AUDIENCE PITCHBy Danielle Whitelaw and Imogen White

Song choice – Set Sail My partner and I decided to pick the song Set Sail by Frances which fitted perfectly into our chosen genre, indie pop. We decided to go against picking a well known song as we wanted the lip syncing to look more realistic to the target audience (female, aged 13-20). From lyric analysis we discovered the message of the song is about how difficult love can be such as finding it, coping with it, and letting go. From the repetition of the rhetorical question 'are you brave enough to swim against the tide?' suggests that the song is aimed at the other person in the relationship asking if their brave enough to cope through the challenging unpredictable moments of being in love.We decided that we wanted to show this idea of letting go of a relationship through a narrative and performance video.

Starting ideas

Finalised idea Our favourite idea was to base our music video around the journey of a relationship ending between a couple, the reason is because the lyrics of the song mean to move on and let go.

• Story line summary • Boy and girl break up through texts• girl in bedroom• Boy travels away by train• Both reflect on the relationship• Girl goes outside • Same location but different tensesThe main character of the video will be a girl aged 17. The story line is going to be about a boy and a girl who have recently broken up due complications in the relationship which will be made clear to the audience at the beginning and later on through text messages. As it was the boys decision to end the relation he is going to be the one to travel away by train. At the end of the video we see the boy and the girl in the same location however as the girl looks up at him, he's gone.

Location researchFirst locationHere is a short vlog my partner and I put together of the first location, Marlow. We are planning on using two separate locations for each actor to make it clear to the audience that the narrative of the video is about a couple breaking up. The only problems we face with the location being outside is that we have to rely on the weather for filming and avoid peak times for travel. Second locationTo compliment our genre indie pop and enforce star image we decided on using a girls bedroom as our second location. The bedroom we have decided on using is actually our actress’s bedroom. Hopefully from filming Summer lip syncing in an environment she is comfortable with will make her more confident and relaxed. As the bedroom is also very spacious and has an attached ensuite it will allow us the opportunity of exploring different camera angles.

Prop researchPaper boatsWe decided on using paper boats as a prop for the music video, the reasoning behind this is that my partner and I wanted the boats to represent letting go and setting sail which is a metaphor of the song. The paper boats will be used at the end of the video where the girl will release a couple dozen into the water. By using them at the end of the video will hopefully allow the audience to believe she has moved on.We decided to make the paper boats red. Red represents love, strength and power which will hopefully make the narrative clearer to the audience.PhotographsBecause the boy and girl in the music video were once in a relationship we decided to print off happy memories of look alikes, which will hopefully create enigma as to why they broke up. Also, we purposely selected black and white photographs of hidden faces to enforce the idea of a memory upon the couple.

Casting researchFrom the beginning of research and planning we both decided we wanted to choose actors aged between 16-18 so they have a level of maturity when filming.

The movie LOL kept coming to mind when I'd think of two teenagers in love. LOL is about an ordinary girl called Lola who falls in love with her ex boyfriends best mate, Kyle. The movies shows the struggles of the ups and downs from being in a relationship, never knowing where it's going to take you. The story line of the movie is similar to the plot of our music video as we are exploring the breaking point of a relationship.

As I think the couple in the movie are well suited on appearances we decided to try cast our actors similar to Lola and Kyle's image.As we wanted to create a narrative and performance based music video finding the right person to play the role of each character who is also time efficient was crucial to us.The casting of the girl was most important as we wanted to create star image. My partner and I decided to choose Summer as the main character for our music video. Summer was the perfect candidate as she had previously done GCSE Drama and is currently taking an A level in the subject. As summer goes to the same school as us and lives locally filming her in her spare time is not an issue. My partner suggested using her friend Fraser. Fraser visually match our expectations for the role of the boy in the music video, he also does A level media studies so he has an idea of what is expected of him. 

Costume researchStyle influences

My partner and I wanted to reflect the genre of indie pop through costume and makeup. When looking at other Indie pop artists/bands such as Birdy and The XX we noticed their style is very simplistic which can be particularly relatable to a young audience.

Costume research We decided on two different costume changes for the girl as she features in two places within the music video, her bedroom and outside.We decided on two different costume changes for the girl as she features in two places within the music video, her bedroom and outside.In location 2 (outside) the girl will be wearing autumnal clothing; winter coat, jumper, jeans and boots. The clothing will be a clear representation of the time of year.From research we found out that actors in indie pop music videos usually wear bright colours whereas in indie soul they tend to wear more dull colours. Although our chosen genre is indie pop we decided to select a darker colour palette for the boys costume change in the music video as we wanted it to reflect his mood and age.

Hair and makeup researchAs the style of costume in our music video is very simplistic we decided that we wanted hair and makeup to match.

HairIn many indie pop music videos the actors have scruffy styled hair which gives the impression that they don't care about the way they look. We decided on having our actor/actress's hair down to make an obvious connection to our chosen genre, indie pop.MakeupTo represent emotions and feelings that occur within a breakup of a relationship such as depression and lack of energy we decided on a neutral makeup look for both characters.

Digipak and promotional posterThis is our finalised annotated idea for our digipak. We decided to choose an image of the singer (actress) for the font cover as we wanted to create star image by familiarising the audience with the artist. We also decided on using a head-shot as we had previously found out from research on RMA's that a lot of other well known artist's such as Lana Del Rey have also used the same promotional technique. We are also planning on making the red paper boats a metaphor of her in the song set sail, as she moves on from her current relationship. Therefore it was important to incorporate them into the inside panel as it allows a preview of the music video to the audience.It was difficult to decide on the final digipak idea between the two of us as we both were unsure if wanted base our theme around water or love. In the end we decided on water as we didn't want love to overpower the singers star image.

This is our finalised annotated idea for our promotional poster. As a pair we decided that we wanted to make it similar to the digipak so the audience familiarizes with the artist. To enforce artist recognition we also decided to place the logo top centre with a contrasted background.The photo is most likely to be taken at Marlow park on the day of shooting for our music video to enable the same mood and atmosphere our video creates.