Collecting Costumes

Collecting Costumes

The other day we went shopping in order to find the costumes we needed for our music video. We had a rough list of what we needed in terms of props and costume, so we took that into account when we went shopping. We bought a couple of blonde wigs and then some hair dye along with some hairspray. This will be useful to use for Sam & Michal's costume. Costumes are vital for a music video because they help with the mise en scene. 

Here are the items we bought to use for the music video:
Blonde Wigs x2                                                       Hair Spray/Hair Chalk

                                                         




 

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Here is the Risk Assessment sheet we completed in order to establish the possible risks when we film for our music video.

Animatic

Animatic
This is the Animatic for our music video of "A Song About A Girl". Myself and Michal drew the images on our storyboard from clips of our music video, then I photographed all of the images and edited them together in Premiere Pro along with a selected part of the audio from the song. This was a great way of planning what we were going to film and who was going to be starring in the music video.

Storyboard

Storyboard

Here is the storyboard in which we have created for our music video. The storyboard explains in small sketches what we have produced in our music videos, with notes along the side about what shots we used, who was in the clip and what was happening in it. For example, one slot is labelled with "Low angle" and "Michal eating a doughnut". 

Shot List

Shot List

Here is the shot list we completed in order to note down the camera angles and the amount of shots we took whilst filming for our music video.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Here is the accurate shooting schedule we created when filming and planning our music video. 

Location

Location

We discussed in our social media group chat where we are going to film for our music video. It was important for us to come up with a vast amount of locations to film just so we had a majority to choose from, so we wouldn't get stuck later on with where to go. Later, we chose a selected few and wrote them down on this planning sheet. I have also included some screenshots of the exact locations where we have filmed.

Audience Research

Audience Research

Recently we asked people in our class about their opinions on the song we chose. It was important to receive feedback from others in our class so that we could grasp a general opinion. We asked Nadine and her group to write down their thoughts in response to the questions on the sheet.

The questions and answers on the sheet were as followed:                                                                                                                                                     1. Without too much thinking, give three words that come to mind after hearing this song? There is no right or wrong answer, we want your "first impression" or emotional response.

a) Fun

b) Parody

c) Cliche

2. Which other artist(s) does this remind you of?

Busted

3. What are this/these artist's music videos like? What would you expect to see in their music videos?

Parody like

4. How would you describe the mood of this song?

Happy/comical

5. If the song was a colour, what colour would it be?

Neon yellow

6. What pictures does the song create in your mind?

Guitars, gimmicks, GIRLS!!

7. What narrative do you imagine with this song?

A girl acting as the boy

8. Having got this information, you need to sift through the ideas. Is your song still viable?

Yes

                  

Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles:

Cinematography: Carly Laslett
Mise-en Scene: Carly Laslett
Editing: Joshua Collier
Starring: Michal Cendrowski

Title:
A Song About A Girl

Synopsis: One man falls in love with a girl he sees, and is instantly infatuated with her. However, he does not realise that the love of his life, whom he has dedicated the song to, is actually a male wearing a pretty frock and a long blonde wig. He spends the whole video, searching for this one girl he has met amongst her friends and even begins to fantasise about their love. His friends, all shocked by the situation, encourage him to follow his dreams. But is his soul mate everything she appears to be? 

Genre Conventions: 
The pop-punk trend is what the video is based around, hence why it is so stereotypical and cliche - but this is where the dramatical comedy comes in. The people who star in the video are also dressed within the pop-punk fashion collection, which were inspired by other pop-punk videos we have viewed as a group to help us out. The video also includes live clips of the "band" performing (e.g. Charlie and Joe playing the lead guitar and the bass guitar) as well as different collections of footage to make up the video, fast paced editing and humour to make the audience see that the cast of the video are having a good time, and it is just a fun, not to be taken too seriously video to view and enjoy.

Mood Board

Mood Board
Here is a photo of us with the mood board we created. As a group, we decided to go with the genre pop-punk for our music video, a combination of soft punk and alternative pop, which is what A Song About A Girl is. 

