My Music Video - Overview

A (not so) brief summary of what will be seen in my music video.

Opening with extreme long shot of Subject by river, watching it run. Cut to close up of her face, which is concealed by a mask - she's contemplative, looking down beyond the camera.
Cut to close up shot of a paper boat, held carefully within her hands.
Cut back to medium long shot of subject, looking down at river.
Fade to black.

Moment of silence/blackness.

*****
Verse 1
[In the 'Projection Room'] 
The song begins and we see multiple extreme close ups of different parts of the Subject against a plain background appear in time with the repeated line "Like a river". We see each body part lit briefly before the light cuts out, leaving blackness, and the next shot is introduced and so on.
On the line "Shut your mouth and run me like a river" we see the subject in a close-up with shallow field depth, standing still, looking defiantly into the camera.

[Scene change to Subject's bedroom] 
With the line "How do you fall in love?" we see footage of the Subject moving about in her bedroom, getting ready to go out. As the verse progresses, we see her come to a stop, and look off-camera to the distance, connoting her as contemplative. She inhales deeply and there's a blurry/haze effect placed over the footage (to suggest a breach in reality.)

*****
Chorus (takes place within the 'Projection Room' (which is symbolic of the Subject's inner mind, the projections being her memories). Cut with the GoPro footage as appropriate.)

Subject in 'Projection Room'; staring at camera, dancing/spinning, watching projections, looking at something off-camera in the distance etc. (Refer to shot list for more details)

Go-pro Footage; street signs from a car window, riding bikes, climbing trees, walking a dog, jumping into water, trampoline, bonfire, mosh pit at a concert, running for a train, building a fort, reading a book, playing a record, eating pizza with a group of friends, fairy lights and candles, drawing, baking etc. (Refer to shot list for more details)

*****
Verse 2
GoPro footage from Subject's point of view; she's riding in a car with a driver, who's then connoted to be her partner as a shot of them holding hands is revealed. Sequence consists of subject looking about, and ends with her staring ahead down the road. 

*****
Chorus (same idea as the first)

*****
Vocal Interlude 
Subject and her partner exit the car and enter a building (where a concert is taking place).
After entering the venue we see a cut to iPhone footage of a mosh pit at a concert.

*****
Chorus (same idea as the first two, but now also cut with footage of the mosh pit)

*****
Ending 
The song ends and it cuts to medium long shot of the Subject by the river. Subject is still watching the water, but then she sighs, and floats the paper boat into the water.
We see a shot of the paper boat floating away.
Medium close up of Subject watching for a moment.
Back to starting shot position, extreme long shot of subject walking away (fade out of focus, to blackness.)

My Music Video - Animatic

With my storyboard (relatively) complete, I downloaded the song "River" and used FinalCut Pro to create an animatic, allowing me to get a rough visualisation of what my music video would like in real-time playing against the song.

(I accidentally posted this video on the wrong YouTube channel) 

My Music Video - The Storyboard

After I created the shot list I was able to draw up the storyboard for (most parts of) my music video.

This story board depicts the opening and ending scenes of the video. The "video video video" box in the middle represents the music video that happens in between.

The above story board (starting with the fairy lights and ending at the mosh pit/concert) depict what the action that takes place during verse 1 & 2.

As I have not decided on the ordering of the chorus I decided not to storyboard it, especially as I feel that the visual I have in my head, coupled with my detailed shot list, will be enough for me to know what shots I want to get when it comes down to it.

I've also made a  minor adjustments to shot types between the shot list and the story board (the storyboard showing the new shot types), as they're more appropriate. 

(Please excuse the inaccurate perspectives of some of the drawings - art is not really my forte.)

My Music Video - Shot List

After annotating the lyrics it was time for the shot list!

The shot list follows the order that things will appear within my music video, (I've linked to lyrics, noted on the side in pencil).

As the chorus is the abstract section, I have simply noted that it will be a compilation of GoPro footage (the memories) and shots from the 'projection room' (the literal place, which is metaphorical for the subject's mind.) I have also included a detailed list of all the shots/footage I intend to take for both. I can't know what order the footage will appear in as of yet, but at least I know what I have to film. 

The "Easily Achievable" GoPro footage will be filmed between the 12th and 20th of November, so that I can edit it in time to be used for the projections.

