Actor interview and profile

Roy Stephenson - Drug dealer

 After getting a casting response from Roy Stephenson, we decided to ask him a few questions regarding his prospects for the video. We explained our idea and expectations beforehand so that he would know exactly what he had to do and was already familiar with our concept prior to the interview. Roy is a 17 year old boy who current studies Performing arts and Music studies at A-Level at Brinkburn college. He has a passion for acting and wants to pursue a career in theatre after he leaves his college. If we were to choose him for the role, we would provide him with appropriate clothing and ask his upcoming schedule so that we can plan shooting days accordingly to the actors availability. Although the character is in it for approximately 5 seconds, the actual filming process takes longer as it might take more time to perfect the scene, ergo more than one filming day. Finding out the days the actor is free, avoids absence or unavailability which stops us from continuing with the making of the video. It's important that we, as directors have clear communication with the actors and actresses as it helps the filming process flow better, thus making it more efficient.

1. Why do you want to fulfil this role in our music video?

I would like to star in your music video because I have wanted to star in a music video for a while but the right role has never came up! I regularly act and a chance to star in a music video would be a good edition to my CV and also get my name out there to the industry. The role is also challenging and I think I would be able to take it on very well.

2. What do you think you can bring, as the role of a drug dealer?

I'd love to bring elements of mystery to the video as after discussing the narrative and looking at the videos treatment sheet, I am aware that although my role is a vital part and starts the narrative off the audience will not see my face.

3) Would you say you are adaptable to an array of situations, such as portraying a mystery man who's responsible for selling a young female drugs?

Yes. I am open to just about everything and am aware if I want to get anywhere in this industry I have to keep an open mind. I have taken on similar serious roles before but in stage performances and short films. I study performing arts full time in college and have been acting for as long as I can remember.

4) What can you bring to the role which other candidates cant?

I like to think of myself as a professional. I understand music videos require a lot of planning and go through a lot of production. I would like to make the filming process as easy as possible by providing a positive atmosphere on set.

5) Since our song is by The 1975, what is your opinion on our concept?

I think that the concept for the video is a very strong one that we don't see much of. Although the storyline can be a tough one to project through a 3 minute music video, I think that the narrative will show it perfectly. I haven't heard or seen many of The 1975's existing music videos but I can definitely see the band doing a video like this from what I have watched before applying for the role.

Based on the interview, we decided to select Roy as the role of the drug dealer as we believe he is a very good fit and can portray the role very well. Also, since he is interested in a career in performing arts, not only is this a good thing for our music video but can also add to his experience which could hopefully help him in the future! We emailed him informing him of the news as well as information for when we would contact him further regarding when we were filming.



Character - Drug dealer

Drug dealer - Costume (Mise-en-scene)

 

We recreated our ideas for the outfit for the drug dealer. We recently made the same for the female character but instead on the website www.polyvore.com - this website does not offer male clothing so I instead gathered the images from Google images and put together dark clothing including a hooded top, black trousers, trainers, and the prop which is a brown envelope. The envelope is what the character gives to the young female and is an important part of the concept we are going for.

Permission request (2)

After deciding we would like to use another song by the band for the 'milk' music video, we emailed the bands copyright holders for permission. To see the first permission request please click here.

Song choice update

We are continuing to use 'Milk' by The 1975 as our chosen music video song. However, the song is only 2 minutes and 13 seconds in length and to display our narrative to the music videos intended audience in it's entirety we will need more time to do so. Therefore, we have decided to include another song by The 1975 for the videos opening and closing. This song is 'HSNCC', no lyrics are sung throughout 'HSNCC' and it's purely instrumental with few vocals. The first thirty seconds and last thirty seconds of 'HSNCC' will feature in our music video. This is a good addition to the videos narrative as the instrumental is very soft and calming and this is desired effect we would like to show at the start and end of our music video. I also think that this will be a good addition to the music video as the first thirty seconds build up the song and the last thirty seconds bring the song to a soft, almost abrupt, ending.



We discussed this during a group meeting.

