NEW YORK

NISHA AND LOREN ARE OFF TO NEW YORK TOMORROW! Let the shooting commence...

Key shot ideas

WALKING TO THE AUDITIONS
- Loren tripping up over her heels
- Nisha dancing with earphones in down the street
- 'Graphic matches' ; Nisha looks in her reflection and sorts her hair/flicking it out in a vain way, whereas Loren looking in the reflection and sort out her alice band.
- Nisha walks in a much more confident way than Loren. Her street, trendy personality is shown by what she is wearing. Nike high tops, Jeans and a vest top.

Miss Blackborow Feedback

We spoke to Miss Blackborow for feedback today and here is a summary of what she said:

• Think of the narrative as seperate from the performance otherwise this is where the video could go wrong
• The girls are not rich and poor but instead street and suburban
• The street girl is sassy and confident
• The posh one is nervous
• The posh girl is classically styled but not trendy whereas the street one is very trendy and fashionable
• The street girl should be Nisha and the posh girl should be Loren as it fits with their character better
• Nisha should wear high top nike trainers and not heels to get the contrast between the girls more
• Nisha should be wearing big gold hoop earings and a flat cap. She could also have ipod earphones in.
• Loren should be wearing an alice band or beret to look very upper class
• There should be lots of body shots that are intense with the camera. It should give the sense of chlostrophobia.
• Use graphic matches to show off the different characters personality and show that they run parrallel to each other
• You should take a lot of time getting each shot making sure they are perfect

Dance Studio

Yesteday we managed to secure a dance studio on the 3rd of November for hiring. This will be used in the audition scenes as it will make it look more professional.
It will cost us £5 an hour to hire and we have hired it from 11am - 2pm. Hopefully we will get all our shooting done within this time as there are only a few shots needed in this location.

CALL LIST

Here is our call list, it is used to get hold of the actors quickly and makes the whole shooting process much more smoother.

PRACTISE LIPSYNCH

Here is a practise lip synch of Loren and I. We practised miming to the song we are going to produce our media project to - 'Top of the World - Pussycat Dolls' We done this to see how well  our performance on screen was and to plan who should sing/mime which parts. We also practised different shot types and angles to see which ones we could use for our real music video. Editing the sequence was pretty hard as we had almost forgotten how to even open the timeline and capture. However once we got the hang of it, it came  to us naturally.

Costume

These are the nike shoes i am planning to wear for the dance routine shots. Nike is a very well known dance brand and i think it connotes hiphop well.





This is the back of the jacket i am going to wear for the dance routine scenes. It is not a hoodie which is a bit disappointing, however i think it has a good hiphop feel to it and the writing on the back with the bomber jacket style is very stereotypical for hiphop artists. I like this jacket also because although it being very hiphop, it also is feminie due to the colour and quite stylish.



This is the front of the jacket i am going to be wearing in the dance routine shots. I love all the applique on it as i think it looks like it belongs in America and therefore fits well with the New York storyline. The fact it is not a hoodie also emphasises the fact that she is less street than the other girl.



In the performance scenes we were thinking about being dressed up almost identically but very glamourously. Nisha and I both own this style of dress therefore we thought it would be a perfect choice. It is stylish and sophisticated yet not too revealing or girly. It is in black and white which are two very timeless colours and as we were thinking about having the performance shots in black and white we thought this dress would look perfect.




These are the red shoes i am planning to wear for the New York street scenes. As i am coming from the posh end of New York we decided we wanted me to dress up glamourously like i have made a huge effort but i am not dressed very trendily. I decided to opt for red as my main colour therefore, as i think it can look dressy and very affluent. It also makes her stand out from the crowd showing she does not really fit in with the dance scene.



The red duffel coat was going to be worn alongside the red shoes in the New York street scenes. As i said before red can be a very striking colour and the fact it is on a duffel coat makes it seem more classy, however compared to Nisha it will not look very fashionable. As i will be wearing red shoes, a red coat and red lipstick it will connote to the audience that i am trying very hard but yet do not fit in very well as i have a much more upper class image than the street girl.

COSTUME

Here are photos of the outfits I can provide, they fit well with the genre of the music.

These black gladiator heels are very slick and are very similar to the ones Whittney wears in an episode of 'The City' - shot in New York. These will be worn when shooting in New York.

