Costume Research

Here are some images of the 80s and New Jack Swing fashions that have helped me choose the costumes for my music video.

Music Video Animatic and Shot List

Shot 1 – Summer Love neon light picture, music begins and the camera zooms into blackness.

Shot 2 – Zooms out of the blackness to reveal a close up shot of en electric drum kit – we see the hands playing the drum kit.

Shot 3 – Close up side shot of main protagonist tugging their jacket collar

Shot 4 – Close up of feet tapping to the beat

Shot 5 – Close up of hand tapping the side of their leg

Shot 6 – Silhouetted dancer doing a move

Shot 7 – An animation of music notes appearing to the beat of the horn

Shot 8 – Tracking shot from behind the drummer

Shot 9 – Animation of cartoon dancers doing moves to the beat of the horns

Shot 10 – Long shot of dancer pulling a move

Shot 11 – Split screen – Left: Long shot of three dancers performing the routine. Right: Close-Up of Protagonist lip syncing to words

Shot 12 – Mid –shot of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 13 – Long shot of three dancers

Shot 14 – Split screen again

Shot 15 –Moving shot of protagonist lip-syncing

Shot 16 – Close Up of a random person (probably one of the dancers) taking a sip from a colourful looking cocktail

Shot 17 – Long shot of three dancers (from the side)

Shot 18 – Long Shot of dancers (from the front)

Shot 19 – Close up of an eye opening up

Shot 20 – Girl with cocktail winking at the camera

Shot 21 – Close-Up of somebody dressed up in summer gear over doing the lip-syncing

Shot 22 – Dynamic moving shot of the drummer

Shot 23 – Summer gear dressed person having a smile (close-up)

Shot 24 – Long shot of two silhouettes pulling a move

Shot 25 – Close – up of foot tap

Shot 26 – Close – Up of someone pulling down some shades

Shot 27 – Long shot of solo silhouette doing a fancy move

Shot 28 – Mid shot of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 29 – Front and long shot of three dancers

Shot 30 – Moving shot of drummer

Shot 31 – Long shot of someone doing a cool move

Shot 32 – Front and long shot of three dancers

Shot 33 - Long shot of someone doing a cool move

Shot 34 – Close up of a girl blowing a kiss to the camera

Shot 35 – Shot of colourful cocktail surrounded by fruit

Shot 36 – Shot of girl drinking cocktail

Shot 37 – Close up of someone laughing at camera

Shot 38 – Shot of dancing feet

Shot 39 – Side silhouette of someone lip syncing

Shot 40 – Mid-long shot of someone with lyrics appearing at their side

Shot 41 – Mid shot of the person shrugging, the lyrics have disappeared

Shot 42 – Angled (Tilt) shot of three dancers

Shot 43 – Once again side shot of silhouette lip-syncing

Shot 44 – Shot of dancing feet

Shot 45 – Angled (Tilt) shot of three dancers

Shot 46 – Close up of eyes putting on shades

Shot 47 – Animation of moving with words saying, ‘They know it’s time for…’

Shot 48 – Slow motion – hands come together to make a heart shape

Shot 49 – Split screen once again of dancers and protagonist lip syncing

Shot 50 – Close up of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 51 – Numerous shots fill up the screen and then ‘Summer Love’ appears in the middle of the screen

Shot 52 – Shot of dancing feet

Shot 53 – Side silhouette lip syncing

Shot 54 – Long shot of dancing silhouette

Shot 55 – side silhouette lip syncing

Shot 56 – Moving shot of drummer

Shot 57 – Long shot of drummer not playing drum kit – just posing

Shot 58 – Close up of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 59 – Lyrics appear on screen

Shot 60 – Mid long shot of someone lip-syncing

Shot 61 – Close up of funky writing on piece of paper

Shot 62 – Close up of summer dressed person lip syncing

Shot 63 – Animation of the lyrics ‘It’s a blast’

Shot 64 – Long shot of someone doing a cartwheel

Shot 65 – Mid shot of someone nodding their head to the beat

Shot 66 – Close Up of dancing silhouette

Shot 67 – Close Up of drummer playing

Shot 68 – Close Up of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 69 – Long shot of someone lying down on a deck chair raising a glass

Shot 70 – Mid close up of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 71 – Close up of silhouette lip syncing

Shot 72 – Close up of one of the three dancers

Shot 73 – Mid long shot of someone doing over the top dancing and lip syncing

Shot 74 – Lyrics appearing on screen

Shot 75 – Long shot of silhouette holding a pose

Shot 76 – Moving shot of drummer

Shot 77 – Mid shot of someone lying in the deck chair looking chilled

Shot 78 – Extreme close up of someone laughing

Shot 79 – Extreme close up of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 80 – Mid long shot of three dancers

