UPDATED: Pitch- BEN RODWELL

INITIAL/BASIC PITCH: Our music video will feature a washed up, ex-super villain who walks around causing petty annoyances, trying to relive his glory days.

Throughout our planning, as our ideas became more developed and we focused on the larger, macro narratives and themes of the video, our pitch became more detailed and specific in what we were trying to achieve.

FINAL PITCH: Our music will video will feature a 'super villian' character who portrays the negative side of one personality. He will go around causing petty annoyances and will end up directly fighting with a 'super hero' character who portrays the positive side of a personality. The video is a physical metaphor for the inner struggle one person can have between the good and bad parts of their personality.

Costumes- BEN RODWELL

The Super Villain will be the main character in our video. Even though he is supposed to be evil and bad the audience will connect and sympathise with him. He will have a shaved head, a painted skull face and wear a hoodie with a symbol painted on the front. He will wear black jeans and black shoes. By giving the character a painted skull face, it not only portrays to the audience his significance as a main character but also provides him with a clear and unique identity. He is clearly abnormal and

Skull face paint such as this would
give the character a certain motif
and standout characteristic. It would
highlight him as the main character

 separate from the other characters and furthermore the skull connotes his enigma as a character. Additionally it shows that instead of being a super hero he is instead a super villain; historically skulls often represent death and furthermore evilness. On his torso the Villain will wear a hoodie with a symbol painted on the front. The symbol could either be the letter V, standing for Villain or a skull symbol. The symbol will again help the audience understand that he is a super villain not a super hero. It will make his appearance coherent and help establish him as an important and significant character. If the character had a V on his chest he would appear more like a classic and clichéd image of a super villain where as a symbol would portray a more modern look. The clichéd letter could be used as it would portray a retro, vintage aesthetic whereas the more modern symbol would fit with the urban locations and modern day setting. The colour of the hoodie itself would also portray these two differing styles. A dark hoodie would be more modern as it would appear sleeker and more stylish. A brightly coloured hoodie would fit with the more traditional super villain look. Villains and heroes in traditional super hero films and comic

A dark Hoodie such as this would
reflect an urbanisation or modern
aesthetic of the character.

books would wear brightly coloured outfits. An example of this would be the original Robin outfit from Batman and Robin. If we used a dark hoodie the character would look more sleek and modern where as a brightly coloured hoodie would be an inter-textual reference to older, traditional super hero films and comic books. The trousers and shoes of The Super Villain are not overly significant as the face and torso of the character connote the majority of his personality. On his legs he will wear black jeans and on his feet he will wear black shoes. By keeping these elements simple, more emphasis is placed on his abnormal face and hoodie.

The Super Hero is the second main character. Similar to the Super Villain, the character will have left his days of fighting crime behind in favour of a more normal life. His costume will reflect this change in his lifestyle. The Superhero will have a large quiff, wear a cape but also wear suit trousers, smart shoes and a blazer. This hybrid style allows the audience to understand that he is a Super Hero (and therefore in conflict with the main character) but also that he has moved on from

A slick quiff and cape are synonymous
with the image of a superhero and so by
using them it makes clear who the character
is

being a super hero. By having a quiff this is a reference to the classic ‘Superman’ look. This look is widely recognisable and so is a way of portraying his character efficiently. The cape will help audiences realise that he is a super hero. Whereas a quiff is a sign of many different styles, a cape is entirely symbolic of a super hero. However these items of clothing will be worn in combination with office clothes; a jacket, suit trousers and work shoes. By doing this the audience will understand that he has left his super hero life behind- similar to how the Super Villain has left his glory days behind him.

The extra characters in our music video are The Band Members and The Anorak Man .The band members will wear a similar costume to The Super Villain but instead of a skull face with will wear plain white or plain black masks. This will show both their link to the main character but also show that they are below him in terms of importance. The anorak man will wear black trousers with black shoes and wear a large dark anorak. This costume links to the songs lyrics

An Anorak such as The Anorak Man
 will wear

and fits with Andrew Goodwins theory that "there is a succinct relationship between music and visuals". It will create a connection between the lyrics "man who died wearing an anorak". Using costumes to portray narratives and characters personalities is a conventional technique in rock music videos. For instance in The Hoosiers video for ‘Goodbye Mr. A’ a traditional, clichéd super hero costume is used to clearly show the audience the characters job. Combining traditional, clichéd styles is less common however and by creating a hybrid kind of style for our two main characters we are challenging these conventions.