This hoody is from Nellys 'apply bottoms' boutique. Nelly is an RnB singer whose style mirrors the genre perfectly. Therefore, I think this hoody would work well with the RnB/hip hop theme of the song. The gold and diamonds gems is chavy and rather 'bling'. This will be worn in the dance routine.
The back of the hoody reads 'sexy to the core' the cockyness is brilliant for the genre!

Jewelry is a big signifier of RnB songs. Here are some gold necklaces we could wear in the dance routine or the beauty shots.

The tracksuit bottoms are very dancer like. The style is similar to the ones worn by many dancers in music videos. Such as Ciara

Story board

Here is the storyboard we made to visualize the shots and the order. The pink represents mid shot, green represents close up and yellow represents long shot. We thought it would be quicker and easier to use posted notes as we can then change shot order whenever we want without drawing it all out again.

Lyrical Timeline

In order for us to know what part of the song we were doing what we decided to annote our lyrics so we could make it clear exactly how many shots we needed and where the narrative progressed. Here is our annotated lyrics:

Nisha and Loren Lipsynch

This is our lipsynch that we used as practice for our real video.
From watching this we have decided that Nisha will be better singing the main vocals and Loren will be better singing the backing vocals as Nisha looks as if she has a stronger voice.
Both Loren and Nisha work well in front of the camera, therefore we both equally be performing in our music video.
The voices look a lot older than the actresses, therefore in order to make the lipsynching look more realistic we will need to dress up very sophisticated with lots of makeup etc.

ACTORS

We've decided to cut down our performers from a band of four to only two performers; Loren and I. Although the dance routine may not look as interesting and creative, the shoot would be much easier to organise as we are both committed Media members and therefore will be willing to shoot/perform wherever, whenever. Also, if we had four band members, the build up to the dance routine would be too long as we would have to show all four group members walking to the audition room. Having only two performers fits in really well because there are also only two distinct voices in the track. The only extra actors needed are in the judging room. We have decided to have three judges, two females and a male. These judges should preferably be older than us as this gives a real sense of a professional judging room/audition.

IDEAS

Here is a clip from the Dolce&Gabbana advert starring model Tyson ballou. I think its a good clip to analyse as there are many great ideas throughout the advert which we could take a closer look into as the narrative is very similar to our own music video idea.

Firstly, the camera following Tyson into the backstage shooting room is similar to the idea of our music video, in which the members of the band are being followed into the audition room. In the advert, the camera is hand held and therefore gives a real sense of chaos, allowing the audience to empathise with the performer and how he is rushing to be on time. I really like the black and white in the shot as it makes the sequence look more professional and gives a real sense of the camera going 'backstage.' I think we could co-operate this into our own idea, either for the scenes where the camera follows the performers or just the beauty shots. The beauty shots being in black and white would really set apart the performance from the narrative, making the music video easy to follow. At 0.40 there is an extreme close up of the sign on the door which reads 'D&G UNDERWEAR SHOOT, CLOSED SET!!!!!' I think this idea of showing a sign on the door is clever as it gives the audience a direct sense of where they are and what is happening. Another thing which works really well is the lack of music in the bit where Tyson walks into the shooting room. When the performers in our music video walk in to the audition room, I think the music should stop and the footsteps of the dancer walking into the room echoes and is the only sound the audience can hear for roughly two seconds. Then suddenly the music starts again and the girls start their dance routine. The idea of the camera and shooting equipment being in the shot works really well, giving a sense of a 'backstage pass into the closed set'. It makes the advert look expensive and glossy, which I reckon could also work very well in our music video, whilst shooting in the audition room.

Location ideas for audition room

The only location we are unsure about is where the dance routine will be shot. The room should look like an audition room/dance studio. Below are some location ideas;

- School gym; the white walls would be ideal for creating the professional, dance studio look.

- Drama block; we could experiment with the lighting in order to make it look really glossy, however the only downside is that it is very black dominated making it look more like a drama room than a dance room.

- New york, times square; an idea Jake Wynne had come up with was shooting the sequence in New york as well as the audition room we have in London and then switch between the two whilst editing. Although this would make the music video visually entertaining, I think it would be very hard to do as there will be other people getting in our way.

- Dance studio; There is a dance studio up Lorens road which we will call up. This would work well as there is a mirror which stretches across one of the walls in the studio which could be very interesting to shoot with.

