Lyrics, narrative and performance

"Well there is something going down
Like the storm in the sky"
-Here during the introduction we are having 'Rosanna' on her own dancing - this will be part of the performance element of the video.

"I ain't gonna be played by your behavior
How can I trust someone who's lying to me, so..."
-This will be a long shot of her in a living room cleaning. She will be wearing an old checked shirt and hight wasited hotpants. We will use close ups of her face and hands.

"Bow out, go!
Now I said bow out, leave!"
-This will go back to the performance shot on her own, we will speed up the footage to give the video a comical element.

"I said take your stuff and go,
'Cuz you're not for me"
-Here she will be in her bedroom throwing clothes around. This will add to the narrative element of the video what relates to the lyrics.

"Mama knows best when times get hard"
-This shot will include 'Rosanna' and her mother in a kitchen with her mother pointing at her, and Rosanna sat at the dinner table looking down.

"And papa always has a joke to make me laugh"
-After the above, her father will enter smiling, and making Rosanna laugh. We may use a close up shot of the hugging and smiling.

"Mama knows best when
I feel down"
-This will be a long shot, then zooming into a mid shot of her and her mother sat on her bed.

"to bring me up
And always keep my feet on the ground"
-This will show a close up of her upper body, lowering down to her legs, then her foot stomping on the floor.

"Say I know know know
That you can pick up and drop,"
-This will also be another perfromance element of the video. Rosanna will be performing on a stage with a spotlight and an audience. This will be of a 50's style with her wearing a long glitzy dress with big hair.

"And all of this inconsistent love
I think it's about time that it stops"

-This will go back to the solo performance on her own, when the lyric 'STOP' comes in, she will put her hand out in a 'stop' gesture right infront of the camera.

"So bow out, go!
Now I said bow out, leave!
I said take a bow and go,
'Cuz you're not for me"
-This will again go back to her in her bedroom looking to the camera with an attitude, then slamming a door.

"Mama knows best when times get hard"
-Here will simply show her face close-up looking sad and crying, we will accelerate the shot to keep the comical element.

"And papa always has a joke to make me laugh"
-This will be the same as above, but will show her laughing, and agin accelrating the shot to make it look comical.

"Mama knows best when
I feel down, to bring me up
And always keep my feet on the ground"
-This will go back to the performance on the stage with her singing into a microphone.

"Just keep the best of ma'
Daddy said to me
Always use humor as your therapy, yeah"
-This will show her and her father in the kitchen again, and her dad will mime the 'just be the best' lyric.

"Don't ever take life too seriously,"
-This will go back to her in her bedroom with the atittude, lip syncing to the camera and then smiles.

"Just do you, 'cuz you do you so perfectly"
-Here we will go back to the solo performane element where she is looking to the camera with a bright coloured background.

"Mama, mama knows best
Daddy, daddy knows best"
-This is at the end of the song, and is repeated. We are going to have the end of the song with her  on the stage in hyer long glitzy dress having fun, dancing around being silly.

Final decision

After reviewing our 3 pitches and discussing with other people, we found the most popular was Pitch 1.
So, our artist we are launching is 'Rosanna Love' who will be singing the song Jessie J - Mama knows best. The video will be of a 50's style with influences from videos such as Beyonce - Why don't you love me and Christina Aguilera - Ain't no other man.

 

   

The lyrics in the song are:

Well there is something going down
Like the storm in the sky
I ain't gonna be played by your behavior
How can I trust someone who's lying to me, so

Bow out, go!
Now I said bow out, leave!
I said take your stuff and go,
'Cuz you're not for me
Mama knows best when times get hard
And papa always has a joke to make me laugh
Mama knows best when
I feel down, to bring me up
And always keep my feet on the ground

Say I know know know
That you can pick up and drop,
And all of this inconsistent love
I think it's about time that it stops
So bow out, go!
Now I said bow out, leave!
I said take a bow and go,
'Cuz you're not for me
Mama knows best when times get hard
And papa always has a joke to make me laugh
Mama knows best when
I feel down, to bring me up
And always keep my feet on the ground

Just keep the best of ma'
Daddy said to me
Always use humor as your therapy, yeah
Don't ever take life too seriously,
Just do you, 'cuz you do you so perfectly

Mama, mama knows best
Daddy, daddy knows best
With these lyrics it is easy to include both performance and narrative elements. We are going to tie in the performance and narratives to make it quirky and also keep the audience intrigued.

Pitch 3

Genre/ track:
Birdy - Be free (contemporary, with soul influences)

Bandname:

Daisy Love. The image for this artist would be classy, so would wear long dresses and have natural hair and makeup.