UPDATED: Bad Sounds- 'Avalanche' | Lyrics- BEN RODWELL

To start with I annotated the lyrics in a power point with potential meanings and rough ideas for how they could be developed in to my music video.

The lyrics of the song are quite abstract and quirky and don't necessarily tell a strict story. As a result of this the music video can not follow directly the lyrics. Instead taking aspects outlined in the lyrics and implying in the video will be more effective. The first line "Joe stayed in with dad and watched something about a time some people got themselves caught in an avalanche" could provide the setting for the first scene. It depicts a scene where someone is staying inside their own house watching TV. This could be an effective opening scene for our music video. In addition the use of the word 'avalanche' as well as its use as the songs title highlight its significance so incorporating some kind of visual reference to avalanche would work well.

The chorus of the song doesn't depict any kind of story but instead an emotional situation: someone trying and failing to improve themselves. Our music video could incorporate some kind of failed self improvement as a reference to this. The second two verses are similar to the first in that they roughly outline a new character and a vague story line. However as the lyrics and the song as a whole are quirky and not necessarily focused around telling a story, having lyrics that "enhance and amplify" them (Andrew Goodwin) would work effectively. Throughout the music video, new characters could be introduced fitting with the introduction of "Julie" and "Pete".

Contacting Artist for Permission- BEN RODWELL

The song we have chosen is 'Avalanche' by Bad Sounds. As the band is a young, modern band we chose to message them on Facebook as it was clear they responded quickly on this site. The responded saying they were happy for us to use their song as long as we made it clear it was an unofficial, 'fan' video.

Mind map of initial ideas- BEN RODWELL

Song Possibilities- BEN RODWELL

To start our search we decided what genre of music our song would be. We wanted something slightly quirky and alternative as we felt this gave us a wide range of options for the music video however the structure and conventions Pop and Rock music videos have is useful in actually creating ideas. Therefore we decided the genre of our song should be slightly alternative Pop or Rock. After much research we found 4 possible songs:

• 'Avalanche' by Bad Sounds
• 'Dead by Summer' by 20 Cent Dreams
• 'Foule' by Waste
• 'SOIA' by Strange Bones

Having shortlisted these songs we created a web diagram that clearly highlighted each songs strengths and weaknesses in relation to aspects of a successful music video song. These included: different chapters in the song, good quality recording, interesting lyrics, broad genre and dynamic music. By doing this it was easy to visualise each songs strengths and furthermore help us decide on the best song.

• Pink- 'Avalanche'
• Blue- 'SOIA'
• Orange- 'Dead by Summer'
• Green- 'Foule'

Avalanche

Strengths

• Very distinct beat
• Very high quality recording
• It's an interesting, quirky genre
• Interesting, narrative lyrics

weaknesses

• Not the most dynamic song- virtually all one volume and intensity
• There are different chapters but they're not as clear cut as other music videos

SOIA

Strengths

• Very distinct beat, excellent to cut to
• high quality recording
• There are different chapters to the song
• Fairly broad and hybrid genre

Weaknesses

• There aren't many highly distinctive or iconic lyrics
• The song isn't as dynamic as others

Dead By Summer

Strengths

• Clear and distinct chapters
• Dynamic changes throughout
• Clear beat
• Good quality recording

Weaknesses

• Lack of iconic and distinctive lyrics
• fairly narrow genre

Foule

Strengths

• Distinct beat
• Clear sections and chapters to the song
• Distinct lyrics

Weaknesses 

• Mediocre recording quality
• Quite narrow genre

In conclusion we decided to go with 'Avalanche' by Bad Sounds. The distinct beat, alternative,broad genre and iconic narrative lyrics meant that we had a lot of inspiration and ability to experiment with our music video. Whilst it wasn't the most dynamic of songs there were clear chapters and the distinctiveness of the lyrics helped define these chapters. A narrative can clearly be seen in the lyrics and this is very useful when brainstorming ideas for the music video.

Music Video Mood Board- BEN RODWELL, TOM HUNTER, ANTON GODDARD, RUTH COBO