Music Video Concept Pitch

Script

Budget

Filming Permission

Llamedos

Apple Lane, Westerham

Bromley

Kent

Br8 9WE

Ravens Wood School

Oakley Road

Bromley

BR2 5RN

To whom this may concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Laurence&Ben Production team to request your permission to shoot footage on your grounds.

We are in the pre production process of the music video project, assigned to us by the band Muse. We have taken much consideration in location, and we would be extremely grateful if you would allow us to film in your school grounds. We have looked at several different locations and under a unanimous decision, found that your school fits our desires the most. I am writing to you in the hopes that you will see the potential success in this possible partnership, such as free advertisement and countrywide publicity. We require 2 weeks filming time and understand that this may be best done in one of the school holidays, as to not disrupt the education for the students at your school.

Below I have produced the dates that we wish to commence filming;

29th March - 14th April

You may notice that this is within the easter half term and we hope that you will be able to accept our request.

Yours Sincerely, Ben Davis

Paper Edit

Crew Roles

Production Schedule

Call Sheet

Production Log

Day 1 - Setting Up - We began this day at 9:00am and proceeded to set up the location to our desires, taking advantage of the equipment we had. We planned a production schedule so the next three days would run much smoother than if we hadn't taken the planning seriously. We did our final checks of weather and sunrise/sunset times and left for the day at 16:00pm, earlier than anticipated.

Day 2 - Filming - This is the first day of filming and so naturally we began with the first section of the music video. This was being filmed at Laurence Hisee's house in his bedroom. The actors were given directions and did a very good job at following them, and ensured that we spent minimal time in this location. At 13:00pm we moved on to our next location and began filming the early part of the music video, this being the meeting of Laurence and Ben and then the confrontation with their mortal enemies. We managed to film a total of 45 seconds footage, which is more than what we had planned for. At 18:00pm we left for the day.

Day 3 - Filming - On the second day of filming we arrived at 9:00am, to ensure a full day of filming on location. We began with the sequence where Ben and Laurence realise that the costa virus is spreading and they run across the school to get geared up. This consisted of numerous long shots and wide shots and was fairly easy to get all the footage we needed. The next part of the filming consisted of finding an appropriate place for the first meeting of the Zombie and Ben and Laurence. After a while of searching we found a good location and began filming there. Despite the good location we found that the lighting was not sufficient enough and therefor we had to find a better place. This set us back an hour which was made up by our success the previous day. At 19:00pm we left the school, an hour later than anticipated.

Day 4 - Filming - The final day of filming was one of our most successful, managing to film the fight scene, Laurence's death and then the final scene of Ben's death. We had no production issues and managed to finish shooting the entire thing by 12:00pm. For the rest of the day we cleared up all of the production equipment, props and costumes and got ready to begin editing the video together. We left the location at 15:00pm, an early end of the day before the long post production process.

Day 5 - Editing - On the first day of editing we began by importing and labelling all of the footage onto Final Cut Pro. Ben was in charge of editing, with Laurence as his supervisor. After the footage had finished importing they began sifting through it, finding out which clips they were going to use, marking them with a scene number and then a Y or an N, Y being yes, and N being no. (E.G: S1 Y) This helped them locate the scenes that were being used. They decided to edit in chronological order, beginning with the expositional shot of Ben and Laurence watching telly. They got a rough first edit of the first minute of the music video.

Day 6 - Editing - Today we began at 10am and focused on cleaning up as much of the edit as we could. With the rough edit we knew that everything was already in order and cut to the right places, all we needed to do was add audio and effects that were required. The beginning of the music video was our primary task for the day, and we felt that a more slow, and romantic setting would fit the footage of Ben and Laurence watching television together. So for this we decided to add some slow motion to the shots and use the cross dissolve transition. We were able to complete this part of the video in under an hour to its best potential and then we needed to continue to the actual music video. Throughout the day we edited footage, consulted with the director and made any changes that needed to be made, by 5pm we had the majority of the video edited, with only three more scenes to do, and we decided to stay for another hour to complete the final editing process. We started the exporting/rendering process and left it overnight.

Day 7 - Finalising - This was the last day of production and therefor it was mainly paperwork based, after giving the final version of the music video a watch to make sure it was 100% ok we moved onto the final signing off of the task. After this we closed the set and finished everything we needed to do.

Final Music Video, Panic Station

Clearance Letter to Record Company

Muse,                                                                                                                                
Longford Lane,                                                            
London,
LF14 7ZN

Studio B

Glugsberry Lane

Bromley

BR6 9SD

Dear Muse/Record Label,

I am writing to enquire about your track, Panic Station. Me and a colleague would like to use the song and create our own music video for it. We will be using the song to portray a zombie apocalypse, we felt that Panic Station offered exactly what we wanted in terms of lyrical and sound content.

To clarify, all of the rights to the song will remain yours, we merely want to use the song to create a music video for our business' portfolio.

Sincerely, Ben Davis

Co-Founder of Havis Productions.

Location Recce

Laurence's Bedroom - We chose to film here because it had a bed that we needed in the background of the beginning shot of Laurence's eyes opening. This shot was an extreme close up but it was also used to film the shot of Laurence's tie being straightened. we chose to film here because it was easily accessible and it represented a typical teenage bedroom

Ben's Bedroom - We chose to film here because we needed a different bed for the second shot in the video which was ben's eyes opening in a different location. This room was again used for the shot of Ben straitening his tie. We chose to film here because again, it resembles a typical teenage bedroom and also it differed from Laurence's room which showed the two characters actions in different locations.