The "Organisation Needed" GoPro footage should also be attainable, but if it's not achieved by the 20th (I intend to film the projections the following week), I shall place it in afterwards during editing. 

The "Cayman Footage" is a personal touch. While I intend for the majority of my filming and editing to be completed by the Christmas holidays, I will be returning home for Christmas and I want to include GoPro footage of my time there, as a sort of tribute to my home. I want to slip clips of this footage into the memory montage, especially as the tropical setting adds a unique touch to my video.

My Music Video - Lyric Annotations

Using the initial music video plan I present in my pitch post, I have begun to solidify said plan (with some changes which will be detailed below) in my annotations of the songs lyrics.

Firstly, I have to note that I found this extremely difficult. 

The reason this was so difficult for me was that my original intention for the music video was to explore the memories of the subject (the girl in the jaguar mask), with the conclusion of the video being that she'd embraced and appreciated the good times, but was ready to move forward in life (hence releasing the boat into the river (it's all metaphorical fluff)). Given this, I initially wanted to have the memories (GoPro footage presented projection style) appearing in abstractly in random order, but edited to fit the beat of the song. 

Of course, I can't just write "I'll figure that out later", so I found myself trying to link my abstract ideas to the lyrics. 

The result was that a story began to form - essentially, the subject attending a concert with a character connoted to be her partner -  and after a *grudging deliberation I decided to just run with this twist on the narrative. It didn't require a change in the footage I plan to acquire, just a different perspective to present in editing (easily done.) 

I'm not entirely casting off the abstract though. Instead, I've made the appropriate notes within my lyrics annotations and shot list to account for it; the abstract clips of memories (meant to represent the inside of the subject's mind) will be presented during the chorus, with the concert story taking place during the verses, and the river scene either side of the song. 

I never intended to have three different main narratives, but as they all connect to one another it's workable. 

I'm apprehensive about the amount of work I'm about to attempt in creating this, but I'm satisfied with the story I'm going to present in my video and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

*(My deliberation was grudging as I did not want to create a love story. It's so common a theme in music videos, and I had no intention of following the trend. 

But I have. 

I've reasoned it out with myself though that it's alright for two reasons: number 1, the song's lyrics link to love; number 2, the story holds memories of getting ready for a concert, with suggestions of love - it's still primarily about good times and memories, not their love story.)

My Music Video - Legality

Above is an email that I sent to Bishop Briggs, asking permission to use her song within my music video.

My Music Video - Artist Research

Bishop Briggs

Sara McLaughlin (known by her stage name Bishop Briggs, (a name inspired by her parents home town of Bishopbriggs, Scotland)) was born in London on the 18th of July, 1992.

While British, she's now a musician in Los Angeles, California, and best known for her debut single, the hit song "River", which was released in January 2016.

Although relatively new within the industry, Briggs' is already signed to Island Records, and her song "River" was a significant success.
"The song quickly made it to number 1 on 'Hype Machine's' Popular Charts, and reached number 2 on Spotify's Global Viral 50. It also received an Honorable Mention on Shazam's predicted 'Songs of the Summer 2016', which was featured in Billboard. As of May 2016, "River" was steadily climbing the Shazam 'Future Hits' charts. "River" has so far climbed into the top 10 on the Billboard Hot Rock, Rock Airplay and the Alternative Songs charts." (Source: Wikipedia)

On iTunes, Briggs' biography reads as follows:

In my personal opinion, Briggs is a fresh new artist - of whom I've become a fan - with great promise for producing more distinctive music.

Bishop Briggs website is http://www.bishopbriggs.com/ and on it you can find her shop (selling her merchandise), and a link to tour dates and tickets.

She can also be found on the following social medias:
SoundCloud
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube

Her music can be found on the following websites:

In the space of just a year, Briggs' has released 6 songs and 4 music videos, all of which are available on iTunes. 

All the music videos released are appropriate to the genre, and feature Briggs within the video.

In terms of Briggs' audience, I have researched them as extensively as possible (given the scarcity of information due to the infancy of her career), and have detailed my findings here.

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As the course requires me to create a brand for the artist, and as I don't know Bishop Briggs personally, I'm going to be using the subject of the video to promote the brand (with the mask she wears becoming the key iconography with metaphorical meaning for promotional purposes.)