Cast List, Prop List, Costume And Locations

These are my finished idea of last minute planning before i start to film my music promo video, I'm going to explain my Cast, Prop list, Costume and the locations in which i will shoot my music video.

Cast List
I'm going to have quite a few extras in my video and one main star. The main star will be the main character within the story and the extras will be the random characters holding up their 'secrets' on the A3 card looking towards the camera

Main Star: Victoria Kelly, 21 from Leeds (My Sister)

Extras: Jemilla Pir, Emily Potter, Beth Mcbride, Krystina Cole, Jack Waller, Danni Mcgarry, Charlotte Armstrong, Jade Adam, Frances Ellis, Cat Boal, Sean Hickman, Sophie Scudder, Ashleigh Jarvis, Gemma Bradford, Emma Metcalf and Maureen Lennon, Stephanie Kelly, Tracey Kelly and Dermot Kelly.

There are a lot of extras and i don't defiantly know if i will be able to get them to film their scenes on the day, however i like the idea of spontaneous filming, having a random selected extra to film on the day is what i want to really do, as it's the idea of everyone having 'problems' and 'secrets' no matter how random they are, they are probably going through the same problems are the main character therefore i feel it will be so much more successful if i was to use random friends where where at the right place at the right time. Therefore i might end up using more males then females, or vice versa it's totally unpredictable therefore i feel i will be getting more realism from the randomness in which is taking place. However, I'm defiantly having a set main character as my sister, i feel will act the part brilliantly and as a director i am positive she will act the way i want her to.

The final three names Stephanie Kelly, Tracey Kelly and Dermot Kelly are the family in which will be totally ignoring Victoria as a character as she's trying to search for someone or something, i chose my real family to do it as the age suggests the idea of parents and little sister. It creates realism to the video and i feel it's nicer to include your family is projects like this.



Prop List
There aren't many props which i plan to use within my music video, the obvious props are:
-A3 Card, which are the secrets which will be written on the card with a black permanent marker, also the main star has a collection of these in which she is constantly carrying around
- Cup and Saucer, which will be used by my family during the shot of when she is searching around her home, and when her parents are totally ignoring her
- Tea Lights in Glasses, which will be used in the final scenes when they are in the garden and hanging from the tree

There aren't many props used within my music video as i want to keep the music video, very natural and i feel if we include too many props it seems very product based which is not my concept. I feel by lacking props you are creating realism and making the video easier to digest as, as an audience member you're not constantly shown all of these props in which all of the characters are using.

Costume
The costume in which i would like my cast to wear varies:

Main Character- For Vicki, i would like her to wear a long floaty white dress. I like the colour white due to the connotations in which the colour suggests, i want to the audience to see her as a pure, fragile, angelic soul. I want her to remain as natural as possible in terms of make-up, as i feel she's supposed to suggest she's 'naked' and completely 'natural' to the audience, who are seeing the lost and vulnerable side to the character, however i would like the character to be wearing bright Red lipstick, as i feel this suggests with the idea of her 'sewing' her mouth up, the idea she can't talk or mention any of her problems or secrets to everyone. I like the idea of her having stained lips, these secrets are stained on her lips as cruel and murderous, and she can't brush these problems and secrets off... they're stained on her.

Extras- For the extras in terms of the characters holding up the secrets on the A3 card, i only want them wearing what they are at the time, i feel this adds realism and reinstates the original idea of the story: you are not alone. I want to push the idea of the fact all of these 'normal' people have problems and secrets too and are also trapped and through the use of everyday clothing, i feel this suggests they are 'everyday' and 'normal' people, which adds strong realism to the video. In terms of my parents, i wish for them to seem completely repressed, therefore i would like them sternly dressed in either suits or just boring harsh clothing, the females with their hair brushed back and in a bobble, and for my dad i want his hair gelled to his head. I feel this represents the idea that the parents are ignoring their child's problems when she needs her family most, therefore what she is searching for is not seen in her parents.

