know that the men are in deed watching them. The girl group subvert the typical conventions of music videos, as they are the dominant ones and pretend like they don't know what's going on but they really do, giving them the upper hand as they manipulate the men in this situation. The target audience is from the ages of 15- early 30s, with the social grading from E-B1, because this is generally the range for the age group of said music video and is more relatable to that group in particular, because the video reflects on the psychological needs of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for Love and Belonging and Self-esteem.

Within ‘Privacy’ the camera acts as a spy, as it follows and watches as Chris Brown is engaging in his private activities. In the beginning, it [the camera] looked as if it was hiding behind the wall watching the female and Brown enter the elevator. Applying, Male Gaze theory, I believe that the camera is a heterosexual male delving into this private engagement out of pure curiosity. This is seen when, the camera, furthermore follows them out to a corridor and watches as the female stripes off a piece her clothing and tracks them to a room, where an amplification of fascination happens, where several females are seen wearing barely any clothing.

 Within the music video, we see the theory as it's giving us the protagonist's prospective of a group of women dancing provocatively and being sexualized by the camera's angles on the screen. The song is about apologizing to not just a girl, but to everyone and giving second chances. However, as he is apologizing it also contradicts his message as he still sexualizes the females to try and get his point across. The video features close ups of the dancers moving their hips and uses mid shots, almost as if they're used to compare or 'size up' the dancers. Majority of the New Zealand Crew dancers wore minimal clothing which is also seen when lined up. Furthermore, throughout the famous music video with 2,845,614,999 views on YouTube, (making it the fourth most viewed video on the site), is constantly seen following the same girls with the minimal clothing, as presented below.

 

 

Team Meeting Minutes

Team Meeting Minutes

 

Date:	Time:	Duration:	Reason:
25th September 2017	10:30-11:20	50 minutes	Discussing what Genre to pick.
5th October 2017	12:40-14:09	89 minutes	Choosing artists of the genre.
6th October 2017	13:00-13:45	45 minutes	Looking at songs for our music video
21st October 2017	12:00-15:00	180 minutes	Discussing further ideas for video.
23rd October 2017	14:00-	-	Storyboard
6th November 2017	09:40-11:00	80 minutes	Looking for Hotels
9th November 2017	09:30-10:30	60 minutes	Finding another song of chosen artist to combine with.
11th November 2017	14:30-18:00	210 minutes	Went shopping for props.
22nd November 2017	12:30-16:00	210 minutes	Spoke with actors featured in our music video about their roles and what they’re going to be doing.
23rd November 2017	12:30-16:30	240 minutes	Filming
25th November 2017	16:40-20:00	220 minutes	Filming
6th December 2017	11:00-13:00	120 minutes	Filming
14th December 2017	14:30-20:00	330 minutes	Filming
15th December 2017	14:00-17:00	180 minutes	Filming
16th December 2017	12:00-14:00	120 minutes	Filming
1st February 2018	14:00-17:30	210 minutes	Filming
7th February 2018	13:00-15:00	120 minutes	Filming
26th February 2018	10:30- 14:00	210 minutes	Filming
27th March 2018	13:15-13:30	15 minutes	Filming
17th April 2018	12:30-13:30	60 minutes	Filming

 

On Monday 25^th September, the team discussed:

• What genres were we interested in doing for our music video.
• Sianna and Shannon were interested in hip pop/rap, whereas Tyla was interested in R&B.
• After researching numerous of artists in each category, we had decided that the direction we wanted to go in was in the R&B genre.

On Thursday 5^th October, we got together to go over the type of artist we wanted to follow, which would hopefully led us to our chosen musician. After several suggestions, Shannon had suggested a new found female artist, who goes by the name of SZA. Once we had listened to her song ‘The Weekend’, we decided to go with it and later learned that it was very popular within our target audience.

On Friday 6^th October, we talked and watched numerous of music videos of the genre to get a feel of the ethos in all R&B videos and the conventions. This included several of Aaliyah’s songs, as she was the princess of R&B and successfully changed the genre and we considered two of Sydney Renae’s cover songs ‘Into you’ and ‘How you gonna’. However, we decided not to go with it because we liked the beat and rhythm that ‘The weekend’ provided us and she was also a new talent, which meant we could also promote her and show that we had searched many musicians from mainstream to indie.

We meet up on Saturday 21^st October to review the ideas we had of our music video already and what we could add to add more depth to the music video. We all had our individual ideas that we combined and found we had covered all areas of the conventions and props used. For example, we learned that there are a lot of flashing lights and bright colours to make the video/ narrative stand out, so as a result we wanted to buy a red lightbulb to add colour to the short film and reflect the protagonist’s mood.

