The Whole Preparation

This blog post will be the listing of everything that we have or we need for our music video. This will be updated a few times until it's completely prepared. The first set of lists is a screenshot from 'Kayleigh H's' Music Video blog, where you can visit at:

http://www.kayleighmusicvideoblogg324.blogspot.co.uk

UPDATED LISTS:

POST-PRODUCTION SCHEDULE- May be changed if anything unexpected happens.

SCHEDULE FOR PRODUCTION- Just a tidier version and slightly updated.

EQUIPMENT BOOKING FORM- Brief Planning for requesting equipment for the days of shooting.

Note:  Some days on these lists consist of me using my own camera, so I included these into the lists to correspond with the whole filming diary.

The Cast List

The Risk Assessment

The Schedule & Shooting List

                                          UPDATE ON SCHEDULE LIST

                                                 27th JANUARY 2014

                          CAMERA, TELESCOPE AND TRIPOD NEEDED

                                                  FURTHER UPDATE

                                                14th FEBRUARY 2014

      GEAR PRO, TELESCOPE AND INSTRUMENTS (MUSIC DEPARTMENT) NEEDED

 Location Ideas    

        The rest of the lists are on here, as well as the other members of the group. The location is a vital part of preparation, as we need permission to film in certain places, but first we would need to do some location scouting. So here are the ideas.

       The band are introduced in a forest clearing through the pre-lyrical section of the song, just instrumentals, where the lead singer begins singing for a few seconds until the camera cuts to introducing the actors in their roles.

                                                                 The Band...                                                        

                    

                      Connor Faulkner, the guitarist

                          

                        Josh Hobson, the drummer

                    Ryan Brown, the lead 'singer'

Jack Charlesworth, the keyboard player (THIS IMAGE IS JUST A REPLACEMENT FOR THE ORIGINAL IMAGE THAT WAS LOST)

For the location of the room that the woman wakes up in at the beginning of the video, we have chosen to use one of our school's medical rooms to make it look untidy with the lights off as though it's abandoned, and the woman is laid on the bed (a discarded mattress).

Nicole Denman as the woman:

Leon Asgari as the man:

Preferred clothes for the woman in the beginning.

       The man is introduced on a gurney being pushed along by the orderlies in a hospital corridor.

The orderly:

Josh Hobson

The Man is...

Leon Asgari

Vague idea of the corridor, to be filmed in school.

The Model Forms

      Through the middle section of the music video, the locations included abandoned streets, a forest entrance and pathway and basically quick uses of normal background settings. The props include sticky labels with frowns drawn on them, costumes changing into more lively attire to reflect the change in mood through the video.

Sticky labels to have frowns drawn on them.

Ideas for deserted streets:

Change in costumes:

These changes in attire are to reflect the more spontaneous nature of the two main people being released.

The final act of the video will be of the man and the woman approaching two separate entrances to a forest, where they walk through until they reach a clearing with a large crowd of people and the band playing. The forest clearing will be achieved by green screen inside the school gym. The crowd of people are all idiosyncratic, wearing all different costumes and random clothing.

The Forest Entrance

The Forest Pathway

The end of the video will be an elongated shot if possible.

Group Decisions of who will take charge in what

        In preparation for our music video, we as a group have decided what, who and where in terms of shooting the music video for 'Human' by The Killers.

Kayleigh: Costumes, props, locations and photos of the chosen actors.

Jack: In charge of Health & Safety for the shooting of the video.

Jake: Main storyboard drawing with partial help from the other group members.

Connor (Me):  Treatment of the music video, partial storyboard drawing and taking care of the schedule list to know when we are able to shoot.

For Kayleigh's blog, visit: http://www.kayleighmusicvideoblogg324.blogspot.co.uk

For Jack's blog, visit: http://www.jcharlesworth96.blogspot.co.uk

For Jake's blog, visit: http://www.jakejonesg324.blogspot.co.uk

Full Treatment

       The beginning of the storyboard centres on the lead singer and the band (the band begin playing their instruments through the intro, mid-shot of the band) as the camera cross-cuts between the two other separate narratives consisting of a woman in one and a man in the other. The woman is shown to be sleeping with a dishevelled look (birds-eye mid-shot), and the camera cross-cuts to the man, who is in a hospital corridor on a gurney (the orderlies push the gurney through the hall, the man is clearly upset and in pain, shot from a dolly effect) as the pre-lyric sequence plays through. The hospital is a metaphor for the mans 'pain' of living a bad life.