Laurence's Bathroom - Laurence's bathroom was used for the armpit and teeth shot which Laurence is in. We chose to film in there as it was a typical bathroom that was needed in the shot.

Ben's Bathroom - This location was easily accessible and needed for the shots where Ben brushes his teeth and washes his armpit. Once again, the room needed to be different from Laurence's so we ended up using Bens.

School Gates - This location was for the shot where our characters meet for the first time after the prelude. We needed something for Laurence's character to rest against as he waited for Ben to join him. This was easily accessible as this location was directly outside our school.

School pathway - This was used in five shots, one being the Bully's first appearance and the second being the stand off. The other three were the extreme close ups of each characters face. This location set the school setting which is why it was chosen for this scene.

Media Classroom - We chose this location as we needed a classroom with a white board that could display full screen videos. We needed this to display the BBC logo.

Media corridor and staircase: This was used as it was the exit out of our media classroom. We needed this location for only one shot.

Toilet block - We filmed outside the toilet block for our changing clothes scene. we required a shot with a toilet symbol in shot so we decided to shoot at this location.

Media classroom - This was used for Brodies transition into a zombie. For this location we needed a classroom with a computer and a teacher that didn't mind us dropping liquid on the floor. We used the same Media Classroom that we used earlier but around the corner section so it didn't look the same as it did in the earlier shots.

Behind Sports Hall - This location was used for two shots. one being an extreme close up of Ben's head  peering out from behind the wall and the second being a long shot of Ben and Laurence rolling around on the floor on patrol.

Infront Of The Sports Hall - This location was used for 4 shots. Two of the shots we're Long shots of Brodie, ben and Laurence. The other 2 we're extreme close ups of each characters faces. We chose this location as the grass looks slightly overgrown and it had blue containers that made the backdrop look slightly remote.

Main Hall Pathway - We used this location as it was an easy entrance and helped link two parts of the story together. This looks good because it shows a dynamic shot of the three characters running down the path, which looks good and looks as though it is a real situation.

Main Hall - We used this room because it was empty, this reflected the fact that we were alone with the zombie, and gave a sort of deserted feel to the video.

Field - The field was used for a final stand off scene. This was because it was a huge open space, so we had lots of room to run from one side to the other, which was necessary for the way we decided to film.

Storyboard

Casting

CASTING

BEN & LAURENCE - Ben and I play ourselves in our zombie music video, These parts were easy to cast because we're the only two people in our group and as we both study drama, we were both confident to be in the vast majority of shots used in the final production. As best friends in real life Ben and I suited the roles well as we already had formed chemistry that would make the friendship in the video realistic. We also enjoyed taking an acting role as well as taking leadership in the production, camera work and editing side.

SCHOOL BULLY/ZOMBIE - Brodie Grant plays the school bully turned zombie character in our music video, despite not being in our media classes, Brodie was free a lot of time that worked with our production schedule. Brodie suited the role well as he managed to master 'The zombie run' which he evolved into a running stumble. He also brought a confused personality into the zombie that completely changed from his earlier persona of a bully. We only required an actor with the ability to portray the character journey of a regular human turned stereotypical mild zombie.

NEWSREADER - The casting for the news reader was surprisingly simple. From the early draft of our storyboard we already wanted a female so that the video wouldn't have a predominantly male cast. When ready and prepared to film the News scene all we had to do was ask a female friend if they would be kind enough to spare ten minutes of their day to film. We chose Brianna Barwell based on the fact that she was willing to participate, She had dressed smartly on that particular day and the fact she was female suited our storyboard.

BULLY'S FRIEND - Sasha Hedington played the Bully's friend in the few shots during the beginning stand off. The only requirement needed for this role was that the height of the actor roughly matched Brodie's so that their faces would be level in the mid shot that was used.

DEAD GIRL - This was the easiest part to cast as all the actress had to do was lay on the floor whilst Brodie pretended to be eating her. Chelsey Vincent played this part.

Risk Assessment

Shooting Script

Track Choice and Analysis

The track we chose to use for our music video "Panic Station" by Muse. The genre is Pop/Rock therefore we needed to make sure the video was fast paced. We began thinking about the idea of our music video, we felt that because of the fast paced beats a zombie apocalypse would be appropriate for the music. The song starts of slow, so we thought it would be best to begin with a normal day, and as the music began to increase in speed we decided to reveal that the zombie apocalypse had begun.

The name of the song reflects our idea, the word "Panic" is an expected feeling when there is a zombie apocalypse so we thought that would fit well with the theme. Lyrically, the song is perfect for a zombie theme, "Ooh, 1, 2, 3, 4 fire's in eyes, and this chaos, it defies imagination, Ooh, 5, 6, 7, minus 9 lives, You've arrived at panic station" The words "fire's", "chaos" both reflect anarchy and devastation. Also, the counting to the number 9 adds a countdown, as if there is not much time left. The fact that it says "9 lives" contrasts the fact that in real life we only have 1, which makes a single life in such a situation seem precious. All of which link with the theme of a Zombie Apocalypse and our music video idea, therefore it is a suitable choice of music for us.

The song is written and performed by Muse, who are a well known band that both write and perform their songs. They also do lots of film soundtracks, so naturally they write songs that work really well with a story line. For example, their latest soundtrack being for the Blockbuster film World War Z. They made two songs for the film, one being Isolated System, and the other being Follow Me. Both of these are from the same album as Panic Station, so they are relatively similar in terms of music type and genre. And they both worked very well in a zombie orientated movie. From this we thought that the best choice of music for our idea was Panic Station, because of a mix of lyrics that worked, the gradual increase in pace and the overall genre of the music.