When devising a concept for a video, an important thing to always bear in mind is the feasibility of your ambition. This easily applies to location choices as it has to be considered 'achievable'. This means we had to have preliminary thoughts about where we could stage our video just to check that it is all within the realm of possibility.
Thankfully, a large bulk of our video will be studio based therefore making it perfectly feasible with the facilities that Hurtwood has on offer. The school has a fully functioning film studio with a workable space, a vast array of lighting and background settings. The 'gag' of our concept is the drastic change of setting that occurs during the video. We have a fairly clear idea of what we want this transition to look like, an idea that is largely informed by the videos that we have seen in previous years. To reinforce these images we took a look at the time lapse recorded by a camera left in the studio during the filming of last years music videos. This footage speeds through every single pop promo that was shot allowing us to see the full range of potential the studio space has.
We wanted to shoot within a built up studio area that almost creates a box for the artist to perform within. At the start of the video this space would be furnished very minimalistically with as little props or decoration as possible. The band would be surrounded by one-tone white or black walls and possibly a patterned flooring at the very most. This resembles the set up we can see here from one of 2013's music videos;
However, this set has to evolve during the video into something considerably more striking and what one would expect from a commercially successful video. We can see from this screen shot below, from a video from the same year, that this is achievable with the facilities we have. This was only a short segment of a video in which they experimented with lighting and smoke in really interesting ways to create something visually exciting, just as we can in the future.
I also thought it would be interesting to find a visual reference point from bands that have utilised these two opposing set designs in the real world. Miraculously, I found them both from videos created for the same band. The 1975, who are a great source of inspiration for our band in terms of star image, use both types of sets in two different videos, showing their full stylistic variety while also confirming to us that these ideas are realistic in the music industry for bands like ours.
With our video, we hope to show two opposing sides to the band. One where they are being ruthlessly manufactured, and the other where they are casual friends doing the thing they love. For the later we need another set. In terms of location for the home-video cutaways we were thinking of them being in a recording studio environment, as this displays them in a very stripped back way while they enjoy what they considerer to be the best part of their profession - actually making music. For this we thought the schools in-house recording studio would be ideal. While having all the necessary equipment that a professional recording studio needs, it is also a fairly mundane and cramped space which is very realistic for a band making their first album on what would be a limited budget. It seems like an appropriate place for us to get handheld footage of the boys larking around while also recording their track. I went down their earlier to take some photos;
We also had the idea of blending this footage with some more handheld shots of the boys walking down the street in a city together. This is to give the impression that they are on tour, another aspect of their job's that they prefer to filming music videos. For this we would be likely to use Guildford as its the nearest city to the school and if shot effectively could easily replicate London or some other major city a band would exploit for touring. Honing in on this location and finding a suitable place to film within the city is something that would come later in the process. However, we have sufficiently laid the groundwork for our locations and therefore established that there are no major issues. It is positive that two of our locations are on campus meaning we can gain easy access and will not have to waste any time travelling and transporting equipment on shoot day.
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