Settings:
Old fashioned house with Daisy Love playing the piano. Also scenes in woods with her letting birds go out of her hands - this will relate to the lyrics in the song. Most of the music video will be performance based without a story, only parts that relate to the lyircs.

Editing:

We will use slow motion to give the video and emotional feel, to relate to the lyrics of the song. some parts will be in black and white, to give it the old fashioned, contemporary feel. It will all be slightly distorted too.

Pitch 2

Genre/ track:

Rihanna ft. Drake - Whats my name (R&B)

Band name:

Lacene ft. Adriano. Lacene is a new R&B artist, and Adriano has been in the industry for a while. He features in this song to help boost her career and what shes about. Lacene will dress very ghetto and Adriano will wear the baggy jeans and t-shirts as he is influenced by artists such as Kanye West and Jay-Z.

Setting:

The setting will be ghetto and gritty, so we are going to film in the streets where there is graffiti about. We are planning to film these scenes in Manchester - this will be the narrative element. For the performance elements of the video, we are going to have them both stood lip syncing in front of a plain white background.

Camerawork:

For the scenes in the streets, there will be numerous long shots to show the locations. We will also use a range of mid-shots and close-ups to show facial expressions and emotions. we will use tracking to follow them walking around the streets.

Editing:

The editing will consist of bright lighting, changing the contrast, and fading in and out of different scenes.

Pitch 1

Genre/ track:   
Jessie J - Mama knows best (pop & jazz influences)

Band name:     

The name for our new music artist is 'Rosanna Love'. The typical image for this artist would be a Jazz style, retro look. In the music video she would be wearing for example; rollers in her hair, high waist hot pants, big hair, glitzy dresses and floral prints.

Settings:          

In a 50's style house, and also a retro cafe. We are going to use 'green screen' for the solo performance parts, maybe using a retro style background.

Camerawork:

We are going to use variation of camera shots, most being mid-shots to show both the background and her facial expressions. The solo performance where we are going to use 'green screen' will particularly be in mid-shot. Other scenes which include her in her room, cleaning and in the kitchen with her parents will use long shots, mid shots and close up. We are going to ensure we keep using different shots, and use close ups to show expressions and emotions. There will be a mix of both narrative and performance elements, where we will use green screen for her performing and lip syncing, and others where she is with her parents talking to them in relation to the lyrics.

Editing style:

Some shots for instance when she is talking to her parents, will be shot in black and white. This is so the audience can tell the narrative element from the performance element. We are going to have all the video slightly distorted so that it looks old fashioned. In some scenes, we will under crank/accelerate the footage to give it a comical element also.

Changes to music videos over the years

Over the years music videos have changed and progressed massively. At the time, videos such as 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'Thriller' were exciting as videos like this had never been done before, and it was the start of a whole new era of music videos. If we compare the early music videos with ones now, we can see how they have become more popular and are a very important aspect of songs and record sales. Lady Gaga is the latest artist to cause a controversy with her quirky style and bringing a new image into industry. She quotes herself that she wants to 'puncture a whole into the heart of pop'.
 Her video to 'Bad Romance' took the world by storm and truly showed just how much pop videos have changed, compared to earlier ones. The video contained masses of editing, weird outfits and showed other artists something very different to the ordinary pop videos from before.

      

Other artists have now took on board Gaga's ideas, Jessie J for instance has been named the 'British Gaga'. She also uses special effects in her videos and they involve lots of weird scenes and quirky styles.

    

Research into early Music Videos

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video is another promotional video that took the world by storm.
Often referred to as the greatest music video ever and has also been voted the most influential pop music video of all time, "Thriller" proved to have a profound effect on popular culture and was named "a watershed moment for the music industry" for its unprecedented merging of film making and music. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units. In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.

                                                               

Research into early Music Videos

I have been researching the earliest music videos to come to our screens.
The main song and music video from the early 70's that stands out for me is Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody. When it was released as a single, "Bohemian Rhapsody" became a commercial success, staying at the top of the UK singles chart for nine weeks and selling more than a million copies by the end of January 1976. It reached number one again in 1991 for five weeks following Mercury's death, eventually becoming the UK's third best selling single of all time. The single was accompanied by a promotional video, considered ground-breaking. It started a trend in the UK of making videos for songs to air in place of live performances. When MTV launched in 1981, most of their videos came from British artists for this reason.
The video was very innovative. It was the first where the visual images took precedence over the song. It was based on their album cover, with the 4 band members looking up into the shadows. Effects were achieved by using camera feedback and prism lenses. At the time, it looked high-tech. It was also the first music video in the sense that it was shot on video instead of film.

                                          

    

Brief

I have being asked to produce a promotional package for a new album which includes a music video, accompanied by a DVD cover and a magazine advert for the DVD.