Music video pitch

For my music video i'm going to be using the song 'Slits on your wrists' by Betty the song is about a teenage girl giving into social peer pressure and changing her image to try and stand out and make the guy in the band (tom) like her. how ever he doesn't care, thinks she's acting stupid and childish and is just embarrassing. For the video i want to shoot at the soul tree in town, i have approached them about it. My friend Becky has agreed to play the girl in the video. the video will start with short fades of her 'dressing up emo' as the lyrics depict. then the music develops an obvious drum beat to which she will be walking to the venue where betty are playing and jumping forward on the beat, and up the stairs into the venue. she will head straight to the toilet to drink her stolen vodka, as the lyrics once again depict. she then goes back to the venue and watches the band, trying to get noticed. at points she will blend into the crowd and it will turn to a live video and at other times the crowd will disappear. at one point the song brakes down and has just a vocal solo to which i want to green screen Rosie (the female in the band) dancing and singing. and a similar effect for tom at the end when he has a vocal solo

research into music videos & Directors

I often sit in my room and watch music channels on TV, as a result i've seen 100's of music videos from different genres etc. And i've noticed that Michel Gondrys videos far surpass the creative styles and boundries that more ordinary video directors set.

For example when he directed Around the world by Daft Punk, Gondry put so much more thought and effort into it. had a less inspirational, talented director made it they would have probally just had normal dancers. but Gondry had multiple groups of dancers all with there own dance moves to a certain beat in the music, this is far far more complicated than you would initially think.

Much like Gondry, Spike Jonze is some what of a pioneer in creative thinking as far as music videos are concerned. One of Spikes favorite techniques has to be single shot filming. Single shot filming requires weeks of planning and rehersing to get everything to happen at the correct time etc. Jonez decided to take this technique, make artists The Pharcyde learn their song 'Drop' backwards, perferm it in one shot and then play it backwards. As far as in concerned this is a stroke of genius.

the process of making a music video

Last year we had a talk from two professional music video directors, Jake and Jim. In the talk they went through the process of how a music video is made.

1. The record label or band (if unsigned) releases the track to potential directors and production companies.

2.The directors that are interested 'pitch' for the track with their ideas and concepts, they have come up with bassed on the brief from the record company and the music track they have listened to.

3. Then the record company chooses the directors pitch they want and allocates a budget, which can be as small as £100 to as big as £250,000 depending on the artist, genre and director. The producer looks after budget and arrangements for the process- a percentage of the budget is allocated to this role

4. Director of Photography and art director(production designer) then join the team. It's the art director's job to oversee the planning for the look of video, they must scout for locations and plans the shoot location.

5.Then everyone (artist, director etc) meet at the shoot location and the video is shot usally in a single day

6. It's then time for the off-line edit where an editor assembles all the footage with out effects over a period of a few days; the record company and artist may want to see it and suggest changes.

7. Afterwards is the online edit when the editor adds all the special effects and tidys it up for a final version.

8. Fianlly the finnished product is deliverd to the client and if it is to their standards then its released.Steps 1-8 may take as little as 3-4 weeks these days as budgets have fallen and demands are greater.

My role in the project

for this project i am working in a pair with Alex, we decided as we have similar tastes in music and work well together, it would be a good collaboration. due to the fact we are working for a client, and theres only two of us on the project, there are no real job roles as such, it's more of a case of working together to achive somthing that the client is happy with.

some things like final cut editing Alex will do because he is better at it than me and Adobe after effects editing i will do becuase i'm better but for the best part it will be a case of team work!

My initial thoughts on working for Betty

I am looking forward to working for Betty, am good friends with Tom (1/2 of the band) and know the music well there fore i think working for them will be quite a relaxed and creative commission. Music is my passion so i am very excited about making a music video and i couldn't think of anyone better to work with.

First contact with client

Hey Sam,

Just letting you know that i've spoken to the label and after the meeting you and i had earlier, we're all really excited to be working with you and are looking forward to hear the official pitch!

My client

For this Commission my client is Cambridge based indie/electro band Betty. Betty have been around for about 6 or 7 months now and with their original style and combination of live vocals and DJ production, have interest from multiple record labels. The Label they want to join, Morph Recordings, have said they want a video to go with the release of the first single.

What Betty are after for a video

Today i had a meeting with the band and discussed everything, from what they're doing at the moment, what song they want a video for and how they want it to look.

In the meeting Betty told me how they have been approached by local record company, Morph Recordings and Morph have told them they want to release Bettys first single. but to go with it they want a promotional music video. Morph suggested a few directors but Betty had seen some of my other work and wanted to give me the opportunity.

Betty and Morph decided that the song 'Slits on your wrists' was the best too be released. The song is about an emo girl that is obsessed with a guy in her favorite band. It makes a lot of in joke style stabs at the emo genre and mocks it in general. 

I was told that they wanted the video to amplify the lyrics and to follow the story quite closely but other than that they gave me creative rein over the project, this added to my excitement for doing this project because it meant i could essentially do what i wanted.

What is a Commission

A Commission is when someone is employed to produce something to a certain set of specifications for someone. this could be a piece of art for a sign of a shop, it could be a sculpture or a piece of music for to go as a movie soundtrack. In my case, i was commissioned to make a music video for Cambridge based Indie/Electro band Betty.

Betty

Previous Commissions

I have previously been commissioned by Sawston Cinema, Tony Jones as part of the cambridge film festival and Jenny Grahame, editor of Media Magazine.

1. I was commissioned by Sawston cinema in autumn of 2008 to produce a Logo for the cinema, i came up with several ideas for them but none they liked. They decided to look else where for a logo in the end. I felt i did the best i could with what they gave me, but they were very vague with what they wanted and very picky on what i gave them, but gave me no real feedback.
2. Tony Jones Commissioned me in May of 2009 to produce a show reel comprised of Archive footage from 1950's -1980's cambridge, silent comedy like buster keaton and footage from long road projects to be projected in empty shops to try and liven them up and make them look less of an eyesore. This commission went better than the first. it was a painstaking process to sort thorough all the footage and not a very inspiring project but it was a commission and i did as i was asked.
3. In November 2008 i was commission by Jenny Grahame to write an article on Freedom for Media Magazine. This commission was an interesting one because i was able to write about what ever i wanted as long as it related to Freedom in some way. I chose to write about the freedom of music, and had my article published. I found the freedom of this commission much more inspiring and there fore found it far easier to do better work.

What is the process of a Commission.

When being commissioned to make a music video, the normal process is like this:

• Either the band or record label put out an advert for directors to make a video for them and you reply to that advert with a pitch of your ideas. Or the band/label contact you specifically and ask you to come up with a pitch. ( you will usually be given a set of restraints or guidelines to follow to start with)
• Once you've pitched your ideas, if the band and label like your pitch best (normally multiple directors will pitch for the same song) then you will be employed to develop that pitch and then make it into a music video.
• Once you have been employed, you are expected to make what you have pitched and any changes have to be agreed by the commissioner first.
• When the video is finished, only if the commissioner is happy you have for filled your agreed pitch will you get paid.

A Commission isn't normally a chance to let your creativity flow and make what you want, you normally have fairly strict boundaries.