Group: Pitch and Feedback

The pitch was a very useful process which allowed us to receive feedback from our teachers and other peers to find out what they liked and disliked so that we could think of alternative ideas. As well as this it enabled us to identify any holes in our concept where we needed to add in extra shots to our concept.

Feedback

Positive:

- Detailed reccies
- Good practice shots and creative shot ideas
- All of our work is linked back to our secondary and audience research
- Detailed and creative treatment
- Effective song
- Clear understanding of what we want to do and what we need to achieve
- Varied use of shots, movements and framing

Criticism:

- Its a long song so we will need to get enough shots
- Difficult to make it as stylish as we want
- Complex narrative
- Mental disability is a difficult topic to cover
- Hard to create verisimilitude in our narrative
- Costume would need to be planned
- The Tunbridge Wells precinct isnt a particularly good location choice
- Need more filler shots
- Based too much on performance of central character

NOTES

DAN: The Neighbourhood are an American alternative rock band from California formed in August 2011. In early 2012, The Neighbourhood came together to release "Female Robbery" and "Sweater Weather". We liked the idea of creating an indie music video as it gave us the opportunity to come up with some really conceptual ideas. We have also found out from further research that there are no specific rules when it comes to making a video making our ideas all the more exciting.

HARRY: For the most part, the audience research showed that people were familiar with the band and identified the colour scheme we are going to use - black and white. Most also said that they envisage the band appearing in some way, which supports our idea of having the slight bit of performance and perhaps including a filler shot like the one of the band in the car (point).

ALEX: In terms of actual narrative, we got some different opinions. One person said that they thought of a relationship breaking up which, does actually make sense when looking at the lyrics whilst someone else described the notion of time ticking away.

DAN: There was also a range of locations suggested, from sub-urban neighborhoods to crowded hospital rooms – the sub-urban element is going to be included in our video, but the idea of a busy room is something we may consider.

HARRY: One of our most influential videos was another video by the neighbourhood, ‘sweater weather’. It uses lots of visually stylish techniques and represents a vintage and sunny Californian landscape. It’s obvious we can’t replicate the landscape or location however the reason we liked the video is because of its creative and innovative camera techniques, but we also really liked the black and white colour scheme which have decided to use in our own production as we think it really amplifies the image and music of the band but also makes the video look a lot more visually interesting and professional.

DAN: I really like this video mainly due to its generally aesthetic. It seems desaturated, contrasting the bright lights and the bright fire that appears in the video. The use of slow motion as well is very noticeable, for instance in the car shot shown, the car is shot at ELS in slow motion, tracking it as it turns the corners which evokes emotion that is anchored by the song itself. I also like the framing; with no dialogue it is important to exploit non-verbal language which is enhanced by the restricted close ups where the emotion is emphasized. The way in which the film is cut to the music is also noticeable. Finally, the shot of the fish bones is another I find interesting, the low angle and positioning of the prop shows the colour of the sky - connoting moodiness and sadness - alongside this unusual prop which is bold in itself.

ALEX: Most of my inspiration came from the artist Woodkid. I like their use of black and white throughout the video as it adds to the minimalism of the video. The camera movements and special affects make it incredibly visually arresting and adds to the themes within the song. The fantasy style is fitting to the indie genre. OneRepublic also use very conceptual ideas and there is a lot of disjuncture in their video Counting Stars. They also use a dark colour scheme but not black and white which still succeeded in creating a ‘moody’ effect.

DAN: It opens with a white screen, on which the letters "NBHD" appear to show the band’s name. This then fades over the top of a shot of a man, played by Dan, lying on a bench, having slept rough for the night.

He then walks out of the park and down towards his house. He gets out his keys and then goes towards the door; he looks in the window and backs away surprised, to then jog or run out of the frame. The door then opens and we see Dan walking out, looking after who has just looked through the window.

Next, we will have a combination of two filler shots, slow motion shot of Dan screaming in a dark location

The beginnings of a slow motion zoom out that will be completed throughout the video; it will begin at an extreme close up of Dan's eye and, in this section, will finish at a close up of his face.

ALEX: In the chorus we will have a layering of shots where Dan is sitting on the bench he woke up on in a number of different ways, each layered on top of each other. One version of Dan will be sat in the middle looking down, until the last line of the chorus where he looks up and mimes it.

This is the pre-cursor to the next part of the narrative: it will appear that Dan will be walking forwards down the Tunbridge Wells Precinct, and everyone else is walking backwards - shot at a number of different angles and frame sizing to assist the illusion.

In the second part of the narrative, Dan will be walking down Tunbridge Wells Precinct; when he looks to his left, he sees himself, when he looks to the right, he sees himself and when someone bumps in to him, he turns around to see himself. He then runs out of shot.

The running will be picked up as he turns in to an alleyway or down a more private road, in which he begins to scream again and get angry at his surroundings, questioning why all of this is happening to him.

The slow zoom out continues from a close up to a mid-shot of Dan who is holding a board of wood, although at this point you can't see what is on the board.

HARRY: In this chorus we will have a layering of shots where Dan is sitting on a different bench in a number of different ways, each layered on top of each other. One version of Dan will be sat in the middle looking down, until the last line of the chorus where he looks up and mimes it.