- White room; this would be ideal to shoot in as it would look very professional and dance based. We are still searching for a cheap white room which we can hire out for a day or so.

Treatment for Pussycat Dolls - Top of the World

I know this is a bit late in coming but i only just worked out how to use scribd.

Anyway here is the Treatment we used in our pitch in order to sell our idea to the audience:

Treatment Pcd

Detailed Shooting Schedule

Detailed Shooting Schedule[1]

Shot List

Shot List

Shooting Schedule

Friday 23rd 5am - 9pm:

New York all shots involving the actresses

Saturday 24th - Tuesday 27th:

New York scenery shots in various places

Sunday 1st 12am - 4pm:

Performance shots of singers

Tuesday 3rd 11am - 2pm:

Audition shots in dance studio

Wednesday 4th - Friday 6th 4pm - 6pm:

Re-shooting

Prop List

New York Streets

• Coffee cup
• Flask
• Blackberry phone

Audition Room

• Judges table
• Pens
• Note pads
• CD player
• Lights
• Speakers

Jake Wynne advice

- Whilst doing the dancing shots, always have a wide shot shot, otherwise the audience will get confused and won't know where the location is or what they are doing.
- Whilst shooting the beauty shots, have mostly close-ups. Therefore it wont matter what background we choose. Also, if you want the background out of focus, stand far away with the camera and zoom in. The performer would be in focus but the background would be out of focus, keeping the attention on the only them.
- Whislt shooting in New York, have a lot of wide shots. Don't hide where you are; embrace it.
- To avoice the video looking like a home video, use a lot of shot types. I. e close ups, long shots, tracks, pans e.t.c
- Capture random shops and movements to make the music video more exciting and to stop if being very linear.
- To create more of a narrative, have the two dancers coming from different sides of town. One from a rich, classy area, and another from the less affluent area. To expand on this, the well-off girl can have a really confident personality (which is shown as she strutts through town and flicks her hair) whereas the other girl could be more down to earth and anxious about the auditions.
- To really emphasise that the two performers are completely different people, have them walking in different directions with different backgrounds. (I.e the upper classs girl walking past desgigner shops and the lower class girl walking past a basketball court)

Costume List

New York Streets

Nisha:

• White trench coat
• Jeans
• Black heels
• Black scarf
• Black eyeliner
• Mascara
• Nude lips with gloss
• Hair down

Loren:

• Red duffel coat
• Tights
• T-shirt dress
• Red heels
• Gold hoop earrings
• God necklace
• Red lips
• Black eyeliner
• Mascara
• Hair down

Audition Room

Nisha:

• Black hoodie
• Grey tracksuit bottoms
• Nike trainers
• White strap top
• Nude lips with gloss
• Black eyeliner
• Mascara

Loren:

• Pink bomber jacket
• Grey tracksuit bottoms
• Nike trainers
• Black strap top
• Red lipstick
• Black eyeliner
• Mascara

Performance

Nisha:

• Glitter
• Black eyeshadow
• Black eyeliner
• Mascara
• Glossy lips
• Blusher
• Perfect hair
• Hoodie
• Jeans
• Trainers

Loren:

• Glitter
• Black eyeshadow
• Black eyeliner
• Mascara
• Glossy lips
• Perfect hair
• Blusher
• Hoodie
• Leggings
• Trainers

REFLECTIONS

After discussing our final idea with Ms Blackborrow we have make a few changes:
We have cut down to only two performers; Loren and I, as this would make the whole music video much easier to shoot.
-Instead of just following one girl to her audition, we have decided to follow two girls to the audition room; these two girls are the members of the band.
- Throughout the music video, the beginning narrative sequence will be interupted by beauty shots of Loren and Nisha dancing/lip synching seperately.
- At the beginning of the dance routine, the audience will see the performers getting ready for their audition. (the camera will be switching between the two performers)
- Initially, the dance routine will seem as if the two dancers are competing against each other, giving each other 'dirty looks.' At this point in the music video there will be many shot, reverse, shots to emphasise the split between the two dancers.
- Towards the end of the dance routine, the dancers would come together, performing the same dance moves. This would be emphasised by more having more long shots of them two together.

SHOT IDEAS AND LORENS LIP SYNCH!

