We firstly planned on doing a music video for Callum’s band, the song would be called Make it to Morning, however the lyrics to this song were not recorded or written for a number of weeks therefore we decided to plan a music video for Little Lights instead. They would be covering the song Mr Maker by The Kooks. Our group then split into two; Robin and Josh would be creating Little Lights music video, whereas Laura and I would be creating a music video for Evolution to the song ‘Runaway Baby’ by Bruno Mars.
Ideas and Inspirations.
Our ideas/ inspirations for this music video came mostly from the lyrics of the song which discuss how the main male character wants to get with every girl he meets. We also watched Bruno Mars’ live performances of the song, which I reviewed further in the blog, and music videos which other people have created to demonstrate how others have interpreted the music and lyrics.
The following extract has been taken from Laura’s blog (http://laurarreeves.wordpress.com/boa-coursework/television/our-music-video/) which discusses a music video we found on YouTube for ‘Runaway Baby’.
I personally loved the use of the modern day vs retro times. The costumes, the style of singing, the plot – everything! I thought that adding a retro twist was unique however fitted the style of the song and this element could easily be incorporated into our music video as it would add more fun and colour to the piece. Also, I liked how they included a choreographed dance sequence in their amateur video because it made it seem more professional, (despite the awfully edited fonts included at around 2:32 *coughcough*) however it really brought to life and emphasised how much both the groups of guys cared about her and how much they wanted her. Although, as we’d built a whole storyline up to go along with the song fittingly… I felt as if that homemade music video was too romantic and that the storyline is telling the girl to run away from him however she’s practically willingly walking away from them. The story explains a man telling girls to save themselves from getting a broken heart because of him, however in the music video she’s already walking away and disinterested and also on that note, there is TWO GROUPS of guys that want her, its meant to be about a group of girls wanting that one guy not the opposed view so I felt as if that didn’t work out at all.
Research.
I found it quite hard to research the song ‘Runaway baby’ and Bruno Mars’ inspiration behind the song since it is not one of his biggest hits and it wasn’t released as a single, meaning he hasn’t spoken about the song a lot- however this is everything I found.
We firstly created a questionnaire to gather some primary research. You can complete the questionnaire here- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lvkXD6cjOgxlCXu_kSsVb1Dbzs-sJ05MN8MzGbo4xRw/viewform
The results from this questionnaire showed us many things such as- most people watch music videos on YouTube more then anywhere else, therefore once ours is complete we shall upload it to YouTube so a larger audience will watch it. Most people also enjoy music videos with a storyline rather than a single performance, which is one of the reasons why we included a large storyline along with the lyrics which alone have a lot of description and imagery about a storyline.
Research – Research MV
Runaway Baby appears on Bruno Mars’s debut album “Doo-Wops & Hooligans”. It was written by Bruno Mars and Brody Brown, and produced by The Smeezingtons. The Smeezingtons contains Bruno Mars, Ari Levine, and Phillip Lawrence. The group came together as Ari Levine opened his recording studio to anyone in need of using it. Phillip Lawrence introduced the studio to Bruno Mars, and the three clicked, getting better the more they worked together. They are responsible for the chart toppers, ‘Just the way you are’, ‘Grenade’, ‘Locked out of heaven’ and many more.
There has not been an official music video released, however there are a couple of videos where Bruno Mars performed this song live- this can give us some inspiration for the set and how simplistic or abstract we want the storyline to be.
This is a live performance of Runaway Baby from the X-Factor in 2011. There is very simplistic dance that has been choreographed, which seems that they are just dancing to the music- in our music video we should show that each actor is enjoying the music that is playing, we could also create some dance choreography for the actors to perform. This performance could have also, just contained Bruno Mars himself however the band members supported him throughout. This is something for our group to consider- as we are managing a band, we could have all of the band involved in the video, rather than just the vocalists. Every band member is also wearing the same suit, so for our music video we could do the same and find one old fashioned suit which all the male characters would wear.
This performance is different to the first one- at the X Factor the performance was moderately simplistic however, this performance is very big and bold- mostly because it was at the Grammys… Apart from this the performances are very similar. All band members are present and wearing the same suit, and a simplistic dance has been choreographed.
The name of the album “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” refers to Doo Wop music which is a rhythm and blues based genre. It was most popular in the 1950-60’s, which is what inspired us to make our music video retro.“There’s a place in my heart for old-school music, and this is an attempt to write a song like the ones I grew up listening to,” declares Bruno Mars. “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” has won one Grammy award and has been nominated for seven!
Visual Research-
I looked at some music video’s which were created in the 1950’s to give us inspiration for our final retro music video. This video showed me that the actors in our music video must have lots of energy! We could also include people dancing together, as this is such a main part of this particular video. The band is also shown playing instruments together, which is similar to Bruno Mars’ performances therefore it is certain that we should include the band playing if they are willing to do so. Each band member is wearing the same outfit, suits, which is a good way to distinguish the band from the crowd (this again is the same as Bruno Mars’ performance). If we decide to show the band playing we may have to research which instruments where available around that time depending if we want to put a modern twist when the band is playing as it will be a separate scene to the storyline.
This music video is for Elvis Presley’s song – Jailhouse rock. It was released in 1957 and one thing I found interesting about this music video was the equipment you can see at the beginning of the video. Now-a-days music videos that contain storylines are more like short films than actual music videos; therefore no equipment or backstage equipment or actions are ever shown. Many actors are used which dance along to the song as Elvis performs. They all wear the same costume – a black and white stripped t-shirt. Usually if all the actors are wearing the same outfit the main singer, in this case Elvis would be wearing a slightly different outfit to allow the audience to easily distinguish them from everyone else, however in this case Elvis is wearing exactly the same outfit. Elvis however, is kept in the centre of the screen to make him easily visible. A graphic is also present to show Elvis’ name.
We began planning a music video which we later discovered would be too complicated to complete, this is the work we did towards that production –
Old Proposal.
We would like to have two main scenes, one being set in a studio therefore we would film in the TV studio and make the room look like a concert room with a stage and audience members- and the other scene would have a storyline of a male character who tries to get every girl he meets. He would be portrayed as a player where he breaks up with a girl at the start of the video. You see this character move onto another girl straight away however this girl then breaks that male characters heart at the end of the video.
Old Synopsis – Synopsis MV
Old Location Recce – MV Location Recce
Old Costume Research – MV Costume
We then changed our idea to be a lot simpler in location and actions. We found out that the band also do not want to be in the video therefore our idea of having the band perform was thrown in the bin. This is all our work towards our current ideas –
Proposal – Proposal
Treatment – Treatment
Synopsis – Synopsis
Script – Script
Bibliography-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doo-Wops_%26_Hooligans
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/10/4402092/bruno-mars-gives-a-big-crowd-a.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-35232758.html
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/smeezingtons-418358
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/chuck-berry-mn0000120521/biography
Kerry Hatfield 