Shot 81 – Moving shot of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 82 – Close up of hands playing drums

Shot 83 – Close up of hand tapping side of leg

Shot 84 – Long shot of dancer

Shot 85 – Long shot of silhouette dancer

Shot 86 – Animation shot of musical notes

Shot 87 – Moving shot of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 88 – Close up of girl blowing a kiss

Shot 89 – Close of foot tapping to the beat

Shot 90 – Moving shot of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 91 – Close up of deck chair person chilling

Shot 92 – Moving shot of drummer

Shot 93 – Shot of dancers feet

Shot 94 – Close up of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 95 – Multiple, random shots appear on screen to the beat

Shot 96 – Long shot of drummer

Shot 97 – Mid long shot of silhouette dancer

Shot 98 – Mid-long shot of drummer

Shot 99 – Close up of three dancers

Shot 100 – Long shot of three dancers disappearing and fading at random places on screen to the beat of the music

Shot 101 – Picture of the album image

Shot 102 – close up of hand tapping against the side of the leg

Shot 103 – Long shot of silhouette dancer

Shot 104 – Shot of foot tapping to beat

Shot 105 – close of hands playing drums

Shot 106 – Tracking shot of drummer

Shot 107 – From the side, long shot of dancers

Shot 108 – Close up of hand holding cocktail

Shot 109 – Close up of summer dressed person

Shot 110 – Close up of fruit

Shot 111 – Animation of people dancing

Shot 112 – Long shot of dancer

Shot 113 – Mid shot of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 114 – Split screen of protagonist and dancers

Shot 115 – Mid shot of two silhouettes posing

Shot 116 – Moving shot of protagonist lip syncing

Shot 117 – Long shot of three dancers

Preliminary Exercise (Lip Sync Practice)

Here is a quick video I made with my webcam, which explains why it is not top quality. I recorded myself singing along to Bobby Brown’s Every Little Step. Then when it came to editing this footage I muted the clip and added the audio mp3 file along with the video file. It was quite a challenge at first to get my lip syncing in time with the music, as this is the first time I have edited since the AS course. However I eventually got everything in time, and this has increased my confidence when it comes to edit my footage for my actual music video.

As well as lip syncing, I also plan to have dance routines and shots of a drummer, this also will need to be in time with the music. Therefore, it is vital that I have some practice with editing footage before I get to the real thing.  

I chose the song from Bobby Brown because not only is it one of my favourites, but it also gets me in the mood for my 80s themed music video!

Finding the Music for my Music Video

It has taken me quite awhile to find the right music for my video. Unfortunately I do not know any bands, so I got quite ambitious and tried to get written permission to use a Michael Jackson song. I e-mailed Sony (owner of Jackson’s music) and explained that I wanted to use his unreleased song, Work That Body for my A2 Media music video and emphasised that I would not be using the song to sell. However, unsurprisingly I never got a reply back and I also knew that trying to use a Michael Jackson song was dangerous territory.

Therefore I went on Google and looked for some copyright free music sites. A lot of them had really good instrumental tunes but not many decent songs with vocals and a vocal song was what I was looking for, so I could include lip-syncing in my video. I then came across the website, Jamendo which has a variety of music which is all copyright free.

I searched under the genres of Blues, Funk, RnB and Jazz as these are my favourite music genres. After tireless searching through all kinds of music samples, I found three songs that I really liked, that were each in fact very different from each other.

The first of the three songs I found was an acoustic, chill out song by an artist named Mayin. The song was called Green and the instant ideas I got for camera work seemed similar to the shots in the video, Time of Your Life by Green Day. For example when hearing the song Green, I instantly imagined someone sitting on an old-looking bed singing and playing the guitar.

The second song I found was by Blues/Rock band, Hot Fiction. They had a similar sound to Jimi Hendrix and I really liked the vocals in their songs in particular. Out of their album, a song called Truly Dark was my favourite. In a music video for this song, I imagined lots of surreal and scary scenarios such as people wearing freaky looking horror masks. Also I saw people being buried alive and weird and odd looking choreography routines. I preferred Truly Dark to Green and got inspired a lot more by it.

The third song was a typical 80s sounding pop song called Summer Love by Michael Jameson. The minute I heard it, I was truly inspired and certainly got a lot of ideas for a music video. I am a huge fan of 80s music and I think the fashions at the time were very amusing but good fun. Because of this, I have chosen Summer Love for my music and I plan to have an 80s themed music video.