Planning for: Props

A task that I have given myself for planning for this video is trying to establish very quickly how our protagonist is the criminal of the song. So I have been thinking how to easily establish without any dialog or any complicated actions and I've found that using props will be the best way to help portray these ideas.

1890

Victorian Cigarette

Although at the time smoking was completely normal in Victorian society it is usually assumed that modern audiences would interpreted, aided by the loitering and untrusting outfit that he is the potential criminal. This is quite a heavy stereotype but throughout our music video we need to portray his 'villany' in a quick and easy to follow matter so by using these types it quickly gets the message across 

Pocket Watch

Our music video has a segment set in the late Victorian era. To show that the main character is actually a crook, we felt we needed to feature a crime. Since the song is called 'Cops and Robbers', we felt the crime should be theft. We decided it was best to have our protagonist steel a pocket watch. To save on costs, we decided to use a pocket watch already owed by a member of the group. Unfortunately, the watch is a Dr Who watch, but it is barely noticeable so we are just going to use it.

Cane

We are thinking about maybe having a cane in our video, since it gives something else for the character to do. We were initially planning on having the character spinning around an old lamppost, however we do not appear to have any old lampposts at any of our locations so we may have our character spinning around a cane. He would also be able slam it on the floor in time with one of the sounds in the song.

1930

Gun

We would like to have our 'mob boss' character loading a gun in his scene. We have access to a prop based on an M1911 which looks similar to the pistols found at the time. The only issue is that the barrel is orange, but we can easily fix that by painting it black.

1950

Flick Comb

For the 50's period of our production, we are going for the 'greaser' motif. This was, inspired by the film Grease, it made sense for our character to appear obsessed with his appearance. The best way to do this, as depicted in Grease, is to use a comb. Since we are saying this character is a criminal, we thought a flick comb was a good idea since it can appear thuggish (the audience will believe it is a knife) and then innocent, adding comic relief to the video, fitting the tone of the song.

1970
Beer Can

In the 70's section we wanted a different way to show that our protagonist is the criminal of the song so we decided to have him be drinking in public in the middle of the day which is usually thought to be socially frowned on and as he goes to perform the rest of his song he litters, throwing it away with no regards for the local neighbourhood.