Shooting Schedule

We have decided to shoot the video on the 16th of October, provided the thatre is available on that day. We still need to discuss the plans for this with Mr Hutchingson. The day will need to start early for the cast to be transformed into their 50's personas and to shoot the video numerous times to ensure we have enough material to work with.

We have set up an event on Facebook to keep contact with the cast and informing them with all the details needed for them and ourselves.

Costume and Prop Ideas

As featured in Happy Days, it's common for schools to have team flags and posters hanging on the walls. We decided to make our own posters and flags to decorate the hall, we made up a name and image. This is to make the scene look more authentic and relevant to the time period.


These are some costume ideas for the boys and the band. They are some screenshots from the movie Grease and costumes from a fancy dress website. These pictures make it a lot more useful to gather ideas for the shoot and the cast have an idea of what type of clothes to wear.




As with the boys costumes, i found girls costumes of the 50's and snapshots from Grease to inspire us for ideas. These iconic 50's haistyles and make-up will also help us to know what kind of image the girls need to portray.

Props and Locations

Props:

To make the video look as realistic as possible, we need to use props and costumes that are relevant to the time and genre of the music. This being the 1950's.

Decorations for the hall:
- Balloons (dotted around theatre, also possibly have balloons fall down in grand finale?)
- Confetti (for grand finale)
- Posters (make posters for 1950’s artists e.g. Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly)
- Flags (possibly USA or GB)
- Microphones (50's style microphone to make the performance look credible)
-American style team signs (triangle with name of school on,these are frequently used in films and videos about the 1950's)
- Banner with band name
Hanging wall decorations

We also need instruments for the band to play, we are planning on borrowing some from the music department.
Bass
Drums
Guitar


Costume:

Girls:
- ‘Bopper’ skirts
- Cardigans
- A line style dresses
- Leggings (similar to Sandy’s final outfit in Grease)
- Headbands/bows/scarfs

Boys:
- Skinny jeans
- Converse
- Leather Jackets
- T-shirts
- Cardigans
- Glasses

Both and I and Lauren have asked the cast to bring along any 1950's style attire that they may have (many have or are aquiring them).
We have decided to provide extra itmes of clothes for those who haven't.
Charity shops, thrift shops and vintage shops stock some of the items that we need and we have decided to take a look in them.
To ensure that the mise-en-scene is correct I have arranged for a friend to help with hair and make-up for both girls and boys. This is essential to making the video feel as real as possible. Lauren has organised member of the dance department to create a choreographed dance and feature in the music video.



Locations:

Most of the video is going to be shot in the school theatre, where most of the cast is familiar with. Also it will be easy to access the instruments and any other things we may need from the school. We feel the theatre is appropriate for the setting we need although we will need to transform it into a more 50's feel.

The music video will feature some side narratives and some potential locations are All Star Bowling Alley in Brick Lane, they also have a 1950's style diner within the establishment. Also bowling is iconic of this time period. We have also considered using the green screen at school.

Narrative

The Baseballs - Crazy In Love

- Presenter introduces band on TV screen - establishing shot (set the scene), close up on presenters face
- Cut from TV to 'live feed' - band walks onto the stage
- Establishing shot of band walking on - close up of lead singers face as he starts to sing
- Variate shots (close ups/mid shots) on band, also cut between band and crowd (mostly female members who are crazy for the band)
- Focus on different members of the crowd (girls are all in a frenzy, dancing going on etc)
- Cut and close up of lead girl entering, close up on lead singer as he notices her come in
- More shots of the crowd, cutting between band/crowd
- Curtain opens, dancers are revealed behind the band
- Lead pulls up main girl on stage as 'party' continues
- Mid shot of lead girl/boy, boy pulls in the girl to kiss, he winks, love heart wipe

Side Narrative:
- Boy reminiscing on their past? - lead girl as ex?
- Girl/Boy don't know each other, side narratives of both 'gangs' out and about
- The side narrative will feed directly into the main narrative once we have edited the video.

