Music Video; Locations, Characters, Props

Initially we were planning to only use one location in our music video, which would be the classroom. However, this could become extremely tedious and repetitive so we've decided to use a gig venue, for performance shots of a band playing, a crowd mingling and maybe even dancing. And we can also take the narrative outside the classroom, taking the main boy and girl to the gig venue therefore interweaving our performance and narrative footage. We want to use an old classroom to create a sense of nostaglia and to play with idea of old styles returning to the 21st century, like with fashion and culture. Indie styles today often replicate those of the 80's and 90's with a modern twist. Music videos by bands like Golden Silvers and Taylor Swift also use this idea. We are also following the 'exam' focus of the lyrics. We also found performance footage makes a good video, and helps promote the band well which is why we want to use a gig venue. It also fits in the narrative of the guy and girl dating, as many couples or potential partners go and dates to gigs or concerts today.

Our locations include:

• an old style classroom. It has been very difficult to find a classroom exactly like this one, because so many of them have been refurbished and modernised nowadays. We've found a classroom within CNS, Room 21, which isn't as modern as most of the other ones. It has single desks which can replicate the exam desks, however doesn't have a blackboard but we will either use the whiteboard or cover it up, and bring in a blackboard on an easel. Filming at school will be much easier and more accessible, and also much easier to organise.

These are pictures of Room 21 at CNS, the oldest looking, accessible classroom we could find, with posters covering the walls, bookshelves and the lack of an interactive whiteboard.

• and a gig venue, either: The Marquee/The Birdcage or Norwich Arts Centre. Gig venues can be really difficult to film in, because of the lack of decent lighting for filming and also getting permission. This is why we're not using main ones like The Waterfront or LCR. We decided a low key pub venue or somewhere like the arts centre would be much better, as they tend to use less effects and just have better lighting within the venue. It would also be easier to film the narrative without huge crowds getting in the way which is why we're attending an low key, local gig.
  

Our gig venue soon changed to us getting footage at our church, as we managed to use footage which mostly made it look like a lively gig/concert, rather than a church service, however the perfomance doesn't quite fit in with the genre as well as we'd hoped.

Characters:

- Main guy.
- Main girl
- Teacher
- Rest of Class in exam, 7/8 students
- Band, 3 members?

Casting on seperate post.

Props:
- Blackboard
- Chalk
- Paper and pens
- Instruments: electric guitar, drum kit, bass guitar, microphone and stand, speaker/amp.

The instruments are needed to film close ups of at the start, as if the band are preparing for the gig, getting ready to start - like drum sticks being picked up, leads being plugged in. We can access all of these instruments in a rehearsal room, and film it seperately to the perfomance footage. A similar idea is used at the start of the video, 4ever - The Veronicas as we discovered afterwards! It gives a look in at the instruments involved which in turn, introduces the genre of the song.

The blackboard, chalk, paper and pens are all to add to the old classroom style. Paper and pens on the desks will help make the 'exam' or lesson seem more realistic. We can have writing on them too. The blackboard and chalk, we want to use to write some of the lyrics on using stopmotion animation, or perhaps showing some of the teachers thoughts, using effects like in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8blXgmUXvI - Chalkboard Animation.