Actors / Props /Costumes/Transport

Actors
We will use three actors in the music video; the lead singer/character, the drummer and the guitarist. These will all be male to reflect the male band members in the original band. There will be also many characters in public in the location shots on the storyboards.

Props
The props required will be an acoustic guitar, a microphone and stand, two plastic tubs and a cymbal for the street drums. We also will need a hat and a small portion of change to use in the video. These will support the busker feel, but the acoustic guitar will especially support the calm, natural feel that the audience feel the song has, as seen by the audience survey.

Costumes
Importantly the old converses are the most important part of clothing we need for the video as they are used as iconography to represent age through walking far and the shoes have become old because of that. We shall also use clothing that is in fashion at the current time. Ideas are demonstrated below. These are similar to other videos that I have analysed from Bombay Bicycle club.

Transport
As the locations are at my house and the centre of York. We will only require a bus to get to the centre of York on the day of shooting.

Locations

Using Google Maps Street View we have pinpointed each location.

Location 1

This location will be used for the character to be walking between the trees. I feel that the trees surrounding the character will connote a sense of isolation which expands the idea of the video.

Location 2

This is the market square, which is regarded as the centre point of the city centre. As it is the centre point it helps support the way that the character does not know which route he should take in his life; he could go down a street in either direction. Shooting with the fountain in the background is significant as it represents a series of thoughts pouring out of the characters mind which should work well as we hope to use this location while the character is thinking. The urban feel of the centre point of the city centre also links back to the research as the other Bombay Bicycle club videos are urban. Finally being the centre point this is the most bustling area of the city which will aid us when we are trying to find a lot of people to represent the culture of the city.

Location 3

This location is the famous street: The Shambles. It is a very historic street, including fourteenth century over hanging timber buildings. The unique beauty of this street will be an ideal shooting location to display the culture of York. More information on The Shambles can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shambles


Location 4

I want to feature the architectural centre point of York: The Minster in the video because I feel it is the building that has the most cultural history within the city.  As it is a place of religion that dates back centuries, many people have gone to it for refuge and guidance and that’s why I feel it will fit in with the way the character is searching for meaning within his life during the video.

Location 

Here is an overview of the area of the Minster. The grass area is an ideal location because it is spacious and will allow us to foreground the characters with a good amount of the minster behind them.

Shot List

Shot Number  |  Description

1                       Close up of clock, track right to shot 2

2                       Medium close up of main character asleep on bed

3                       Close up of main character waking up and leaning forward

4                       Close up of main character bringing his head from the sink

5                       Over shoulder of main character looking in mirror

6                       Same as shot 4

7                       Close up of main character tying shoe laces

8                       Medium shot of character stepping out the door

9                       Long shot of character walking out of driveway

10                     Medium close up of main character singing

11                     Medium close up from side of main character singing

12                     Same as shot 10

13                     Medium shot of drummer

14                     Long shot of busy street

15                     Close up of main character's shoes as he is walking

16                     Same as shot 13

17                     Extreme close up of main character singing

18                     Long shot of another busy street

19                     Close up of drummer hitting hit cymbal

20                     Extreme shot of streets

21                     Medium close up of main character singing then looking at guitar to his right

22                     Close up of guitar playing

23                     Long shot of the guitar playing

24                     Medium close up of main character looking at guitarist

25                     Long shot of main character walking

26                     Shot of busy street

27                     Another shot of busy street

28                     Close up of main characters feet as he is walking

29                     Medium shot of character sat on bench

30                     Over shoulder/long shot of character looking at guitarist

31                     Medium close up of the main character looking at the guitarist while singing

32                     Close up of the main character putting money into the guitarists pot

33                     Over shoulder of the guitarist looking at the main character

34                     Long shot of the main character walking down the street

35                     Extreme long shot from side of character walking in the street

36                     Shot of the drummer playing the snare drum

37                     Close up of main characters eyes

38                     Shot 5 again

39                     Long over shoulder shot of main character looking at drummer

40                     Medium close up of main character looking down on drummer

41                     Medium close up of main character walking down the street

42                     Medium close up of main character picking up a microphone

43                     Close up to track back of character stood next to the guitarist and drummer

Storyboarding

Initial Planning - Digipak and Advert

Photography
During the filming, we will take still shots of the microphone and stand, the pair of converse shoes, the guitarist, the drummer and a small collection of location shots. These photos will be used in the digipak and the poster.

Items to include
As well as the photography we need to include the title of the album and the artist name, serial codes, bonus dvd features, record label logo and the website address on the digipak. The advert will contain the name of the the band and single as well as the website but also feature the main stores that the album is available on for the audience to purchase it at.