Casting response - Drug dealer

After displaying our casting posters around the local area, hoping to find interested candidates to feature in our music video, we received a response via our email address. The email address was located at the bottom of the poster so that anyone who wanted to feature in the video could contact us on our college email - this was our primary source for finding a cast interested in being in our music video which we plan to film very soon.

The response we got was from a local student, 17 year old Roy Stephenson who emailed us at the contact details we included on the casting poster. As the email states, Roy is interested in portraying the role of a drug dealer in the music video, and although this character is quite minor in comparison to the young female (he is only in the video for approximately 5 seconds) we still feel it's necessary to conduct a small interview with him before shooting begins so we can find out more about him as a person and decide whether or not he is a good fit for our video. It is vital that we take the casting process very seriously as the characters link in completely with the concept we have for it.

Primary audience research continued

Actress interview and profile

Oceana Manicom - Young Female

After getting a casting response from Oceana, we decided to ask her a few questions regarding her prospects for the music video. We explained our ideas and expectations beforehand so she would be familiar with exactly what she would be doing. Oceana is an 18 year old girl, who is currently studying hairdressing at FE college. She has always had a love and enjoyment for acting, and from the interview it isn't hard to determine that she wants to channel this in the music video. We will provide her with appropriate clothing on the day of shooting, and ask her schedule for the upcoming weeks so we can plan the shooting days on the days the actors are free. This avoids disruption or absence due to prior engagements the actors have which disables them to film the video.

1) Why do you want to fulfil this role in our music video?

I think this is a very exciting opportunity for me, and since I want to be involved in acting in any

way possible, this is not only what I love to do but would be an excellent addition to my experiences in this industry. I love a new challenge, and featuring in a music video is something I've never done before.

2) What do you think you can bring, as the role of a young female who's recently became involved with drugs?

I'd love to bring some emotion into it, and as you can assume getting involved in drugs is no walk in the park, I want to show the audience that drug-use shouldn't be glamourized. Also, the fact that it's a challenging role showing real situations is extremely appealing to me as I get the chance to portray such an character which needs a sense of emotional distress.

3) Would you say you are adaptable to an array of situations, such as portraying a characters demise or lip syncing certain lyrics?

I have a lot of acting experience, which stemmed up to a years study of performing arts at A-Level. I thoroughly enjoy the subject meaning I am much more comfortable portraying anything I am challenged too. A characters demise or lip syncing should not be a problem at all.

4) What can you bring to the role which other candidates cant?

I'd like to think I am much more versatile than others and can easily adapt to certain roles or situations.

5) Since our song is by The 1975, what is your opinion on our concept?

I think it's very interesting and is something that hasn't really been shown before. Music videos you see on TV don't usually have such a touching concept or important message behind them, so by portraying drug-use in a devastating way, it enables the audience to learn something from the video whilst also enjoying the sounds from The 1975.

We decided to select Oceana as the character of the young female, as she seems perfect for the role and can bring emotion and sentiment to the music video. We emailed her back informing her of the news.

Casting response - young female

After displaying our casting posters around the local area in order to find actors interested in featuring in our music video, we received a response via our email address, which was located at the bottom of the casting poster. This was vital as it was our primary source of finding a potential cast for our music video.

The response  we got was from Oceana Manicom, a local student at FE college, who contacted us on our email address. As the email states, the role Oceana is interested in is the young female, which we plan on following up with a small interview to make sure she's a good fit for the role.

Peace - Follow Baby music video analysis

I choose to analyse the video of Follow Baby by the band PEACE, as i thought it looked interesting and was an amplification representation as opposed to a more common illustrative type, or disjunctured. Here is the video I  analysed: https://youtu.be/hkUJXSvWiYE


The 3:01 minute video of Follow Baby by the 4 piece band, peace begins with a medium long shot of the whole band stood about to perform, this is indicated by the fact they are holding instruments and stood by microphones. In bold and large letters, the bands name 'PEACE' is presented on the screen in a white font, underneath stating the name of the song as the song begins.

