Casting

Character Description:
The main character in our music video (Protagonist) is a young girl battling a drug addiction. She resembles characteristics such as the ones we have looked at for inspiration. Mainly the character Effy, who is in the Television series 'Skins', she is also a young 'Druggie'

Calisto Ryder-Dixon 

Calisto is 17 and is a student at Reepham College, studying Art, English and Sociology.  We chose her because she has a dramatic character, she also lives close which is useful while filming. Calisto also looks like he girls on our mood board, and we felt that we could make her look even more like them with the costume, props and make-up.





Abbi Chase

Abbi is 18, a student at Reepham College, studying Art, Photography and Media. It would be very easy to use Abbi in our production as she is the other student to the production. Abbi also fit's the criteria of the young girl part that we were looking for and has dark hair like the others on the mood board previously posted.

Nicole Eddy

Nicole is 17, a student at Reepham College studying Media, English Languages and Economics. We chose Nicole for the part of the 'Drug Dealer' because she is the other student in the production, she knows the storyline, what we plan to do and has to be there for the filming, so for a small role she was perfect.

Equipment & Software

For our shooting we will be using a range of equipment. Firstly and most importantly, we will be using a SONY Handycam HDV 108i. This will be the only camera used at all time throughout our shooting. We chose to use a small Handycam as this will allow us the easiest and greatest movement in our filming. We have also had a lot of practice using the camera from last year and know how to use each setting saving us time so we don't have to learn how to use any other camera, making best use of our day of filming.  We also used a Manfrotto tripod to ensure all our shots are level and steady. The tripod is easily maneuverable which will help us to capture the right shots at each location, and we can also easily set the right height.
We will also be using an imac for our editing process and we will be using Final Cut Express and imovie softwares for editing the film. Both are easy to use, accessible and will help us to create the best video possible.
We plan to capture the footage in imovie and then move it to final cut express to do the further editing needed as it is is lightly more advance in what can be achieved in reference to effects.We are also going to use a flashlight app on a Samsung Galaxy X2, it has a strobe setting which we will use to re-create the lighting for a 'Party' atmosphere. This hopefully will also look slightly 'Stop Motion' gaining an effect that we originally wanted to use but didn't have the time for.

Props and Costume For our Music Video

Props
<---Sherbet as a substitute for cocaine. This will be used for the first scene where our girl will snort drugs and fall back onto the bed. It may also be used in a flashback sequence throughout the music video. We want it to look like she will be snorting the drug through a rolled up note or another piece of paper, and we will be shooting this as a close up shot on her face, framing the actions. The picture above is from the music video 'Let you go' by chase and status, showing a shot of the protagonist taking drugs, we want to recreate the same shot and the same sense of false 'Love' for something such as drugs or alcohol.

We will need alcoholic bottles for numerous parts of the video such as the flashbacks of the night before and her bedroom the day after. This will also play on the lyrics of the song, about how her love for this addiction is making her re-do previous mistakes over and over.  Inspiration for adding this came from the music video by Chase and Status-Flashing Lights, in a scene where it is also apparent that alcohol had an influence on mistakes from the previous night. The drink in this scene is in a decanter which we will consider using when choosing the type of drink and what its in. This shot really frames the alcohol and how much it influences the story line from that point onwards.
We will need a mirror to do a shot similar to the one on the left where at one point our protagonist will look into the mirror 'reflecting' on her actions and what happened the night before. We would also like to use a mirror which has a 'rough' old and 'rusty' feel to it, one that isn't perfect, to compliment the character of the girl.
Costume

Ripped tights and a black skirt- we felt that this was the best option for the girls character as its as if she doesn't have the money for new tights, the tights also show a resemblance to a 'ripped' life and a fragile character. The black theme was inspired by the character Effy from the TV series 'Skins' as shown below she is wearing a similar outfit to the one we plan to use, she has also come from a slightly broken background, uses drugs and has a troubled life.
The colour black also symbolises darkness, which is a trait that our girl has, a certain mystery about her life and why she is the way she is.

Scouting For Girls-Elvis Ain't Dead

When thinking about our cuts for our music video, we chose a similar band to You are the Empire, and how they have cut their video keeping with the timing of the music. We listened to the first 45 seconds of the song, where there were 21 cuts in the editing where the shot has changed, to a different angle or scene.