The narrative fits into the style of music rather than the lyrics.

Genre Video Analysis

Weezer - Buddy Holly














The video for Weezer’s ‘Buddy Holly’ is an imitation of the TV series ‘Happy days’ which represents the stereotypical vision of life in 1950s America. This is evident as the video follows the typical format of a television series and creates and instant sense of nostalgia. We too are trying to create a sense of nostalgia in our video through our intertextual reference to Grease. Spike Jonze directed the video and had already directed 8 other music videos before this project.


The visuals and lyrics are not necessarily linked, although this is also the case for the title of the song and the lyrics. It seems that the only link to the 50’s genre is ‘Buddy Holly’, an American rock ’n’ roll singer. Throughout the video there are many establishing shots of the band, giving them a united front, however there are also many close ups of various members of the band. This is common editing for music videos for bands, as it gives them an image overall but also individual characters that people can relate to. The editing is slow paced and follows the rhythm of the song and simple cuts are used throughout. This reflects the simplicity of music videos in the 1950s era, where most videos were taken in one shot or had very little or basic editing. The editing is almost perfect in merging the contemporary footage and clips, making the music video seem like an actual episode of Happy Days.


The mise-en-scene is crucial in creating this video and had to be spot on in order for audiences to instantly recognise the genre and reference. The video is actually performed at the original Arnold’s Drive-In Diner from the show Happy Days and combines clips from the show as well as the modern footage of the band. The cast are all in 50s attire as well as the band. They are featured in identical outfits which again gives the sense of unity but also was a common feature of bands at the time. The decoration of the set, props and furniture are extremely detailed and makes the setting look authentic. The frequent use of establishing shots ensure that the viewer take in the 1950s setting. The cameo appearance of the Fonz also reinforces the idea that we are watching an episode of the show.

Analysis of a music video

Blink 182 - Feeling This

The video opens with close up high angle shots of boys having their hair shaved off. The mise-en-scene represents them in a prison and they are wearing school clothes. A relationship is being made between schools and prisons showing that the pupils are being controlled. As the music begins the scene cuts to a high angle long shot of a prison with two lines of girls who are marching in time with the drum beat. Andrew Goodwin says that there is a relationship between music and visuals in video promos.

Then we cut to an enclosure that is fenced in and this is when we are introduced to the band. High angle circular shots are used to represent the band as a unit and to show off their performance skills. This is really conventional in rock music videos particularly bands like Guns n Roses as these bands make a lot of money from touring so they need to sell their performance skills to the audience. There are low angle close up shots on the lead singer as he sings into the microphone. His body language is really aggressive and this fits well with the mood of the song. Smoke machines have been used to create the sense that they are in a desert setting and to show how strong their performance is. There are lots of mid shots on the drummer because he is a very famous drummer who is a main selling point of the video. A fish-eye lens is used at some points to emphasise the trapped in feeling as the band perform inside the enclosure.

The scene cross cuts between the bands performance and the narrative that is taking place. A boy and girl are positioned on either side of a screen and guards are all around them. The more exciting the music gets the more active they get too which helps to build up the excitement of the song for the audience too. A worms eye view is used to show one of the guards shouting at a classroom full of students. She is an old woman which represents people in authority being fierce and out of touch with the students. The colour wash over the scenes in the classroom is green to give the sense that it is set in an army like environment. Then the school children start to rebel against the teacher giving the message that children should be free and not restricted by rules.

Towards the end of the video the pupils break free from the classroom and surround the enclosure that the band arep playing in making it a party. They climb up the fence and behave in an outrageous way. This makes the band seem like heroes that should be worshipped. This is really important in the rock genre and can be seen in other videos for bands such as Busted. It also shows that the band are rebellious like the pupils which helps the audience to identify with them.

There aren't any obvious intertextual references however there have been films that have had similar themes such as 'If' which was a very controversial film set in a school where the pupils rebel with violence consequences. One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest could also be a reference in this video because the patients there break free from the nurses who try to control them.