Today we will be presenting our final treatments to Georgia fields, here is the final presentation for our Music Video:
Its Everybody's Business
We gotta Stick Together
Category: Media 4 (page 2 of 2)
Some could say that our Disney princesses idea has been in the ring for a few rounds, it has never been strongly favoured – but today was the day of reckoning.
Georgia Fields is a Melbourne musician who has collaborated on a number of music videos with Rohan. One of my favourites can be found below:
She came today to visit our class and give an artists perspective on our music video treatments.
After explaining the final treatment for our music video her feedback reflected the classes concern about the princesses; stating that making them convincing was going to be hard.
To respond to this we plan to make sure that they are in the correct costumes and potentially will have the names of the princesses appearing on screen.
Today in class while discussing our original treatment with Rohan when he asked that we flesh out the idea. It needed something more. We then started to discuss the characters, one suggestion from Rohan was that we over exaggerate the characters to make them interesting. Throughout this discussion we came up with the idea of using Disney Princesses. The idea is that we focus on the struggles of Princesses living in todays world. For example, we have Sleeping Beauty trying to study but she keeps falling asleep.
We put this Idea of having all the characters as Princesses past Rohan and he said it would probably be better to stick with other characters that are easier to portray and more exciting to watch on screen. However, we figured that we could pull it off and wrote the following treatment:
Treatment Written by Maggie O’Shea:
“The clip opens with our protagonist, ABBY, sitting on a bench in a large lawned space by a lake. She is dressed in feminine, retro-style clothing and there is warm afternoon sunlight. She’s absentmindedly strumming on a ukelele when something catches her eye. On a path nearby, a man with Elvis like hair walks along carrying a large bunch of helium balloons. As Abby watches, he happily gives the balloons out to passersby. At this point, she begins singing as she remains seated and plays the ukulele. After a few lines, ELVIS HAIR disappears.
Abby (still singing) cranes her neck looking for him, and stands up to wander around and look for him further. She can’t spot him, so gets up to look around.
We cut to our first character, RAPUNZEL, a young woman with absurdly long hair. She is walking through some trees, but finds her hair is snagging repeatedly. She sits down to try to untangle the knots, and is approached by Elvis hair, although we don’t see his face, who hands her a hairbrush and a balloon, which she accepts thankfully. As he disappears, Abby arrives frantically, miming and pointing to the balloon to ask where Elvis Hair is. Rapunzel points and the two walk in that direction.
We then cut to our second character, CINDERELLA [ALAINE THOMPSON]. She is walking along a path carrying several shopping bags when her heel breaks and she stumbles. She sits down and begins to try on shoes from the bags. They are hilariously varied and she is increasingly desperate as none of them appear to fit. As she tries on something truly ridiculous (eg, a pair of flippers), Elvis Hair once again comes to the rescue (although we don’t see his face), offering a balloon and a pair of thongs which she puts on gratefully. Again, Abby arrives at the sight of the balloon with Rapunzel and Cinderella offers to join the search.
Our third characters are an older couple, SNOW WHITE and PRINCE CHARMING. They are having a picnic, and we watch them take food out of a hamper until Prince Charming pulls out an apple, causing Snow White to recoil in horror. A hand enters the shot behind them offering an orange instead and a balloon. Again, Abby arrives at the sight of the balloon with the other princesses in tow and the group move on.
Fourthly we have SLEEPING BEAUTY [CINDY NGUYEN], a uni student reading a text-book and making notes under a tree. She tries to concentrate, but repeatedly nods off. After about the third time, she falls asleep completely, and a hand from the side of the shot quietly places a red bull next to her with a balloon tied to it. Sleeping Beauty wakes only to see him leave, and is shaken fully awaking by the arriving Abby and is roped unwilling into the shot.
Finally, we have a quick shot of a woman at a bench reading a book. She has already received her balloon which she is holding. When Abby arrives to ask for her help, she shakes her head, and we cut to a wide shot where we see she is wearing a mermaid tail. There is a jump cut to
Abby wheeling THE LITTLE MERMAID along in a wheelchair.
In the final scene, Abby sees the bunch of balloons over a hedge or tree, and the group eagerly runs to see Elvis Hair. Abby is at first too shy to approach, but the group encourages her, almost physically pushing her towards him. She taps Elvis Hair on the shoulder and he turns so they face each other. They introduce themselves, and he offers her a balloon. In our final shot the two walk off into the distance and we pan up to a shot of the balloon.”