Without changing shots or camera angles, the band play the instruments building up the first verse, with the PEACE still presented on the screen, which soon fades 7 seconds in. The camera angle swiftly changes to a medium close up of the lead singer, Harry Koisser, he is holding a guitar and stood behind a microphone which is centre framed. His mise-en-scene costume, is what could be considered a typical band 'look' as he supports the fashion choice of dark clothing and long hair. Before he sings, we get fast paced shots of the other members of the band, which continue to play the instruments in pace with the song playing.

At 0:21 seconds into the video, the lead singer Harry koisser begins to sing into the microphone, as the majority of shots at this point are all close up or medium close ups of him performing. Although there are several shots of the other members here and there, he is still centre framed most of the time, and has the most screen time out of all. After various of other shots of the band, all sporting close ups of sorts the concept behind the video begins and it takes a more interesting turn.

 

As the song slowly builds up to the chorus at 0:39 seconds, the scene changes in the way the floor starts moving, and all the furniture on it starts moving to the left of the screen. Remaining to be shown in a long shot of all the band, we see the members move out of the way of the furniture and performing regardless of the disruption they are faced with. The drummer continues to drum even when the drums actually fall over, which is interesting as it portrays a message and perhaps conforms to the stereotype that bands are oblivious to the world surrounding them, which could possibly link to the narrative of the entire thing.

 

As things continue to shift to the left of the screen, hitting the wall and creating disruption, the chorus hits at 0:58 seconds in, which results in more havoc in the video. As the furniture moves along the seemingly conveyer belt-like floor and hits the wall, more furniture is included which the members of the band attempt to dodge as they continue to perform the song. Full of chairs and tables, the bassist, Doug is shown in a medium long shot, centre framed sat on a chair which is basically layed across the floor, moving as he falls off. Adding this to the video could represent the recklessness or immaturity of the band, as they try to portray themselves through their music.

As the chorus ends with a heavy guitar riff, the lighting takes a turn for the dark, as the previously well lit room becomes quite low-key and the scene is as messy as ever. The band members are shown in fast paced edits individually, with several close ups of them and then of the instruments they are playing. The whole concept is interesting as it portrays how a normal situation can suddenly turn to do the unexpected, and i believe this is what the band were trying to portray when considering what kind of video was most fitting for the song Follow Baby, which has a mixture of slow verses and a heavy chorus.

The second verse begins as the room appears trashed, the lead singer however remains centre framed, which is stereotypical for bands to do. The other members of the band seem to have moved with all the chaos of a moving floor, with furniture crashing towards them. The drummer who was previously at the right of the screen, is now at the left, where all the furniture seems to be hurdling. He is among the mess and plays the drums regardless of the fact everything has been turned upside down.



In the low-key lighting of the extremely messy room, a large and bright spotlight appears framed around the lead singer as he sings the soft lines which build up to the chorus. It slowly zooms in and then cuts to a close up of just his face and the microphone, capturing his expression and lip syncing to the song. In this part, there are several other shots shown, again of the band members and their instruments, it's quite fast paced and links in well with the songs pace.

As the chorus begins again, the spotlight on the Lead singer, Harry Koisser, disappears as all band members appear the same in the dark lighting. There seems to be a smoke effect around them, which could add to the overall performance and stage-like presence of the band, seems as though the video is a balance between performance, mixed with a concept which isn't totally clear. The chorus comes to an end, with the same heavy guitar riff gripping the audience, as the band suddenly become very active and start performing more heavily, with the banging of drums and fast guitar playing. Flashing lights are introduced, as a part of the videos performance style which come together to make it look aesthetically pleasing and more interesting to watch. We see shots of the instruments, and although we have seen the same shots repeatedly, with a few additions here and there, we as an audience, don't grow bored because the concept of a moving floor in a what looks like ordinary room is gripping.

The havoc and disruption of the rooms appearance is multiplied with slow motion edits of the band trashing the room more. We see paper being chucked and blown all around the room, as well as curtains and pictures which hang on the wall blowing almost off, or appearing crooked. Fast paced edits at 2:12 minutes in amplify the video as it adds to the atmosphere and makes it look more interesting. It seems through out the video, the untidiness of the room slowly grows worse after each chorus, and that the heavy tone of it just makes the room even worse.

