Synopsis

We have decided to create a 'day in the life' style narrative following a man who is the epitome of the 'indie' conventions. We will see him waking up and follow him throughout the day, as he eventually ends up at a 'Skins' style party. We came to this conclusion due to some of the music videos we looked at during our research and planning stages, following our idea of a first-person subjective narrative.

He will wake-up mid-afternoon, on the floor from the night before, get dressed, vaguely prepare himself for the day and then start as he means to go on; by opening a beer. He walks through the town to an out-of-control party - bright lights, drugs & alcohol, & women. Eventually he throws up, emphasising his wasted life. At the end of the video, we plan to rewind through the day to show an aspect of the cyclic nature of his life and the daily downward spiral that he faces.

Anyway

The song we have chosen to create our promo package for is 'Anyway' by The Black Lights. Fortunatly, as Morgan the bassist is also in our media group, copyright has not been a problem.

The band descibe their style as 'indie' so we will follow the conventions of indie music videos in order to inspire us in creating our own video.

The Black Lights Myspace

Some inspiration...

We decided that for our music video we liked the idea of following a character around, through his everyday life. We felt that we wanted to create an insight for our audience into the life of this character, and the lifestyle that he portrays. Essentially, the music will be the backdrop to this, and help to represent the characters mindset. This will be done through close-up and point of view shots, which are frequently evident in these videos.

Through looking at these videos, amongst others we have noted some conventions of the 'indie' music genre in terms of promotional videos:

• Setting is usually dark.
• Colouring of video is usually slightly desaturated or black and white.
• Shows artist or band throughout.
• Uses close-ups of artist or band.
• Usually starts calm, but then changes when the beat kicks in.
• Characters often stereostypes - rock 'n' roll ruffian, an unkempt band, and attractive women.
• Content - drugs, romance, alcohol, parties, fights, smoking etc.
• Central figure normally male
• Hand held camera shots often used.
• mise-en-scene often shows grimy locations

OCR Advanced Production Portfolio

Brief:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band
• a cover for its release on DVD
• a magazine advertisement for the DVD