Initial Planning - The Video

The Story / Narrative
From listening to the song several times, I have concluded that the song develops at a slow rate through out and has a minimalistic feel to it. Therefore we have decided that the story is primarily about how the main character (singer) wakes and heads into town to revile the culture that is awaiting him. He feels quite alone and isolated as he wonders in to the busy streets of the city. There are many buskers there and in the busy streets and the main character witnesses this and starts to become inspired to join together the buskers and form a band. It shows how a man watching his life pass, is influenced to bring together the culture. We decided to add a dominant storyline rather than the band playing because of feedback from the research and that in only some Bombay Bicycle Club videos the band are playing completely together.

Here is an inspirational video that has given us the foundation to the development of the video:


Descriptions Of Locations
An ideal location for the city is the centre of york as it is regularly busy and if very well known for busking. The location ia urban but also historic which supports the old fashioned feel of the other Bombay Bicycle Club videos. The historic locations would also represent how the character is feeling like his life is passing by as the buildings are old.
More information about busking in York can be found here: http://www.york.gov.uk/business/Licences_and_street_trading/street/Street_trading_licence/Busking/

Performance
The performers will be the band members including a guitarist and a drummer as the video still needs to feature the band members playing their instruments as not all of the demographic would only like to see narrative in the video. These members will be represented as buskers in the street and will play to the song in parts of the video.

Characters
The clothing of the characters who are the performers will have the same clothing scheme as the anaylised schemes from the research. They will be wearing similar old and worn out clothing like the main character to create a relation between them and so that the audience can group them together.

The Final Demographic (Audience Profile)

James is an outgoing, fashionable young teenager of age 17. He enjoys the Indie music genre a lot and expresses this through his participation in music gigs and his collection of printed band t-shirts. The typical wardrobe of James consists of a variety of shirts, skinny jeans, hoodies and trainers from popular brands such as Converse and Vans. Shopping at high street stores such as Topman, Republic, HMV and Office, as well as online stores such as www.chemical-records.co.uk, www.americanapparel.com and www.urbanoutfitters.com is common from him. While on the internet he regularly uses social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to express his views and opinions on his lifestyle. As well as using Youtube and Myspace to watch music videos and behind the scenes features of his favourite bands. By attending college, he expresses his knowledge of the Indie genre with his friends.

Here is a typical picture of James's lifestyle:

Audience Research - Interview

Interviewee: Matthew Carruthers


1. How easy is it for you to relate the song with the music videos of this band?
"This song has a very similar feel to the songs off the album. The looping feel of the song makes me think of the video that uses the vcr and old look that speeds up and down."

2. How much do you prefer bands to look like they're playing live in their music videos?
"I find that having too much of just the band playing can be boring and not very appealing to me. I find videos that have an artistic, well thought out story are cooler"

3. How strong do you think the advertising of this band is?
"I have seen adverts in a few magazines and the promotion of the band on the social networking sites is strong. I think because they have their own unique logo on all the adverts ect, it helps people identify the band faster when they see it on adverts and that."

4. Do you think the band expands on other interests and cultures in society such as skateboarding and why?
"I don't think they focus on sports like skateboarding or bmxing. I think they add their own fashion styles to their music videos; a laid back, slightly smart feel to fashion. I also think they like to highlight film and photography in their music videos as you can see the by the projection in the Magnet video and the vcr in Always Like This."


Summery
From the questions I feel that the video will be more successful if it featured a old worn out feel similar to the vcr and film looks of the other videos as the product research and the interview has highlighted this. I also think that the video should feature the band members but not playing the instruments as a band as much because the interview has brought up the issue that music videos can get boring and not very progressive through this. The use of the unique band logo and the bands own fashion style also seems a way forward in the production of this package.

Audience Research - Interview Plan

I will carry out an interview on a selected friend who is a keen fan of Bombay Bicycle Club and the Indie genre.

The questions are all qualitative and are these:

1. How easy is it for you to relate the song with the music videos of this band?
2. How much do you prefer bands to look like they're playing live in their music videos?
3. How strong do you think the advertising of this band is?
4. Do you think the band expands on other interests and cultures in society such as skateboarding and why?

These questions will be answered thoroughly and will let me understand the personality of the fan as well as his opinion to support the demographic I will create.

Audience Research - Survey Results

Audience Research - Secondary Research

The Indie Genre

'Indie rock is a sub-genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock.'
      ...Wikipedia

The Indie Demographic
'The scene: if you really think all indie kids do is try to be cooler than other people then... well.. you're mostly right. The main point is, don't take the scene and the whole hipster attitude seriously. No one does. And if you do, well, then I'm cooler than you.'
      This is a quote from Urban Dictionary ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=indie )
This is the main demographic; trying to avoid the mainstream system of music, fashion and lifestyle. Looking futher into the Indie demographic, the person should be into the latest lifestyle choices that are regarded as 'Indie'.

Customer Market

To develop my knowledge on what the demographic for the band is I have viewed the sale point of the album on amazon.com and looked at what the customers of the Bombay Bicycle Club album also purchase.

These artists are of the same Indie genre and the conventions are all similar.