Locations
For the locations i have listed some main areas in which i will film certain sections:

My house- I will film quite a few shots in my house and my surrounding area, such as the main character waking up, her searching a carved tree, searching around her family, walking down the street and also the final last scenes in the garden.

College- I will also film a lot of shots around college, especially all of the shots in which my peers are holding up 'secrets' and 'personal problems' upon the white card. I will use the back field, for there is a green gate which i could film behind my peers suggesting they are trapped. I will also film my sister searching through nature, such as grass and trees as i feel the college has a large enough green space and i will also film my character walking through the Crampton Room which is a social area in the college when she's searching around pupils who are sat down and possibly eating or talking as they ignore her.

Finished Synopsis

My music video I feel has a very interesting story in which I've created. It follows a female character, who as soon as she wakes up seems to be searching for something or someone, she looks through college, through her home and through fields and nature. She carries around A3 cards with her which has marked with permanent marker her 'secrets,' which link in with ambiguous idea of who or what she is looking for. As soon as the operatic bridge within the song enters she then looks directly at the camera and realises where to find what she has been looking for, she returns home to find the garden totally alit with candle lights in jars and glasses, both on the floor and hanging from a tree, she runs to the main focus point in the garden (the tree), and she finally feels complete, she's happy and free. As the song finishes we are left with the chilling final shot of her sleeping which is strongly contrasted with the shot before being totally energetic and exciting. It leaves the ambiguous idea of her either dreaming or the more extreme possibility of suicide or death, the shot of her sleeping fades out and the audience experience closure in the idea of her being in another place, be it heaven or just the dream world, she's finally happy and free.

Audience Research Results

This is the graph to the results in which i found out by handing out my questionnaire. I ended up handing out 18 questionnaires in total, however i tried to make it as fair as possible by handing nine out to males, and nice out to females. I based the questionnaire around the mainstream 16 - 18 target audience male and female as that is the audience in which I'm hoping to attract. In the graph to the left, the conclusion to the results in which i found was the idea of the majority of people voted 'pop music' as their favorite genre of music, whereas 'gospel and soul' remained un- ticked which concludes to the idea of perhaps neither boys or girls particularly like this genre of music. Indie rock and RnB remain the second most popular whereas the third most popular was in fact rock. This is interesting in terms of audience research as i targeted the questionnaire at people from the 16- 18 aged category, who i also want to aim my promo video at.


This is a graph to show what elements in a music video appeal to the audience, the most popular was actually 'the music' which is interesting as it reinstates the idea that the music is still the most important concept of the music video, however it also creates the question surrounding the idea of can an amazing music video make a rubbish song buy able? The second most popular was the choreography factor within a music video and the joint third was the costume and the artists/ dancers with sex appeal. These are interesting results from the mainstream audience in which participated within this survey as, if i want to target this audience, perhaps i should use some of these elements in which they seem to prefer and like to view within a music video.

This is a graph to show how often my target audience watch music videos, with the majority of participants stating 'quite often' whereas the joint second are 'Sometimes, when I'm bored' and 'A lot of the time.' It's interesting to note that none of my target audience 'never' watch music videos nor are they all they watch either. It just proves perhaps music videos need that media attention to really get my mainstream audience to want to watch my music video, or it just needs to be interesting. The musical artist always allows the song to receive a lot of radio play before the promo video is released, this is an important idea as with the majority of my participants confessing the most important factor of a music video is in fact the 'music,' it allows the audience to become familiar with the song then excitement starts to brew waiting for the artist to complete their music video for the song.

This is the last quantitative data in which i received, which asked the participating audience which music channel is their favorite. The majority of my participants chose MTV which interestingly enough is more well known now-a-days for playing reality shows on repeat, such as 'The Hills, Sweet Sixteen' and 'Laguna Beach' rather than music videos in which it was created for back in the 1980s. Other favorite music channels include Smash Hits, Kiss and Q which all play music videos for completely different genres, such as Smash hits plays music videos for Pop and chart music, Kiss plays music from the genre of Hip-Hop and RnB and Q plays music from the genre of Indie and Rock. If MTV does play music videos which, once in a while it does, it plays music based in the mainstream pop genre such as Lady gaga, Lily Allen and Britney Spears.