These shots of the band being shown for a split second, as the messy room is present in the background, and we see them almost trashing the room themselves. They chuck drums on the ground which is captured in a slow motion edit. It lasts for around 25 seconds until the song comes to an end. We see a long shot of the room, instead of just the inside of it, we see the surroundings as the entire scene is a mess. The lights go back to normal, as the song ends and we see the band members stood around with the mess that has been made.

Although the video has no narrative, or linking to Goodwin's theory, any links between lyrics and visuals, it has a concept which is followed throughout the 3:01 minute long video. It is a very interesting video, which conforms to band stereotypes whilst also doing something a bit different with their expression of themselves.

　

Barry Keith Grant theory

Barry Keith Grant

All genres have the possibility for sub genres, which allow them to be divided into more specific and accurate categories when aiming at a particular audience. Barry Keith Grant suggests that this allows audiences to identify with a more specific genre, rather than a huge spectrum of music type. This also allows them to recognise certain characteristics within a genre, or subgenre.

Music videos subconsciously fit into a genre, or subgenre by a variety of different features portrayed and presented in the video. Linking to our video, in mise-en-scene, or more closely, with the 'Costume' we have considered our genre before making any decisions for final. With our characters, we decided to go for dark clothing, as this is typical for a rock or indie rock genre video.

Furthermore, the band The 1975, who's song we are doing our music video of have a repuation of drug-use, and have previously portrayed such themes in other videos by them, such as Robbers or Chocolate. Since the song, Milk is about the usage of drugs, we thought it'd be a good idea to include the concept into a narrative strucure, which explains why we are using props to represent the drugs.

Budget

We plan on spending a maximum of £50 pound on the production of our music video. These costs will most likely be travel related, props for each scene, or for outfits and costumes we need to recreate.

The young female: we will provide the character with basic black clothing, along with a mobile phone, and a heart shaped necklace. This will either be bought, or brought to shooting, as either me or Katy possibly already own some of the clothing the character wears as they are quite simple.

The elderly woman: Since we are hoping to cast an elderly woman for this particular role, her costume won't necessarily be important as she will merely wear her regular clothing for the shot.

The drug dealer: Basic black clothing will be provided, ideally; a hooded jumper or jacket, trousers and shoes. He will also require the prop being a substance in a clear bag, this is to represent the young female being handed drugs which leads to her demise. To be as cost effective as possible, we will simply put a similar looking substance in a bag, which will most likely be salt to give the impression of a bag of drugs.

For travel, we will require a budget to get each character to the shooting location. We need to reimburse each character  transport too and from the scenes, which will either be at a house or in a park. Katy and I will also need to venture out to obtain our scenic shots, this will most likely be at a beach or somewhere near, which is only a bus ride away.

Although we are on a budget, we wanted to make our video look as professional as possible.

Camera booking

In todays lesson, we signed up for the use of CANON DSLR so we could secure it for when we come to film. We plan to film during the half term holiday, giving us a week to get the bulk of our video out the way, ready to continue when we come back to college.

9 frame analysis - Hourglass by Catfish and the bottlemen

https://youtu.be/plbgQKQFVcA is the link of the video for the analysis I did.

 I chose to do a 9 frame analysis on the music video for Hourglass by the band, Catfish and the bottlemen. It had a interesting concept and offered a variety of shots to show the storyline.



 

Treatment sheet

Milktreatmentsheet from KatyMarwood

Audience profile - Becca

After receiving the survey  results, I discovered that the age group 17-20 is my primary target market and therefore started to focus my audience research on individuals rather than just a large group. I asked my friend Rebecca if I could ask her questions which will help me with the production of my video and develop a further understanding of what exactly my target audience would like to see. 

Rebecca with Matthew Healy (frontman of The 1975) after their Glasgow gig 

Rebecca is a 17 year old who lives in Glasgow, Scotland and is an avid lover of music, she spends her free time listening to music and going to gigs.

What's your favourite genre of music?

Definitely Indie Rock and Alternative. 

Currently, who are your favourite bands and artists?

Right now my favourite bands are definitely The 1975, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Arctic Monkeys, PEACE, Swim Deep, The libertines, SLAVES and Zibra. However, I also like artists such as Lorde, RAT BOY and Jamie T!

