Request for copyright permission

Today, I sent an email to the record label which owns copyright to our song, to ask permission to use it in our music video. We did this in order to avoid any copyright infringements and to avoid any legal issues as we did not want any labels to think we are misusing or stealing their song. Here is a picture of the email I sent:

Rehearsals

Today, we filmed our first rehearsal in our studio with the band members we wish to have in our music video. This is a clip of our rehearsal:




What did we learn and like?

We established that we didn't need a pianist in our band, as the three band trio worked very well together. We also finalised the band members, as we very much enjoyed each of their performances as it suited the tone of the song very well and their appearance does too. 

We took a gamble in involving Max Boast as our main singer, as we originally didn't think he would look old enough for the part, as the singer in the real track sounds very old and mature and has a powerful voice. However, Max was very impressive and surprised us a lot as he ended up being the perfect singer which we wanted. 

One thing we did notice however, is that our guitarist stands still quite a lot, and that he did not actually play the guitar in the rehearsal very often. This means we will need to hold a few more rehearsals to make sure he perfects this otherwise it won't look as good in the real music video. Also, Max had not fully learnt all of the lyrics, so he will need to do that for the next rehearsal. 

More Pictures of the rehearsal:

Cast List

Final cast list sent to my Media Studies teacher. 

Talk from Polydor Productions

These are the notes that I made during the talk:

• video commissioner - oversee whole video

• talk about timeline, treatments and show us video

• budget based on expectations of sales of track
• pitches brief to make sure everyone on same page and gives director enough freedom for themselves
• some directors have specific qualities and great ideas and teams - inspired by different things and surrounded by best possible people
• encourage taking risks
• dont send out briefs to no more than 5-10 directors
• week later, read treatments received from directors
• Takes around 6-8 weeks from when they get track to finishing the video, then get puts up a week later
• if radio doesn't see change in listeners etc. then they will stop playing track

"YEARS & YEARS" TREATMENT AND VIDEO

• grab peoples attention immediately, visuals most important aspect - pick images of what you want video to look like and include references
• average UK budget for video 30-40 grand
• need to make sure everything is communicated well
• director and editor create final cut in 4-5 days, then sends off to get approved and/or give comments on what to include as well
• never have enough time in a shoot, make sure everything is planned out thoroughly to have the best possible and most efficient shoot

"SKANK" BY WILEY VIDEO

• Shot as a documentary style video
• no costume, styling etc. all real people who asked around 

Evaluation

In my opinion, I found the talk very useful as it gave us a good insight into how the music industry works and the crucial steps we must take into making a successful music video.

• The first important point, is that in the treatment, one must grab the immediate attention and generate lots of visuals aspects like color, images and font.
• Secondly, they were consistent in the point of making sure we are as organized as possible, otherwise we are preparing for a bad shoot and failure. They said that there is never enough time to shoot, so we have to make it as efficient and executed as well as possible. 
• Additionally, there was great emphasis on communication between our group and between our actors. They mentioned the point about if there is poor communication then you will be destined for a poor video.

What have we done in response to these points?

In response to these points, our group have created a social media group chat on Facebook, so that we are in constant communication with one another. This allows us to organize meet-ups and rehearsals easily and it shows that we are listening to the advice from Polydor Productions. 

Planning the Rehearsal

Today, we sent out emails finalising a time for when we will have our first rehearsal with the band in the studio, where they will lip sync and do a small performance with the song. These are pictures of the email we sent to our actors:

Our plan is to have the rehearsal on Wednesday at 2 o'clock, and we will also film and edit our test shoot at the same time of doing our rehearsal.

Finalizing Casting

Today, we finalised and chose our three band members to use in the music video. Our three band members will be Max Boast, Tom Saville and Thomas Guerlat.

Here is the audition video of Max Boast, who we want to have as our lead singer in the band.

Here is the official casting picture of Max Boast, who will be our lead singer.

Here is the official casting picture of Tom Saville, who will be our drummer.

Here is the official casting picture of Thomas Guerlat, who will be our are guitarist.


















We chose these three guys, because we feel that their look and image fits in with typical rock bands. They all have long hair, good looking and have a certain style when they play, which fits in with the tone of the song and what we are looking for in the performance. 

Possible shot list

Order of events in the car park:

• band carrying instruments into car park
• stumbles upon guard, who thinks nothing of it
• goes onto the roof, sets up instruments, starts playing
• guard on duty starts to hear noise, follows sound
• finds amp lead, follows it
• finds band playing on roof, playing it to the world
• Goes to small band member orders him to stop, big band member then intimidates guard and tells him to go away
• retreats, calls in backup with walkies talkie 
• sees colleges doing clean habits e.g doing tie up, drinking cup of tea, looking at the cctv casually
• they go up to roof
• start listening to music, 'let their hair down'  

Another idea we discussed is instead of the guards enjoying the music and 'letting their hair down', we would have the guards all team up and try to stop the band.

• Each band member is individually dragged away - guitarist dragged while still playing and pianist too, and are taken away. We don't see where
• Drummer is taken away, and his drum sticks maybe broken in front of him?
• Singer is left alone, still singing, then dragged away and thrown off the roof of the car park.

This still image is taken from the film 'No Escape', and it shows a young girl being thrown off a roof. This is exactly the type of effect and event we would like to have at the end of the music video.