I included some open questions at the end of my questionnaire asking the audience for their favorite music videos, and which artists they think bring out the most interesting music videos. A shocking 12/18 participants included Lady gaga in either of these open questions, reasons from the costume, to the choreography to the story line. It seems she is very popular amongst my target audience from 16- 18 year olds. This audience research has been fully worthwhile as it allows me to see what my target audience really want to see within a music video, and basically they just want something entertaining, they don't wont watch anything rubbish and boring. They want to view something tense, exhilarating and exciting, joined together with a good song, looking from this research it seems impossible to make sales out of song which have an amazing music video, yet at the end of the day if the song is absolutely rubbish, the audience isn't going to want to purchase and listen to it on their Ipod.

Information on my chosen Artist- Damien Rice

Damien Rice was born in Ireland on 7th December 1973. As an musician he plays the guitar, piano and violin. He creates music for the singer-songwriting genre which is a branch off from the genre of Folk.

He was originally in a band called Juniper however apparently due to the record company interference with the music they originally wanted to produce, he decided to pursue a solo musical career. During this time of self-reflection about what he really wanted to write about, he travelled the world, reportedly working as a farmer in Tuscany, busking his way around Europe and eventually moving back to Ireland to where he got into contact with a music producer and began to write his first album O, which was available in shops from Februally 2002.

In an interview about why he split from his original band he replied with the statement '“They were asking, "Can we just make it a little bit more radio-friendly?" And there was that sort of guilt feeling….”' (Yahoo music). This is strongly understandable as Damien Rice was an artist and musician who wanted to create songs in the singer-songwriter genre, therefore his music should conventionally be about what he personally wants to say to his audience, rather then having to edit it to make it target a more mainstream audience.

He also stated whilst busking around Europe, he felt an element of 'freedom' which he realised he craved this 'freedom' with creating his own music, rather then being in control my a record company.

As he came back from his traveling exploration, his grandmother informed him about his cousin, David Arnold who was a music producer and through the money Damien had earned from busking around Europe, he used to create a demo, to which David Arnold heard and immediately brought a mobile studio in which Damien Rice recorded his debut album 'O' (released 2002). Following the success of his first complete album as a soloist, he then followed onto recording his second studio album '9' (released 2005).

Since then his music has been a hit being played constantly within films and hit television shows such as 'I Am David' (2003), the series 'The L Word,' 'One Tree Hill,' 'Grey's Anatomy' and also 'The Inbetweeners.' On these programmes and films songs such as, 'The Blowers Daughter,' 'Cannonball,' and '9 Crimes' have been used. However when his songs aren't played in full on television shows and in films, instrumentals from his songs '9 crimes' and 'cold water' i have personally heard on such documentary shows such as 'Comic Relief,' 'Children In Need,' and 'Around The World In 80 Days.'

Damien Rice - Discography

With Damien Rice not being that well known when his 'singles' go on sales, his albums have made a strong impact on the UK and Ireland's chart, with 'O' reaching number 8 in the album charts, the album reaching number 2 in the Irish charts and also number 6 in the Norway album charts. With the album also reaching triple platinum in the UK, whilst in Ireland it received ten times Platinum whereas in USA it received a disappointing Gold disk awarded.

His second album '9' was received more welcoming in the album charts whist reaching number 86 in the French album charts, overall it received in the chart top 100 across Australia, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, UK and America. Reaching the top 20 in 4 out of ten of them countries, as well as receiving a gold disk from America.

His single Cannonball is the most successful single sold in the UK of his, which reached number 19 in the singles chart and in UK and Ireland he's had 6 singles in the top 40 chart.