After developing a basic concept for the video of Hey you There it became evident that the idea of two people running around with some balloons was not going to be sufficient to make a three minute video engaging. We figured that we needed to include some other characters to enhance the story. After some discussion, Maggie was able to type up the following treatment:
The clip opens with our protagonist, ABBY, sitting on a bench in a large lawned space by a lake.
She is dressed in feminine, retrostyle clothing and there is warm afternoon sunlight. She’s
absentmindedly strumming on a ukelele when something catches her eye. On a path nearby, a
man with Elvislike hair walks along carrying a large bunch of helium balloons. As Abby
watches, he happily gives the balloons out to passersby. At this point, she begins singing as
she remains seated and plays the ukelele.
After a few lines, Elvis Hair disappears. Abby (still singing) cranes her neck looking for him, and
stands up to wander around and look for him further. She can’t spot him, but near the path he
was walking down she sees someone holding one of his balloons. She asks the person where
Elvis Hair might have gone. The person points, and follows Abby, and we see the two looking
about for him.
We see the two arrive at a new location, still searching for Elvis Hair, and they see a young
couple with balloons. Excitedly, they approach, and once again the balloonholders join the
search, and they look around for Elvis Hair.
In a third location, we see a third person with a balloon, with headphones in. The existing
searchers approach, and this person is more reluctant. However, after some persuading from
the others, he too joins the search.
The final people with Elvis Hair balloons are an older couple, enjoying a romantic date. They are
very willing to join Abby’s search as she approaches.
Here we have a few humourous broll shots of the group’s search, such as them puzzling over a
map, looking under benches and up trees.
In the final scene, Abby sees the bunch of balloons over a hedge or tree, and the group eagerly
runs to see Elvis Hair. Abby is at first too shy to approach, but the group encourages her, almost
physically pushing her towards him.
She taps Elvis Hair on the shoulder and he turns so they face each other. They introduce
themselves, and he offers her a balloon. In our final shot the two walk off into the distance and
we pan up to a shot of the balloon.
Phew!
Well, We survived. Today was the shoot day for “Hey You There” and lemme tell you – It was intense. The day was supposed to start at 9am which got moved to 12 because of the gloomy looking weather. We even considered cancelling the shoot and doing it tomorrow, but in the end we realised the weather would get better. Deciding to be there at 12 meant that in reality we all arrived by 1pm (nobody can find parking in the CBD during the Australian open) in a frenzy to start shooting. Once we had all arrived and met each other for the first time the shoot began – there was very little time to consider costume and makeup and we basically went with whatever people were wearing.
Now – if i could have just a quick second to complain here. I needed to pee. All Day! Arrived at the shoot – needed to pee. BUT I DIDNT GET TO PEE UNTIL 7PM. That. Is. How. Intense. It. Was.
The way the day ran was that we had the shotlist printed out and divided all the shots into location 1 and 2 as the shots were scattered across two distinct sides of the Botanic Gardens. First we did all the shots at location two which required all the extras to be present, then we moved base to location one and stayed there for the rest of the day. We shot in order of most people required to least, that way we were able to release the extras as soon as possible, until by the end of the day we were left only with our two leads.
Considering the pace of the day, we didn’t even have time to eat, but luckily had somebody on set to grab us some coffee (WHICH DID NOT HELP MY PEE SITUATION). However, by some miracle everybody was kept in a good mood in high spirits and we were able to complete the shoot! Here are a few photos from the day:
Today, myself and the Crew from Ace Productions went out location scouting for the “Hey You There” music video. The suggested location was the royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens.
In order to make the scout as close to the actual conditions of the day we borrowed a Canon 5D and a 50mm capable lens from RMIT and set out to take photos.
Below are a few of the images gathered:
From the scout i was quite content that the location will be appropriate as there is not much cityscape or industrial looking elements.
Another test that was carried out was the colour grading. The final piece is supposed to have a warm/vintage feel to it. Which we tried by editing a still image.
Here is the comparison of the two colours, Original on the left and the graded image to the right.
This might be a bit of a struggle when filmed with a DSLR, as there is less colour information. However if the exposure is kept correct it should be fine.
In conclusion the Botanical gardens seem to be the appropriate location for the shoot and we will not go about acquiring a permit.