Loren and I briefly noted the key shots we wanted to visualise the overall feel of the music video. Here is what we came up with:


Furthermore, we tested Lorens lipsynching skills! Here is the footage:

Pitching

Today Loren and I presented our pitch. After presenting our pitch, here is a list of the feedback we got from our peers and Ms Dymioti:
- Instead of having one girl dance in the audition room make it a group of 4 girls, (the band) to make it less boring.
- Show the girls face to stop the audience losing interest
- Don't have 5 girls as this would be too similar to the real band. (especially if we have one lead actress). This would be too much like Nicole Sherzinger and the rest of the group.
- Include lip synching in the dance routinge
- Referencing from music videos 'Rainingmen' and 'Flashdance'
- Make it look like actual shots from a real New Yorker, rather than a tourist shooting the footage.

SHOT IDEAS

Loren and I spoke to Ms Blackborrow and she said she's more than happy to give us a camera each whilst we're in New York. Therefore, even when we aren't together we can still capture as much footage as we can.

The best way to portray ideas is through images. Here are a few images that I think look very similar to the ideas Loren and I came up with...

Pussycat Dolls. The Pitch

THE TRACK
PUSSY CAT DOLLS - TOP OF THE WORLD

Genre of the music:
The genre of the music is RnB/hiphop. This is made evident by the band itself.

-sexual clothing

-heavy make-up

-high heels and short tops

- jewelry

The lyrics are also very RnB based. Talking about the 'glamourous life with bright lights and night life.' Words such as 'fly' (slang to describe a good looking person) is also very RnB.

The previous music videos by The Pussycat Dolls are very hiphop based. This is shown through

-Performance of narrative based

-Beauty shots

-Girls dancing

-Big houses, flashy clubs, night life

Target Audience

As our band is an all girl group focussed around hiphop dancing i think our main target audience will be teenage girls between the ages of 13-24 who aspire to be like them. These girls will like hiphop music and love dancing and will therefore love the band.

They will also love being socialble and hanging out with friends. Despite being glamourous, they are not too girly and therefore will be more inspirational to a wider range of girls.

As the band is less focussed on being girly and more focussed on their impressive dance routines, this will also draw in the teenage male audience who like hiphop dancing. They will like them because they are not a stereotypical band that is associated with girls, instead they will look up to them as they are good at dancing and do not conform to the 'girl band' image.

Due to the band not promoting their image through being overtly sexual, this will help to appeal to parents of the target audience as they will see them as more of an appropriate role model and will therefore feel more encouraged to buy their merchandise for their children.

As the debut single has a pop edge as well as being very hiphop and dancey, i think the single will appeal to both hiphop lovers, as it has a good beat to dance to, as well as a more mainstream audience who prefer listening to pop. This is why i think it will be a good debut single as it will widen the audience at first, allowing people to get to know the band before making a judgement about them.

About The Track and The Original Artist

The Pussycat Dolls

They are an American pop girl group and dance ensemble that was founded by the choreographer Robin Antin. They originated in LA, California in 1995 doing burlesque dancing and in 2003 after acquiring a record deal, became a music group. After some changes within the band, in 2005 the they achieved worldwide success with band member Nicole Scherzinger being lead singer, alongside Melody Thornton, Jessica Sutta, Ashley Roberts, Kimberly Wyatt and Carmit Bachar. It was in this year that they released their debut album, PCD, which hit number five in the US Billboard charts. This album contained their debut single 'Don't Cha' and their Grammy nominated single 'Stickwitu'. In 2008 band member Carmit Bachar decided to leave the group but the group continued as a fivesome, releasing their second successful album Doll Domination, which included many of their successful singles to date, e.g. 'Hush Hush Hush Hush' and 'When I Grow Up'.

As the band grew evermore famous, there was a lot of media emphasis over the overtly sexual image that the band portrays with the extremely explicit dance routines. They have been criticised saying they are not good role models for young girls around the globe. Also there has been contraversy over most of the emphasis on the group being on Nicole Scherzinger having all the leads in the songs and the others just being background vocalists, with people saying they are not a proper girl group.

There have been rumours of the group splitting up recently but nothing official has come about yet.

Top of the World

It is a dance-pop song but the girl group 'The Pussycat Dolls' and was used on the title sequence to the MTV show 'The City'. The song was produced by Calvo da Gr8 and written but The Writing Camp. It was released on itunes on February 3rd, 2009. It was not included on the original release of their second album, Doll Domination, however it was charted in North America at 79 and Canada at 53 on the Billboard with no record play, no official video and no promotion. After its success it was included on the 2009 re-issue of the album Doll Domination which was released internationally. In Australia, an album was released called, Doll Domination 2.0 which was a compilation album featuring songs from the 2009 re-issue. This album contains the single with a new introduction which had not been released previously.

