The Added Complexity

Seeing as my video has five different time periods this means it will also having at least: five different costumes, five different locations, and five different scenes in which props will have to be considered.
Yes this adds a level of complexity but it also gives us an opportunity to explore a greater variety of sources and work more in-depth with the project.

Storyboard Concepts: Final Storyboard

Now that I drew up all of the possible storyboards, it was time to go into college and talk to the rest of my group which one we think we'd want to explore further.

It was a hard decision, like I said in the previous post all plots had advantages, but we felt like the journey through time was the most interesting and give many more opportunities to explore.

I personally think that this storyboard was my favourite even when creating the other two; it stands out as being quite a unique and interesting concept which is a little more complex than the other two but even without the hidden meaning behind the song, the audience will still be captivated by the nature of the different ages. But for those who do catch onto the inner message of the storyboard I think they'd be very intrigued at the idea of the 'Eternal relationship between criminals and law enforcers that has no end'.

This story has a very unique plot and will stand out to the audience, yes it's not as conventional with the tropes of some Pop videos (with more simplistic plots and characters), but that means it will stand out to the public more and that is exactly what up and coming low budgeted producers of videos like us need. And through the time periods we will be using very archetypical criminal characters from those decades, making them immediately recognisable to the common Pop song listener.

So after we decided that this would be the story we'd want to create we set off in collage planning out a more detailed storyboard and shot list.

This was done on Photoshop just for more practical reasons while in collage we brainstormed different ideas of what the protagonist could be doing in each scene.

In this weeks Vlog I'll go more in depth into the subtle changes that where made and new ideas that we came up with.

Storyboard Concepts: Three Narrative Storylines

Here are the three storyboards you may have seen in this week's Vlog.

In the video I gave a brief working progress update on how the work was going and ended it with giving you a quick run down of the different narratives and ideas behind the story and shots.

But now is the chance to have a closer, more in-depth look behind the ideas and reasoning for the three boards:

Here is the first story board I drew. This idea was based on a cool narrative idea we came up with, that was inspired by the idea of Cops and Robbers, and how a Police officer's 'War' against crime is an eternal one and spans across the ages. This is being delivered by the criminal who is telling us of this endless strife. As we cut through the ages the criminal continues to perform to the camera, the lyrics in this context again suggest that  it's an almost foolish attempt for coppers to try and put a stop to them as throughout all the years crime has and will always fester. And from the protagonist's point of view this is a funny and joyful thought which is hinted by the playful, fast flow of the music. I think of it like he's teasing the world while he boasts. He's utterly carefree and is loving the chase. I thought that taking mini story arcs from five different times could best express the longevity of the 'game' as the Hoosiers say- "There's nothing we can do but play Cops and Robbers". I feel like it's an unique, memorable and engaging plot for the Pop music audience who are use to more simplistic plots.

I felt like it was important to try and make the second storyboard as different as possible to the first one. So in contrast to 'the endless game of Cops and robbers' I thought it might be nice to explore the game from a more optimistic point of view. Instead of it being sung by the criminal about how the policemen will never be able to catch him; this time we see a story where he has been caught, and has to face the consequences. It would be a duet, sung by both Policeman and Criminal. It is a much simpler narrative which will require less locations, props and costumes and it is a more traditional narrative- possibly more in keeping with what Pop music viewers would expect.

For my last storyboard I thought hard about trying to make this one different but still using traditional conventions that the audience would relate to and find engaging. So after quickly brainstorming a few classic plots I came to this decision. Here we see the life of a hard working policemen who's given the illusion that he's appreciated but when it comes down to it, it's only ceremonial and not genuine. He performs the song to himself and the audience as he realises that all this hard work still ends up with him in an awful studio apartment with no money at all. This idea is easily conveyed and would capture the attention of he audience as we grow sympathy for the underappreciated, hard working deserving cop. But then we see whilst singing to us, he spots two criminals getting away and keeping the undeserved wealth for their crimes. Our protagonist sees this occurring but doesn't call the police. Instead we see him deliberate the injustice of his lawful behaviour going unrewarded while crime appears to pay. We cut a week later and see him take a turn to the dark side, a recognisable story idea that the audience again will be familiar with.

Audience Questionare

To get a better understanding with our target audience I did a questionnaire in an attempt to try and see where typical Pop viewers prefer to watch music videos from.

I asked friends and family, the many Facebook groups I am in and on Reddit, what the most popular mediums are that Pop music Viewers commonly use and I found out that the most popular platforms used based on my survey are-

The Hoosiers: Asking for Song Permission

So now that we have decided on what song we would like to perform, before we can do anymore planning we need to ask permission for The Hoosiers if they would allow us to use their song.

So we emailed them to see if it would be okay:

And they responded with:

So we researched RCA Records and couldn't find an email address for them, but we did find a Twitter account so I asked them for permission

using my phone:

Filming Equipment: Cameras, Tripod & Dolly

For this production, I am planning to use the following equipment:

A Funjifilm Finepix S4700:
This is an extremely high quality camera that I intend to use as my primary filming camera.

A Nikon Coolpix P600:

A slightly less high quality camera but this will be my back up camera on set just incase anything happens and I need an immediate replacement, or if I am filming and I want a certain action filmed from two different angles simultaneously.
This camera can also be used for behind the scene footage.

A tripod and dolly:
I'll be using these for most shot types in the video such as tracking shots, establishing shots and static shots as the tripod allows for a stable and still frame and the dolly let's me keep the angle and positioning of the camera perfectly still while moving it accordingly.

Final Cut Pro X:

I plan to use this as the editing software to use for putting together my music video, it is easy for learners to use and processes fast so that it isn't prone to lag.

(Edit- 6th of December)

Green Screen:

A few months into planning my video I have decided to incorporate a green screen sequence.

More will be explained as time comes to it for the artist choices behind why I have decided to use this, but a green screen will let me change the background and add effects into the music video that I couldn't have previously.

Our Final Decision...

So we have looked at a number of possible Pop Songs to work from and now have come to a final conclusion.

'Cops of Robbers' by the Hoosiers.

Probably not coming as a surprise to you, the song we decided to go for was Cops and Robbers as it has the most potential with a fast up beat tune, a good melody, and multiple possibilities for interesting narratives.

So from here I can now start thinking about possible plotlines in which the music video takes place in and to draw them out as storyboards to see how they play out visually.