Statement of intentions

This video production has an underlying theme of talent vs. image, a battle forever fought throughout the music industry. The video is to be broken into two sections; section one being the stripped down they are the styled, produced shoe-gaze like attitude and image and section two being the band in their true garage band style, running around the stage and not afraid to letting their viewing audience know that they are there to have fun as well.

This music video graphically portrays an ‘over-produced’ band through their career as they start to become more established.

The video’s theme is the graphic contrast between the band in their produced form, which is normally ruled by their record label, their producer, their artistic director, their costume designers, and their manager (basically every person or figure that is involved in making bands zero to hero), and their original pre-stardom garage band style and attitude.

The band that I am working with, The Mysterons, have a very ‘now’ modern new-wave indie/post-punk revival sound, but are not image conscious or conceited with their stage image. Not to say that they do not pay heed to dressing to impress, but they don’t get themselves involved with stage props, pyrotechnics and ‘Busted Jumps'. The video is in a bid to show a great sounding band being themselves. In an industry where image generally trumps talent, few bands today foot the bill in technical prowess.

The video will be a live video with the band playing throughout; occasionally profiling the actual video shoot at the beginning and ending of the track – i.e. at moments, the music video is a video of the video. The band is playing in a green-screen environment in front of a white backdrop their backline, which is set up symmetrically in the set. The shot fades into to the band on set one, the soundstage, dressed and styled in ‘traditional’ indie-kid garb. The camera pans around profiling the set and stage, showing where the members of the band are standing. Stylists are applying final minute make-up and fixing their hair before playback begins and ‘action!’ is shouted.

As playback begins, they begin to play in a style where they appear to be very uncomfortable (shoegaze-like). Restricted to the confines of their ‘space’, marked with a big X’ onstage, the band continue to. The video location then changes to the band playing through set two, a post-modern household’s interior wall and doorway which pays homage to a growing cliché included with new bands. The camera uses several shooting styles, wide pan and tilt until the doorway is visible with band members playing through this doorway. Using graphic matches from the pan motion of the camera, the transition between band members playing in the doorway is made seamless. The video then goes backwards and forwards between set one and set two, with varying attributes such as set one’s shooting style becomes more fast-cut, and set two’s shooting style becomes less focused on the wall and more focused on the band member. Set one’s shooting begins with angles which profile the band on the stage, their POV position on-stage and obscure shots of the band from low angle, high angle, ‘Dutch’ angle and wide angle shots.

The song approaches its breakdown and at the point where the breakdown arrives – set one’s lighting changes and becomes strobe like, complimenting the breakdown’s music. The band let loose and play like they’ve wanted to throughout the song, defying their on-looking manager/record executive. They move around the stage, get into the music and have fun. The lead singer and guitarists defy the video shoot boundaries; leave the confines of their stage spot, sometimes walking beyond the stage and into the set. This contrast is confirmed by their manager trying to cut the shoot by grabbing the camera. The cameraman continues to shoot the video and becomes more active along with the band. The location reverts to set two, where a shot of the video being shot is profiled with a band member trashing the wall, and another band member jumping on it; a startled crew and cameraman are included in this shot. Location reverts to set one where the video has become more frantic and the penultimate chords are being played. They finish the song and as the song ends, the lighting changes to its original state as it were at the beginning. The band lay down their instruments and walks towards the camera, off the set and the shot fades out.

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As my video is adopting a very familiar format, a live video shot at a ‘soundstage’, I want integrate many styles of camera work, mise en scene and cinematography. Through his significant influence, my camera work will be very like director Spike Jonze’s work. Spike has a way of making the way the camera interact with the people and the surroundings within his videos special and intimate, while maintaining the distance so that the viewer has something to latch onto when watching the video. If you watch such videos as Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of choice”, the camera only stays stationary at the beginning and end of the video – where actor Christopher Walken’s body language and facial expression give us the illusion of a tired man, not capable of the complex dancing included in the video. This creates a point of disequilibrium, as the viewer is amused throughout the video at the apparent sudden new lease of life introduced into this man, which is further accented by the use of constant camera movement, but as the video comes to a close he returns to his normal dormant state. The audience is left with an eerie sound of humming as he sits back down in his chair, and they are left thinking “what?” Spike Jonze’s videos are often wacky but very creative, and this creativity comes in the forms of imagination and skill – while retaining a lot of the ‘what?’ factor.

Cinematography will play an important part in the overall look of my video. I was influenced by newbie director and producer Saam Farahmand. The overall production of his videos are aesthetically gripping and interesting, and mostly unorthodox. I want to adopt his sense of lighting, framing and his use of seemingly wacky ways to get the video he wants. A great example of this is his video for Good Shoes’ “All in my head” where he features a band on a giant turntable and this was used to create a human zoetrope. The turntable was in fact for use at car exhibitions, for showcasing new models. He blagged this for free after practically chatting up some farmers that owned one. Saam also has a great for colour contrast, which is a regular signature in all of his video. He lights his videos, where possible, to create a sense of headroom and to remove any spatial boundary – a feature of such videos as The Klaxons’ “Golden Skans” and “It’s not over”. The way he framed and shot The Futureheads’ video for “The Beginning of the twist” was highly influential as it gave me license to be outlandish and really push the boundaries of my video - the video featured a hybrid overlay of animation onto real footage which was executed through post-production. As well as his influence for his cinematography, he has influenced my use of mise en scene. In his videos, the scene is setup mostly in a surrealist fashion. Referencing my point about headroom, Saam uses space to the best of his ability while retaining a connection with the audience. I want to imitate his use of space, contrasting colours and lighting. Using my two sets, I hope to create an authentic and attractive video utilising influence of camera work, cinematography, mise en scene, production and direction from the directors I have mentioned.

I want my video to connect with my audience through a channel of normality and realism, while shooting the video through a surrealist eye; i.e. the combination of a video shoot, a video shoot of a video shoot, strange contrast and varying perspective. The soundtrack will be the original track by the band, which I hope will intertwine with the video with ease.

The video showcases a video with contrasting personas; their true likeness and the stylised, produced “plastic fantastic” self. I want the video to be based around contrast; black and white, dark and light, true and fake, stage and home, surreal and real. I want the audience to relate to the band, to show them that you don’t have to be famous to have fun and to document the revolution of bands that are dominating our media, that are bands produced with image in mind not ability and that are barely grasping playing basic chords live in the mid-twenties.

I’m a drummer and I can play C, D, F, and G.