As our music video is a song from The 1975, as a fan, what would you expect to see in a video of theirs? 

I'd expect to see a developed narrative which relates to what the song is about. 

What is your all time favourite music video and why?

My all time favourite music video is 'Robbers' by The 1975. It's my favourite because of the storyline which is based on one of my favourite movies, True Romance. Also, the video grips you from the start until the end and therefore allows you to form an emotional connection with the characters.

What are your thoughts on the concept for 'milk'?

I think that 'milk' has a very strong, gripping concept and as a fan of the song and the band, I could absolutely see The 1975 creating a video like that as it fits their aesthetic. 

Character - young female

character by rebecca14150330 
 

We created a Polyvore to present our main characters outfit, which which is black clothing, a heart necklace, a phone as a prop, and messy makeup, inspired by Effy Stonem from the TV show Skins.

We thought it was fitting, as Effy is a typical reckless teenager and in the show Skins, she becomes involved with drugs, so it links in well with our videos concept for The 1975's song Milk. We have taken inspiration from her character, and when we find our actress the play the role of the young female, we will provide her with black clothing and messy eyeliner to fit in well with the genre.

Messy makeup: Having running eyeliner can help portray the characters demise as she becomes involved with drugs.

Risk assessment

Risk from rebecca14150330

Song research for Milk - The 1975

Lyrics breakdown for Milk - The 1975

The 1975 - milk idea from KatyMarwood

The 1975 - Milk permission request

A quick Google search led me to The 1975's official ITunes page where I found out essential information about who holds copyright over their music. The 1975 deluxe edition includes every single song The 1975 have ever released as a band and therefore 'Milk' appears on this CD alongside the Sex EP which is apparently not available to buy on ITunes. Here I can see that The 1975 are under 'exclusive license to Vagrant Records, under exclusive license to Interscope Records' therefore I will have to email both sides of the company in case any issues occur when myself and Rebecca use their song for our A2 Music Video. 

After looking up Vagrant Records I have found that their UK email is ''vagrantuk@vagrant.com''.  I unfortunately couldn't find Interscopes contact email, however, I found that they're a division of Universal Music Group (UMG) so I will email them instead. UMG's email is " contact@umusic.com'' 

Casting poster

I created a casting poster to find interested actors or actresses to feature in our music video, we stated what we required and what characters we needed, along with our email address if they were interested so they could contact us. 

Logo for record label

Presentation1 from KatyMarwood

We have created a logo in order to make our final product seem more professional.

Survey results

After sending out the email for the survey link on Tuesday Morning, we checked back Thursday afternoon with 6 responses. Here are the results;

 Question 1

From this data, we got 50% responses from females and 50% from males. Since the results are This enables us to analyse their results individually and find out their preferences in a music video.



















Question 2

We then asked how old our target market were, giving us an indication of who would be watching the video and then appealing to them within the teenager/young adult age range. From the data, we can see that 66.7% of people were 17 years old, with only one person being 18 and one person being 20. The ages shown are within the same range and adheres to the fact that they probably have a similar taste in music, this is helpful as we have an idea on who to direct the music video at.

Question 3

The next question regarded genre and what was popular within the people we asked. From the data, we can see that the most popular genres were Indie/alternative and country. A small percentage chose pop and rock with nobody choosing R&B and classical. In terms of making it successful, knowing indie is such a popular genre is helpful as we are able to determine whether it will grow popular and having such a positive feedback from our audience helps us focus on making the video individualistic and entertaining.

Question 4

Next we wanted an idea about whether people watched videos or not on a regular basis; with the results being that the majority did. In fact, only 1 person in total responded with no. Knowing this information enables us to determine how many people would watch the music video we make and can foreshadow its success before it's even made and released.

Question 5

The next question regards the videos content, being either narrative, performance, or concept based. We found out that concept based is the most popular response, gaining 50% of votes. Only one person preferred narrative, and nobody chose performance based. We added an option for "other" which gave them the choice to specify what they'd think is the most interesting to see of which the comments were "a combination of the 3". Having this information helps us choose what we should do for our music video, and seems as though the most popular option was concept, it is natural to follow this as it could be the most successful outcome. However, the comments from the other option, stating a combination could also be a good idea and something we should take into consideration when making our video.