For this week we had to read an excerpt from “Experiencing Music Video” by Carol Varnallis. Personally I found this reading quite difficult to follow as it was quite dense and used an excessive amount of examples.
However, what I did gather was that it reflected on narrative and how some music videos are narrative while others are more abstract and almost void of story. For example Crazy by Aerosmith is a song which has a strong narrative throughout the music video and develops a plot. The audience follows two teen girls as they go on a wild adventure. Where instead in Madonnas Cherish the narrative simply comprises of various moments which are to be enjoyed by the viewer. However there is also a third type of video which is Non narrative, to see if I understood it correctly im going to use the example of Swagger by Sweets (Im basically putting my life on the line here, because the video was directed by my tutor Rohan). Basically in this video there are a series of different shots, without there actually being a story that flows through it. This could technically be considered a Non Narrative. There can be a theme, which could technically be considered an umbrella narrative, however there are no plots or subplots like in the above videos.
These are just some of my thoughts after reading the chapter. It really left me wondering if its possible to categorize the types of music videos. And if possible, what those categories would be:
- Narrative, clear – Crazy by Aerosmith
- Narrative abstract – Headhunter by Front 242
- Semi Narrative – Cherish by Madonna
- Non Narrative – Swagger by Sweets
- What Even is Life – Gangnam Style (I guess thats why it was so successful)
For our main project we will have to find an artist, and make a music video with one of their songs. We have been put into groups, My own group is one comprising of 4 members:
- Jenny
- Maggie
- Bingbing
- Jordan
Initially we looked at a Melbourne Busker by the name of Kiwi Muzo. However, he did not have any original songs already recorded. Then Jenny found us contact to a Melbourne based artist called ‘Aivy’. Through a mutual friend she was able to contact Aivy and we soon found out that she had an Original song recently recorded and an interest in a music video being made. Here is the song:
We have not had a full group meeting on the concept but there is an idea that we have started to brew. The Vibe of the song is outdoor in a natural space and its quite playful. It is about infautiation, a shy girl who is observing a boy from afar. To me this is the classic story of unrequited love or a crush. Here is an idea that was put forth:
Aivy in a field when she sees a boy with a big bunch of primary coloured helium balloons. He does not notice her, but she noticed him and follows him. You see her watching his interactions with other people, hes very charming and charismatic. Throughout the video the boy drops balloons (off screen, so the intention, whether accidental or not is kept a mystery) and Aivy follows and collects them. In some sense they are metaphorical for the qualities that she admires about him. As the video progresses she gets a larger and larger bunch of balloons, until in the end he sees her with a massive bunch and he has only a few left. At this point they start talking and the sun sets and its very playful.
Some ideas that have been discussed amongst the group also includes:
- He could have ‘Elvis hair’ as this is mentioned in the song
- As she walks through the trees she could struggle to stop the balloons from popping.
- There is a drum that sounds like a popping sound, this could be used.
Anyway, the prospects here are quite exciting and I cant wait for the project to get underway in full force.
Firstly, lemme just hit you with the same amount of context that I had:
– We will be making a Music Video. Here is something inspiring:
Oh Boi oh Boi oh Boi. What was that? That my friends was the work of a man by the name of Anton Corbijn, (prunounced like Corbi-jaan. However I am eternally convinced its Cor-Bidgin). I soon found out that we would be looking at a range of his work, allowing us to analyse different styles of music video.
Welcome to “The great Belgian Egg Hunt” the one and only Amazing Music video Summer Course at RMIT this year. Tutored by sir Rohan Spong the course is already destined to be entertaining, and frankly, quite realistic. Realistic meaning that the things we learn and discuss will not be theoretical and unattainable, instead we will be learning from each others real world experience, of which Rohan has the most.
First session in we were asked to outline why we were there and what motivated us to do the course – good start, thus I will be sharing some of that here:
- I wont lie, partially i wanted something to do during the summer so people didnt tell me to get a job
- I am interested in music video making, its a quick and concise production, also it allows one to be abstract.
- The practical aspect of the program interested me, I would get to work with people who really want to be there (I mean they are there during holidays!) And it being done in 6 weeks means theres no time to waste.
- Brushing up on my own skills is always a positive. For example here is a music video which I directed in the past:
This video clearly lacks in a storyline, and If i was to do it again there are a quite a few things I could NOW improve. Thus the best thing to do is continue making music videos and learning about my craft. This is what I hope to achieve during this course.
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