On Monday 23^rd October, We meet up to discuss the story and put our ideas on paper and overall, we came out with seven sheets at the end of it.

Monday 6^th November, during lesson we had time to complete and search through anything we still needed for our music productions. At this point, we were determined to find a hotel room, which meant that we spent over an hour combing through multiple websites such as Premiere Inn, TripAdvisor and many more in order to find a suitable room to film in. Soon after, we limited down our chosen options and thought Premiere Inn might be more suitable.

Thursday 9^th November- Among one of the many ideas that we had, we had discussed if we wanted to add parts of another song for the audience to better understand the song’s intentions and show that we were able to expand our understanding of the course and be create which required us to think outside the box.

We discussed that we should do a remix of two of SZA’s songs, and when we switch to the second song, the actor should look directly at the camera. This would be influence by ‘Fade’ by Kanye west because at the end of his music video, the audience waits a few seconds later and we discover an extra part of the song. Web would like to do this with the second song we had in mind ‘Normal Girl’, because it further expresses the protagonist’s feelings and how she feels about her situation.

On Saturday 11^th November, for hours as a group we all went shopping for props, this included clothes, accessories and make-up for the actor to wear, red lighting, roses and wine glasses for the romantic scenes.

On Wednesday 22^nd November, the group spoke to the actor about; where she would be going, what she would doing, her character’s development, clothes, and what days we needed her to film.

Thursday 23^rd November, We travelled to Brixton to film, to which we spent four hours guiding the actor while moving to several locations and taking numerous of pictures for the promotional cover.

On Saturday 25^th November, We filmed in Oxford Circus to capture the Christmas lights as it fit well within our music video’s narrative. We spent several hours there filming from different angles and discussing the character’s motives to the actor. After this, we then discussed to her our next shooting day and what clothes would be appropriate to wear at that event.

On Wednesday 6^th December, after Tyla called the manager of the Tommy Hilfiger Knightsbridge store several days in advance and they arranged a shooting schedule to come early before the customers could come in and allowed us to shoot interior of the store and the little garden replica they had on the second floor. This could two hours to film, to which they allowed us to even stay which the customers were in. We took several shots and videos of the artist singing and as a result we were very happy with the outcome.

On Thursday 14^th December, the group went to Greenwich and shot around the dock to film the skyline, because we found that with the artist in front, it made her stood out and look dominant. After this, we then travelled to Greenwich Foot Tunnel and shot scenes there to portray the artist to also some emotion in her atmosphere, to reflect her mood in the current situation that she is in. Furthermore, we ended up going to the market and taking photos and more videos before finally going home.

On Friday 15^th December, we went to Norbury Park to shoot the scenes with the male actor and Sianna, to show him and his real girlfriend. This only took an hour to shoot due to already planning this scene. After we chose to go to Croydon and shoot the rest, which took only two hours and then we left to go home.

On Saturday 16^th December, we concluded that this would be the final shoot, which only took two hours to film with the actor. We filmed at our residence and then went back to the location we filmed on our first shoot to quickly film a retake.

On Thursday 1^st February, we went to Croydon to shoot additional shots. We decided that the landscape from the parking lot on the rooftop would be a good shot to take especially as it would contrast well with the night shot at Greenwich. However, as we set up the camera on the rooftop, security guards came and told us we could not film there due to us needing permits. We had to think quickly on the spot and so Tyla found a solution and we went to place called Spa Hill. From there, we found a great spot to film and eventually got good footage to put into our music video.

On Wednesday 7^th February, the group travelled to Croydon with two of our other actors, we were to assume the roles of the male love interest and his actual girlfriend. We went to Delights and held a date between the all three of them at different times to represent a previous date with the male and his girlfriend and then a recent with him and the artist, to show that he was taking both of them to the same place. The shoot didn’t take too long due to both actresses having another commitment but overall we got the shots we needed.

On Monday 26^th February, we travelled to East London to go to St. Duncan’s in the East, which is the ruins of a beautiful gothic revival church that has now been turned into a public garden. The took an hour and an half to get to and with the actress needing to get back to South London before 14:30, we got as much footage as we could in 30 minutes and quickly had to travel back.

On Tuesday 27^th March, Tyla and Sianna grabbed footage from their area where we filmed the actress on the first day of production, to fill in blanks on the video timeline and any potential establishing shots.

On Tuesday 17^th April, we went to Pollards Hill to shoot to grab any footage of scenery to give the actress a ‘vulnerable’ side to her. This didn’t take too long as we discussed what was going to happen on the way there and as we were so familiar with the place, we knew where we wanted the actress to be positioned. We also thought it would be the perfect time of day to shoot as we knew no one would be there so early.