FINAL TREATMENT

The music video follows a narrative and performance concept. The video follows the story about a girl trying to make it 'big' in new york. This reflects our band has they had their 'claim to fame' being dancers in the Big Apple. This is also reflected by the constant cutting shots of them dancing.
The camera follows the girl round New York and into the audition room, which follows onto rougly 5/10 seconds of the girl dancing. The final shots cut to the group of dancers or a low angle shot of the New York sky scrapers.


Top of the world - Pussycat Dolls
-First shot of actor wearing stillettos, stepping onto the zebracrossing on a high street in New York.
- Random close ups of the actor, but never actually seeing their face (this creates enigma) I.e POV shots, shots of their eyes, hands opening cafe doors, clothes etc.
- Montage of high designer shops
- Random shots of the City

LOREN

Oh my god! How about we shoot a little bit of our music video in NEW YORK!!! Seeing how we're both going there this half term!?????!!!! We'll discuss this further in our meeting in lunch

See you in schoooll!!

TOP OF THE WORLD TREATEMENT

Here is my treatment to the song 'Top of The World- Pussycat Dolls'.

Gimme them bright lights, long nights (Come on yeah)
High rise, overtime (Pussycat Dolls)

Chorus
Gimme them bright lights, long nights
Party till the sun is rising
High rise, overtime
Working 'till the moon is shining
Hot guys, fly girls
Never gonna say it
I feel on top of the world,
I feel on top of the world
Hey

I'm ready for the pressure
The drama and the pleasure
Got my whole life here in front of me
I'm taking over when I hit the streets

Glamour, glitter and gold
Nothing is stopping you, nothing is stopping me
In this frenzy out of control
I must stay in pursue, do what I got to do

Chorus
Gimme them bright lights, long nights
Party till the sun is rising
High rise, overtime
Working 'till the moon is shining
Hot guys, fly girls
Never gonna say it
I feel on top of the world,
I feel on top of the world
Hey

It's like a roller coaster
One step away I'm closer
I can see it there within my reach
Won't let the city get on top of me
Hey you

Glamour, glitter and gold
Nothing is stopping you, nothing is stopping me
In this frenzy out of control
I must stay in pursue, do what I got to do

Chorus
Gimme them bright lights, long nights
Party till the sun is rising
High rise, overtime
Working 'till the moon is shining
Hot guys, fly girls
Never gonna say it
I feel on top of the world,
I feel on top of the world
Hey

I can do it all night long (Nothing can stop me)
They can? place my home (Can't slow me down)
The only thing I know (Is that I won't fall)
And I have it all

Chorus
Gimme them bright lights, long nights
Oh yeah
High rise, overtime
Working 'till the moon is shining
Hot guys, fly girls
Never gonna say it
I feel on top of the world
I feel on top of the world

Gimme them bright lights, long nights
Party till the sun is rising
High rise, overtime
Working 'till the moon is shining
Hot guys, fly girls
Never gonna say it
I feel on top of the world
I feel on top of the world
Hey

Bright lights, long nights (Come on Pussycat Dolls)
High rise, overtime
Hot guys, fly girls
Never gonna say it
I feel on top of the world
I feel on top of the world
Hey

My treatment for this song involves four/five characters chasing their dream to be a professional dancer. The beginning of the song would be a montage of the bright spotlights of the professional dancing industry and an audition room. is focused in each individual getting ready for an audition in the 'school of dance' which could either make or break their life.This illustrates the lyrics

'I'm ready for the pressure

The drama and the pleasure
Got my whole life here in front of me'

Whilst they get ready, shots are interrupted by a dance sequence with all four of them together. This would also be the shot the music video ends on. The overall lighting would be very low key, giving the music video a glossy, professional finish . Throughout the music video the camera would be concentrating on each individual character separately as they audition. However, it will always be cutting to other shots.

Treatment For Ciara -Pucker Up

After Me and Nisha had a brief discussion about our song choices we decided that we had two main contenders, Ciara and The Pussycat Dolls. We decided the best way to decide between the two would be to go away and each do a treatment for them. I was given the task to do the treatment and here is what i came up with:



[Darkchild:]
Yeahh...
Uhh...
Darkchild!