Question 6

Next we wanted an indication as to how much lip syncing should be included in our music video. This is a very helpful question as hopefully we can follow the most popular option and have a healthy balance between lip sync and narrative or concept. From the data, the most popular option was "hardly any lip syncing" with 50% of votes adhering to this option. To follow this in our video, we would be able to focus on the concept with the occasional shot of the artist lip syncing, giving us some creative control over the outcome. The second most popular option was "a balance between lip  syncing and narrative/performance", following the 3 popular "mostly lip syncing".

Question 7

We wanted to find out what elements of a music video were desirable so we could apply them to our own and make it successful. We gave the option to select more than one, hence the amount of responses per individual.

From the data, we can see that 'a developed storyline' was the most popular response, with 5 votes choosing it. This being the most popular, it would make sense to apply this element to our own music video so we could confirm its success when actually produced. The next most popular are the following; scenic shots, lip syncing/performance from singer and variety of shots and camera angles. Although narrative and performance could conflict, you could definitely do both and create a healthy balance between the shots to enable us to make it the most interesting. The results are quite positive, as our ideas for the video already existing are the most desired elements; for example, we were thinking of doing scenic shots during the instrumental sections, and we know now that it is a popular option from the market who took the survey. Another example is low key lighting; our concept follows a drug abuse scenario taking place at a party, and so dark lighting seems the most appropriate for us to do.

Question 8

Our final question reflected on if the genre should affect the style of music video, we thought this would be an important question as we aren't doing the stereotypical pop song which the majority of people see on the tv. The responses showed that 50% thought that it should; this means that we shouldn't be doing anything similar to the stuff you see on music channels as we aren't adhering to the same genre song. 33% thought "maybe" which is along the same lines. From this data we can tell that our video should probably look like the genre we have chosen, which is indie/alternative and you should be able to tell it isn't a generic pop song through our concepts and overall video style.

Survey for audience research

To find out what our audience wants and prefers in a music video, we created a survey on www.surveymonkey.com asking 8 questions to find out more about what they expect to see, as well as their age and gender. This helps us meet a target audience as we can make a product they will like to see.

The questions we asked were;

Gender is an important element as it's crucial that you aim to please both males and females, asking this gives us an idea on what the majority is.

With the options ranging from 12 and under, to 21 and older.  This helps us get a good idea on what age range we should be targeting our video at.

Next we asked about genre to find out the most popular and what people prefer out of Pop, rock, indie/alternative, country, R&B, Classical and other. Finding out the most popular within our audience is extremely helpful as since we are doing an Indie song, we are able to determine whether or not it will be successful.

We then asked about whether or not they watched music video regularly, this isn't as important as the others but gives us an idea about how many people are actually interested in a music video for a song.

After this, we tried to find out what our target market believe is the most interesting out of the options; narrative, performance or concept based. This helps us before we go to film our music video as it can give us an idea of what people would like to see the most of.

For question 6, we wanted to find out what amount of lip syncing seemed appropriate for a music video, as it can help when we go to film ours. With the options of all lip syncing, mostly lip syncing, a balance of lip syncing and narrative, hardly any lip syncing and no lip syncing at all, we can gather how much we should be including when we film to meet our target markets preference.

For question 7, we aimed to find our what aspects of a video made it successful so we could apply the most popular to our own to meet our audiences preferences. Our options were a developed storyline, variety of shots and camera angles, performances and lip syncing, characters, role of a protagonist and antagonist, high key lighting, low key lighting, scenic shots, a relationship between lyrics and visuals and no relationship between lyrics and visuals; the takers of the survey had the option to select as many boxes as they desired to give us an idea of whats popular so we can apply it to our own video when it comes to filming it.

Lastly, question 8 we wanted to know if genre should affect the style of music video, this is because since we are doing an Indie/alternative song, we are able to determine whether it should be different to the typical pop video which we constantly see.