        As the song actually begins (cross-cut to the band) the lead singer is shown in front of the microphone (lead singer begins singing from a mid-shot) and starts the song. As he is singing, the narratives switch to a phone falling off the hook in the same room as the sleeping woman, who is woken by it (camera cross-cuts to the woman jolting awake and has a confused facial expression) and gets up to look (camera cross-cuts to the woman walking drearily to the hanging phone, from a side-shot). The phone dropping off the hook and needing to be replaced is a metaphor for the woman's uneventful life and she yearns for a 'replacement' in life. The woman replaces the phone after listening to the other end of the line, where the lead singer is singing. Upon hearing the music from the phone (close-up of the woman's eyes widening and immediately starts smiling, pulling a sticker with the image of an upturned smile from her face, cross-cutted into a mid-shot), she puts the phone on the hook, which this time doesn't fall off. With the odd look of a smile but with a frown, the woman leaves her room and sets off down a road to an undisclosed location (a dolly shot follows the woman walking out with a frown and smiling, but remaining in an excited state). The lead singer is then shown singing for a few seconds (mid-shot, side-shot of the singer performing). 

         This then switches to the mans narrative (from a side shot). After hearing the singing, the man gets off of the gurney (brief side shot of the man suddenly getting up, smiles and jumps off the gurney, with a brief panning shot as he walks). The narrative switches back to the woman for a few seconds to show her frown disappearing (shown from 4 different shots. Mid-shot of her face, high angle of her hands feeling her eyebrows, extreme close-up of the fingers peeling off the stickers, then a high angle of the woman with a happy face), allowing her face to express a smile. The narrative cross-cuts to the band (mid-shot), then returns to the woman (she becomes excited and sticks her arms up in the air, high angle).
       Turning back to the mans narrative, he is walking through the hospital corridors (dolly shot follows him), notices a set of signs with 'sadness','devotion' and 'dancer' on them (he stops and stares for a second, from a mid-shot, then carries on walking), implying that he leaves his human emotions behind and heads for a better alternative. (Showing elated expressions from a long shot) The man walks out of the hospital and begins towards an undisclosed location. Cross-cuts to the lead singer (close up, shown from the side, the singer wraps his fingers around the microphone), then to one of the other band members (playing whatever instrument they have, shown from a mid-shot).
      Returning to the woman's narrative, where she stops outside a forest (the woman runs towards the forest, then stands still just outside, shown from a long shot), which then cross-cuts to a long-shot of the man, who has also entered the forest, from a different entrance (the man walks slowly, the camera follows him as though he is following the camera, sustained long-shot to establish the forest and the man looking around). The story then shows an unused gurney and then a hanging telephone/unused mobile etc to symbolise the abandonment of the average human life (?) (quick cross-cuts to the gurney and the phone).
     The man and the woman are then shown as they are about to enter (split-screen of both people to show that they're not actually next to each other, shown from a mid-shot) a large clearing (long shot of both people entering the clearing from a distance apart), as the narrative quickly changes to show empty streets (from a long-shot for both frames, to emphasise the emptiness) where no people are. (an establishing shot of) The clearing shows the band performing in the background and a large crowd of people who run towards the man and the woman (from a side shot run by a dolly or panning shot), who are shown (from a side shot) noticing each other for the first time. The singer is shown performing (mid-shot) again, with (a cross-cut mid-shot of) the man and the woman throwing their arms in the air and expressing excitement and an elated mood. We once again see the band performing (from a long shot) to imply that the video/song is almost over. The band (from a sustained long shot, no cross-cutting) performs until the end of the video, where just before the very end, the man, the woman and the crowd are shown all together (in either an establishing or a long shot). The video ends.

TO SEE THE STORYBOARDED VIDEO, PLEASE VISIT;  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFwCWb00GGM 

Features of the Final Music Video Preferences

        NOTE: This post was made before we started filming the video. 

      For my interpretation on the music video 'Human' by The Killers, I want it to follow the typical path of any other music video; the 'narrative trio,' as I'd like to call it. This is where the video tells a story with at least two different settings, and a third which is mostly used to cross-cut to the band performing the song through different parts of the video. However, I wouldn't want my video to rely entirely on the three narratives as I've already created my storyboard and completed it as an animatic. My storyboard tells the plot through the use of relatively obscure scenes, so the story isn't laid out straight in front of the audience. I prefer to try and attempt to provoke thought from the audience through this video. That is one of the main factors I want my video to rely on. I'll either achieve that successfully or fail it miserably.