[Ciara:]
Shawty you can kiss my swagg
Hello, hello, hello, mwah!
Hello, hello, hello, hello

Everybody riding shotgun, scared to play the driver
Ci, got the pedal to the medal going super lightspeed
They say I'm far to gone, that's right yep, yep
I'm far to gone, these dollars signs, they follow me
Eh-Everywhere that I go

You don't like how I rock my swagg
How ya gonna tell me how to rock my swagg
I'mma wear my SuperGirl swagg
If you don't like it , you can kiss my swagg

You don't like how I rock my swagg
How ya gonna tell me how to rock my swagg
I'mma wear my SuperGirl swagg
If you don't like it , you can kiss my swagg

Pucker up
It'll make you famous ha-hollywood
Pucker up
Just kiss my, just kiss, just kiss kiss my
Pucker up
I can see you feenin', my swagg is waitin'
Pucker up, pucker up, pucker up
Sma-sma-smooches

Just kiss, just kiss my,
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Just kiss, just kiss my (swagg),
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Kiss kiss kiss kiss my (swagg),
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Just kiss just kiss my (swag)
Just kiss, just kiss, kiss my (swagg)

I gotta save myself, 'cause I'm just by myself
Keep trynna sit me down, the world is my playground
I'm gonna do me, no matter how you do me
Money is still green, so pay me like you owe me (yup!)

You don't like how I rock my swagg
How ya gonna tell me how to rock my swagg
I'mma wear my SuperGirl swagg
If you don't like it , you can kiss my swagg

You don't like how I rock my swagg
How ya gonna tell me how to rock my swagg
I'mma wear my SuperGirl swagg
If you don't like it , you can kiss my swagg

Pucker up
It'll make you famous ha-hollywood
Pucker up
Just kiss my, just kiss, just kiss kiss my
Pucker up
I can see you feenin', my swagg is waitin'
Pucker up, pucker up, pucker up
Sma-sma-smooches

Just kiss, just kiss my,
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Just kiss, just kiss my (swagg),
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Kiss kiss kiss kiss my (swagg),
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Just kiss just kiss my (swag)
Just kiss, just kiss, kiss my (swagg)

It's hard enough trynna keep it up, without fallin' off
You got all the place looking, eh, eh...
When I close my eyes and I shake this lame disguise
Gimme on my toush a kiss
Girl I made you of your one

Pucker up
It'll make you famous ha-hollywood
Pucker up
Just kiss my, just kiss, just kiss kiss my
Pucker up
I can see you feenin', my swagg is waitin'
Pucker up, pucker up, pucker up
Sma-sma-smooches

Pucker up
It'll make you famous ha-hollywood
Pucker up
Just kiss my, just kiss, just kiss kiss my
Pucker up
I can see you feenin', my swagg is waitin'
Pucker up, pucker up, pucker up
My smooches

Just kiss, just kiss my,
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Just kiss, just kiss my (swagg),
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Kiss kiss kiss kiss my (swagg),
Why don't you just kiss my (swagg) (pucker up)
Just kiss just kiss my (swag)
Just kiss, just kiss, kiss my (swagg)

As we are doing a video based around a dance routine i decided it would start with a shot of a girls back in a hoodie with the hood up. The screen would keep going from light to dark mirroring the effect by the siren. As Ciara begins to sing, the shot of the girl in the hoodie zooms out and gets wider to reveal more dancers, and to the beat they all turn around and pose. She begins to click her fingers in time to the music. As the beat begins she turns around and begins to walk forward with the other dancers pulling down her hood. This is when the dance routine begins. They are in a plain room with nothing else in it in order for them to attract all the attention.

As the song is called 'Pucker Up' i think we should have ECU of somebodies lips wearing bright pink lipstick singing the lyrics that we will keep cutting to. Lips are seen as a sign of sexiness therefore it will draw in the male audience.

Focussing on the line 'The world is my playground' i thought that we could have various shots of the camera following the main singer around a city while she is singing to the camera. It also shows how she does not really care what other people think about her therefore emphasising the meaning behind the lyrics. We would cut between this, the shots of the lips and the dancing scene making it all more interesting.