Our mood board was our first form of research. We looked up pop punk's history and took some quotes, photographs of performers, and best-selling pop punk albums. In the center of the page we drew out the images in our head that sprung to mind after listening to the song, such as blonde hair, a cliche love story, etc. 

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas: What is our music video going to be all about?

I instantly knew I wanted to create something comedic when we began planning our music video at the very beginning. Since I am a big fan of the pop-punk genre, I thought it would be exciting if we made out video as cliche as possible and make a friendly parody towards the majority of famous pop-punk songs. The original video by Luke Cutforth and Patty Walters was funny and cliche, so I wanted out version of A Song About A Girl to take things even further. Since there were only two people starring in the original version, I thought it would be interesting to include other people and also involve different people playing musical instruments. First of all, we needed some inspiration to help make this happen, so we researched the most famous pop-punk bands and albums of all time and their music videos.

Blink-182's What's My Age Again? music video released in 1999.

The Offspring's 

Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) music video released in 1998. This song was in fact going to be our original music video choice, but since The Offspring are already signed we didn't want to be involved in violating the copyright terms of the artist. Interestingly though, the song we've chosen is quite similar to this one in terms of comedy.

All Time Low's Weightless music video released in 2009.

Jimmy Eat World's The Middle music video released in 2001.

Sum 41's In Too Deep music video released in 2001.

These are some of the videos we viewed to get some inspiration from. One thing they all have in common is that they're fun, comedic and they all fit within the stereotypical pop-punk genre of music. They all involve live bands playing instruments and people looking like they're having a good time just by dancing around, and we decided as a group that we wanted to adapt all of this in our music video. 

Song Lyrics

Song Lyrics

Here are the song lyrics to A Song About A Girl which was written by Luke Cutforth and Patty Walters.


A Song About A Girl

(Intro about 12 seconds)

I was just a boy,
Now I'm a man 
Hehe!
I hate this town,
This deadbeat town,
And everything I do,
I do it all for you,
And everything you say makes my pain and sadness go

This is a song about a girl!
This is a song about her long blonde hair!
This is a song about the way she stares at me,
In my American Apparel underwear!
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
This is a song about a girl...

Parents are mad,
Don't understand,
They think I'm bad and all,
Don't give a fuck at all!
You're the reason why, 
I feel like I can fly,
You're the reason why I just don't care at all

This is a song about a girl!
This is a song about her long blonde hair! 
This is a sing about the way she stares at me,
In my American Apparel underwear!
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
This is a song about a girl...

This is a song about a girl,
This is a song about her long blonde hair,
This is a song about the way she stares at me,
In my American Apparel underwear, 
This is a song about a girl...
This is a song about her long blonde hair...
This is a song about the way she stares at me...
In my American Apparel
UNDERWEAR!

Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,
Na na na naaaa,

This is a song about a girl!
This is a song about her long blonde hair! 
This is a song about the way she stares at me,
In my American Apparel underwear!

This is a song about a girl!
This is a song about a girl!
I think she's rad and all!
I wanna fuck her all the time...

This is a song about a...
Girrrrrrrrl!

Contacting The Artist

Permission

The Youtuber Luke Cutforth who wrote and performed A Song About A Girl, the song we are going to use for our A2 music video, has recently replied to me on Twitter confirming that he gives us official permission to use his song. Thank you Luke!

Song Choice & Artist Information

Song Choice & Artist Information

This is the song we have selected to use for our music video next year. It is by YouTube star Luke Cutforth with Patty Walters starring in the music video. The song is aimed to be a parody, but it is also a fun and exciting track to use for us in our music video.

Luke Cutforth (aka LukeIsNotSexy)

Luke rose to fame on YouTube and has over 500,000 subscribers. He wrote A Song About A Girl with Patty Walters and the recorded version is sang by him. His inspirations for writing this song were typical pop punk bands like Blink-182, Green Day, etc.



Patty Walters (As It Is)

Patty was/is also a YouTuber, but he was really recognised when his generic pop punk band As It Is rose to fame earlier this year. Recommended by Kerrang! and Rocksound magazines, As It Is recently have gone viral in the alternative music industry. He stars in A Song About A Girl dressed as a typical pretty girl and also plays some instruments in it.