       Based on the shots I have drawn, there are certain needs that have to be fulfilled to complete the preparation. Such things as the actors, who need to be one man and one woman to act as the two humans who 'break free' and become less and less bothered about the constraints of 'human' life, eventually ending in them becoming the 'dancer,' a person who lives spontaneously, hence the odd location of the forest and the band waiting inside it. These people make it how they want it, in other words. The actors would need to wear certain clothing. The band would need to wear matching outfits to signify that they're the storytellers, the 'human man' would need to wear clothing that at least resembles a hospital gown in any way because of the location he is in at the beginning with the geurney; a prop that needs to be found, borrowed or constructed from various unused furniture. The 'woman human' would need to wear just casual clothes, even when awaking to imply that her life is out of order. 

       For the props, we would be needing a telephone on the hook for the first couple of scenes, to imply loss of communication when we film the phone dropping from the hook. Obviously we would need instruments for the band, so they are the priority. For later scenes, we would need to use stickers with frowning eyebrows imprinted onto them to place over the woman's own eyebrows for the scene where she removes them and has a much more happier look. These are the main props needed, along with the makeshift geurney, as location is the main factor for this video.

      So, for location we would need a corridor that can resemble a hospital corridor, which is relatively easy as the school has many corridors for use, but we may need certain minor props to at least be able to make the scene look realistic. The other location is the house that the woman wakes up in. This could be any room in a house that will allow us to use it (of course the house will belong to somebody we know). This location will have the phone dropping off the hook. For another location, we will try and find a street that is literally empty, so timing is a big factor here. This shot will imply that everybody has left and gone to the last location. The final location is the forest and it's grounds, which will be the location of the band, the people that left the street, and the two 'humans' who finish their journey in the forest. This implies that everybody in the forest has left the constraints of an average life and now live spontaneously (these big words are making me go mad).
     

Treatment of my Music Video

     For my own interpretation of the song 'Human' by The Killers, I have constructed a trio of narratives on my storyboard. This is where I have created two separate settings for the two main characters to start in, then a third is included to show the band performing the song in certain sections throughout my storyboard. The two separate storyboard narratives will follow a man and a woman, who both live separate but very average lives. The woman is introduced sleeping in bed with dishevelled hair and wearing all of her clothes instead of clothes like pyjamas etc, to insinuate that her life is out of order in some ways. She wakes up with a depressed look on her face, then walks towards her phone (which is ringing) and then, just as she picks it up, the shot of the singer is shown with the microphone. The woman then suddenly drops her phone, as though she has just heard the singing, then begins to peel off a fake upturned smile imprinted on a sticker over her mouth, which when she removes, she is smiling, then leaves her apartment/room and starts walking to an unknown  destination that is revealed later on.

   The man in the other narrative is introduced just as the other narrative finishes until later on. The man is in hospital, being pushed on a gurney down the white corridors, until they stop at a set of double doors. Around this time, the singer is shown again in the third narrative, as the man sits up, gets off the gurney, and walks through the hospital (signs of 'sadness' and 'devotion' direct towards the place where the man has just come from, and a 'dancer' sign that points in the direction he is going). The hospital is sort of a metaphor for the mans ruined life. The man then leaves the double doors and starts walking to an unknown destination. As this is happening, the woman is shown walking down a street, feeling at her frowning eyebrows and noticing that they are peeling off. She pulls these stickers off, now revealing a much happier face as she walks towards the unknown destination. The stickers represent sort of a manufactured sadness that becomes automatic when people live the same life day after day. Now she has given her 'regards to soul and romance,' she can set off to become the 'dancer.' With the bands performance and singing lasting, the woman finally reaches the outside of a forest, in which she begins to pass through. Around this time, the man from the other narrative enters the same place, just metres across from the unsuspecting woman (the man also doesn't realise that the woman is nearby). The music becoming louder to both people, they quicken through the forest, both eventually reaching a clearing at the same time, but still not noticing each other. It's at this point where the story briefly cuts to   a deserted street, as though to question the disappearance of everybody. Cutting back to the man and the woman in the forest clearing, a large crowd of people are shown surrounding the band. Upon noticing the man and the woman, and upon the man and the woman noticing each other for the first time, the crowd rushes towards both people. The video ends with the two people being brought through the crowd and everybody becoming much more joyous.