I also had this idea that she could be singing against a white wall, the same to that in the dancing shots. She will be singing to the camera in a provocative way wearing hip hop style clothes. This will be marketing the singer and branding her style to the audience. The camera will also cut to this shot to break up the dancing scenes. This shot will be in black and white to give the video more variety in colours.

LORENNN

thanks Loren! Yeah, I agree about Lady Gaga having a powerful image which is hard to defer.
yeah I think thats a brilliant shortlist:

Ciara - Pucker Up
Pussycat Dolls - On Top of the World
Lady Gaga - Silly boy

We'll have a group meeting on Friday and decide what song we're going to do...and from then we can move to our treatment! So exciting!

Choreography

The type of dancing/choreography we do will all come down to the genre of the song. Seeing how Loren and I are both into our Rnb/hip hop songs I was thinking of something more street dance related. Below are a few dance videos which we can co operate into our own music video depending on what kind of choreography we want to include.

Out of all the music videos I have seen, this music video (Missy Elliot - Chingaling) has to be the most creative out of them all. The four males dance incredibly whilst confusing the audience and leaving them thinking whether the video has been edited in slow motion or whether they are purposely dancing like that! I think this would really entertain the audience, keeping them engaged throughout.

The scene about is out of Step up2 - The Streets. What i really liked about how the music fits in with the visuals is the dance steps which are emphasised by an instrument or a beat. I think this is really effective and makes the dance look even better than what it actually is. To explain my point further I have found a bit from the music video Entourage - Omarion. Seconds 3.13 in. Unfortunately, I couldn't paste the video into the blog cause the link had been disabled but here is the website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXFjk7D6fsk

Other Inspiration...Ideas

I really like the way that they use lots of different people to sing the song lyrics. It gives it an unprofessional feel, but yet the use of celebrities and the different locations still make it look high budget. It reminds me of the lip dub videos that are on youtube.com and therefore think it is a very clever idea. However i am unsure whether this would work for a debut single for a band as these videos do not market the band and also their music would need to be recognised in order for people to know that the video is not a joke.

Bootylicious - Destiny's Child

In this video i love the way how different people dress up and come up to the camera in order to show of their personality. I think it would be an easy way of getting peoples personalities across to the audience by allowing them to act on impulse and do what ever they like in front of the camera. It also gives the video a comical and home video feel, again like the ones on youtube.com and i think using this in our video would incorporate both different music video makings nicely. However it may be hard to find the number of people needed to make this successful and it may be difficult to fit with the overall mood of our song.

This Madonna video is a classic. I love the way it films regular situations that people are in but then speeds up the shots in order to make it in time with music. It brings confusion and fascination to situations which would normally be quite boring and monotonous. I especially love the scene of New York, Times Square. I would love to be able to include effects like this in our video but it may be difficult to record for as long a period of time in the same spot as she did in order to have the footage to speed up.

If we were going to do a narrative style video i think this one by Kesha is very clever. It incorporates both performance and narrative in order to illustrate the lyrics. It brings the lyrics to life and makes the audience listen to them more carefully, it also shows of the artist's rebel personality in the process. This would be fine for a song such as this with simple lyrics, however a video like this may be harder to make with lyrics which are harder to show.

Inspiration For Our Music Video

As we have decided to focus mainly around dance for our video i have come up with a few music videos that could be inspiration for us and here they are:

Single Ladies - Beyonce

This is a very well known video for Beyonce and unlike her other extravagant videos this one is very raw. It just shows her dancing the whole way through but yet does not get boring as her dance moves are so polished and perfected it keeps the audience fascinated. This is the type of level we want to be getting the dance too, so that the audience are unable to look away.

My Love - Justin Timberlake

I love this video from Justin as we all know he is good at dancing but this one focuses purely on his dance routine. However unlike Beyonce's, there are shots where he is not dancing to break it up, which helps to keep the audience more engrossed and yet much more likely from a debut artist like us. I love the way that the background and setting changes but yet his dance routines match seamlessly from one scene to the next and this is what i would like to achieve in our video.

Biology - Girls Aloud

Unlike the other videos, this one is not focussed around the amazing choreography but rather the different settings. I like the way how the backgrounds and costumes change but yet their dance routine stays the same throughout the entire video, which is similar to Justin Timberlake's. I would like to achieve something like this in our video but with a more raw feel, rather than a very glossy finish.