In the part of song where the pitch and general tone becomes lighter, we will have a sequence of shots of Dan leaning against a wall; he eventually sinks down on to the floor. Burying head in hands, distressed and wanting all of this to be explained. Then, out of focus, someone is walking towards him, contrast suddenly becomes very high and all goes white. The camera adjusts and in focus is himself.

In this final chorus, the zoom will finish off from a mid-shot to a medium long shot of Dan, the content of the board is revealed and it is the band's logos. As the camera stops moving, Dan will say the final line of the chorus.

Whole video gets played in reverse until the drumming in the song stops, at which point the screen goes white and in black, "Afraid" fades up and then fades out with the song.

ALEX: here we have identified 6 key shots which we would like to capture. The ones which we think will be the most difficult in terms of filming are the 3^rd 4^th and 6^th shot shown here.

DAN: As you can kind of see, the picture shows the backwards shot idea we want to include. The band on the left appear to be walking forwards whilst the public are walking backwards. To do this, we will have to do the reverse. How they mask it in the ‘Eleven Eyes’ by Heights video is, for a start, use lots of shots to make up one movement, and also put it in slow motion. We attempted the shot in Brighton and, whilst it looks okay, it will look better when we combine multiple shots rather than two. We will also start at a CU of the shoe again. Here is our attempt at it.

HARRY: One of our key A* shot ideas was to overlap or over layer a number of pieces of footage on top of each other so that the man is in the shot multiple times at once, this will work as an interesting and creative shot that will keep the film visually compelling. There will be a continuous shot of the man sitting in the middle of the bench staring at the camera which will be the base shot; we will then layer other shots of the man walking past the bench, sitting on and around it in a number of ways etc. The shot is designed to show that the man has spent a lot of time at the bench in increased paranoia and confusion, almost living like a homeless person. Once the chorus and the shot reach its end, the man will mime the final lyrics of the chorus at the camera.

ALEX: To film this shot, we will start off with the camera at a low angle pointing up at Dan. This is to make sure that any members of the public that walk past cannot be seen as this could affect continuity of the shot. As Dan walks down the precinct in Tunbridge Wells, we see him turn his head to the left, the camera then moves to a POV shot and continues to turn left focusing on a figure walking past that we see is Dan in different clothing. The camera returns to the low angle and continues to track backwards as Dan walks forwards. As Dan turns his head to the right, the camera moves again to a POV shot and turns to the right. Again he walks past in different clothing through the crowd. Finally, still as a POV shot a figure walks directly towards to the camera and bumps past Dan (the camera). The camera turns around 180° and sees himself turning to walk away in slow motion.

DAN: These are the locations, alongside the drama studio and outside Harry’s house that we are going to use. Tunbridge Wells Precinct, benches in Grosvenor Park and an alleyway by Dan’s house. The benches shall be used for the chorus’ that Harry described earlier due to the surrounding scenery being, nothing special but not boring at the same time. The precinct for the walking backwards shot and the seeing self-sequence - the reason for choosing here is because of the amount of extras that will naturally be in the shot and therefore making the backwards shot in particular more effective. The alleyway will be used in the second pre-chorus where the character is running away in anger and confusion etc. The single lamp post restricts the lighting here heavily, and will make the sequence more emotive; it’s rather secluded to so it’s likely to be empty at the time of filming.

ALEX: In terms of casting and props we are only using Dan for the music video so we do not need to rely on any people outside of our group to be available for filming etcetera. As well as this the only prop we need is a large piece of wood which we can spray paint the slogan onto and a rucksack which Dan will carry around with him for the duration of the video. Both of these items will be very easy to come by.

HARRY: Before we had fully developed our concept, we had quite a few filler shots we wanted to include; these included: drumming, shots hitting a bin in time with the snare drum, looking in to a mirror and seeing nothing/someone else, landscape shots and so on, Now we have come up with a substantial concept, being able to fit these filler shots in could be difficult. However, we will most likely film them just in case the content we have in mind isn’t enough to fill the time, or we want to replace something.

ALEX: Also, the complexity of our concept is also worth considering as the idea of the character seeing himself everywhere, despite being easy to explain, is quite hard to construct and think about without actually filming. Having said that, trying out the sequence Alex discussed earlier, has given us some confidence as the way we had mentally mapped it out worked - despite looking rushed.

ALEX: The band heavily relies on black and white to promote themselves. They almost drain the colour out of everything in order to reveal its true meaning or the reasoning behind it. Any time the band is in shot, there is nothing but a bland stare off in to the distance or in to the camera thus at the audience, complying to Dyer’s present and absent paradox.

HARRY: The use of the upside down house as well is common, perhaps turning society on its head. Also, the three symbols that appear on the album cover of ‘I Love You’, actually spells out I Love You (point at the eye, the heart and then the U shaped house.)

DAN: Having taken all of the previous in to consideration, we came up with this. Here is a rough idea of our album cover; the image on the back cover will also be used as the advert design, but set in front of a field - as that image will be but due to the fact it is drawn, it wouldn't have been clear with the song names over the top of it. The shot on the main cover will also be the final shot of the video, which is built up to over its course. The idea is to be minimalistic, but emotive, capturing audience’s attention but not overtly.