Buttons - Pussycat Dolls

As the Pussycat Dolls are famous for their flexibility and dancing skills this video really focussed on that with the use of a plain background so the main focus is them. Their skimpy clothing and sexy dance routine also draw more attention to them. I want our video to show off Nisha's talent of dancing as much as this video does for the Pussycat Dolls.

Nishaaa...

I love that song too :)

And i have watched the 'Promises' Ciara video and think that is what we should be aiming for, something simple and lovely showing off your talent :)

Also i love the Pussycat Dolls song because its the start of The City!! i am such an addict. But i can imagine a really good video to that.

The Lady Gaga song is good too but the only thing is with doing a Lady Gaga one is the fact that se already has a distinctive image and it may be hard to break away from that...:/

Anyway i think our shortlist should so far be

• Ciara - Pucker Up
• Pussycat Dolls - On Top of the World
• Lady Gaga - Silly boy

If you have any more song ideas just post them up!!

Music videos

Loren, I really like the the first Ciara song you chose! Also, check out her video 'promise.' I think there is a lot of ideas we can use for reference.

MORE TRACK IDEAS

For something more narrative based - Ciara, Represent Me


A video we can get references from as i think the whole idea works very well and is also quite similar Loren and I are aiming to do.
Ciara - Promise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vPyzCHgZ88&feature=channel

Sillyboy - Lady Gaga

Ideas For Songs Again :)

After our group splitting we have to now go back to stage one again and begin researching songs in order to come up with our treatment for our music video. As Nisha is in my group i have decided i am going to work to her strengths and use her dancing therefore when choosing a song i went for one with a good dancing beat. Here are a few ideas of the songs i have in mind:

Confirmation of the split...

Due to having a bit of a chat and the realisation that this group really wasn't the best choice, it has unfortunately been confirmed that we will be split into 2 smaller groups of Nisha and Loren and Jack and Shaun.

Latest group meeting

After our last meeting, we are considering whether or not our group is working to its full potential and individual strength. Due to diverse music tastes we considered giving the project one more week as a group. If the team shows progress in working together we will stick as a group. If not, we will split into two smaller groups as that may be better for us individually.

Group Meeting

We had another group meeting today in order to keep our group up to date and in contact with one another. During this group meeting we focussed on discussing our ideas for actors and costume ideas too. Here is what we have come up with:
Girl Actors
Nisha Shah
Loren Dodi
Daniella Andrean
Rebecca Martin
Emily Mak

Our criteria for the female actors was that they had to be able to dance and would be willing to learn dance routines for our music videos. We felt that as Nisha and Loren both fitted the criteria it would be easier for us to include them into our project rather than having to organise other actors. Out of this list we only need 3 actors, however we thought it would be better to have too many than too few.

Boy Actors
Shaun Bayliss
Jack Downes
Barney Carter Philips

Our criteria for the male actors was that they had to be able to play a musical instrument and have a fairly indie image. As Shaun and Jack play the drums and guitar we felt it would be easier for organisational purposes to include them both in our video, which left us just to find a bassist. We felt that Barney would fit the bill well as he can play an instrument and act. We only need 3 male actors in the band.

Girl Costumes

• Hoodies
• Vest tops
• Tracksuit bottoms
• Bling
• Shiney faces (makeup)
• Glossy lips
• Lots of eye shadow
• Hair down and blow dried
• Nike trainers (chunky)

Boy Costumes

• Vests
• Cardigans
• Skinny Jeans
• Pointy toed shoes
• Tea cosey hat
• Trillby
• Long hair
• Fringe

Girl Costumes (After Swap)

• Skinny jeans
• Brogues
• Big fringes
• Black eyeliner
• Mascara
• Messy hair (bedhead look)

Boy Costumes (After Swap)

• Tracksuit bottoms
• Drop downs
• Flat caps
• Slogan T-Shirts (Nike etc)
• Hoodies
• Nike Trainers
• Bling
• Grills
• Dollar sign necklace

After discussing these costumes in a lot of detail we felt that in order to make the swap obvious, we had to make the costumes as stereotypical as possible. We are all going to go away tonight and research things which hip hop stars and indie bands wear and feedback in our next group meeting in order to get the divide between the two genres as obvious as possible. Overall though our group meeting was productive and we managed to finalise quite a lot.

Epic Journeys Advertising

This is what the adverts will look like for the Epic Journeys release.