Group: Script for pitch

Ben - The track we have chosen to create a narrative music video to is, Mark Ronson - In Case of Fire. Mark Ronson is a funk-electronica artist, and has experienced many re-brands. We are aiming to create another - through a narrative music video, by contributing to his meta-narrative as a creator. The song itself fulfils Dyer's star image theory, with connotations of rebellion, youth, and mischievousness.

Jack - Establishing shot is of a female toilet door. The camera tracks as the door opens into the toilet, revealing a girl who chucks back a pill into her throat. She runs out of the toilet and down the hall. She then runs through a classroom, as kids look in awe, she jumps out of the window.

The next shot shows her cannonball into a swimming pool in the sun. A POV shot shows her surface and see a massive fire outside the pool. She gets out of the pool and walks towards the fire - comprised of school books burning.

As she gazes into the fire, bailiffs come along and pick her up. She is carried round the other side of the pool to a table strewn with snapped credit cards and bills. A shot of the men behind her as she glances at them before setting a match and chucking it on the fire. She runs away.

Ben - As the chorus sounds, the visuals cut between the girl walking through some woods and the fire.

The camera zooms into the fire and zooms out, revealing the fire as the end of a cigarette. Zooming out further reveals the girl sitting at a bar smoking a cigarette. The camera pans to the left and she is seen flirting with the man, she flicks her cigarette onto the table and a fire starts again.

The girl runs away, and the visuals cut between the girl running and the fire at the bar.

The final part of the song shows the girl arrive home, only for her house to be only embers, burnt down. Zoom out and imply isolation and loneliness as the video ends.

Jack - After creating a shot-list together, we have produced an animatic to give you a real feel of what our music video will look like. (Play animatic and track.)

Tom - We have a few objectives for our promotional campaign. Firstly, Mark Ronson is a prestigious artist who has engaged in re-branding many times, beginning his career as hip-hop DJ, before progressing into a more vintage, motown, style. His new album, 'Uptown specials', is a brilliant funk album. Therefore, rather than doing a performance based music video, as the majority of his music videos are, we are going to do a purely narrative music video. We hope this will add to his meta-narrative, portraying him as an even more effective creator. Lastly, the song, 'In Case of Fire', is a song which has connotations which match Dyer's star theory, such as rebellion, youth, and mischeviousness. We aim to fulfil Dyer's star theory, as well as tapping into some of Goodwin's arguments, such as the amplifying nature between lyrics and visuals.

Jack - Here are some of the print ideas we have had. We are going to do a 6-pane digipak, which offers some conventions of the funk genre, as well as being in alignment with our music video, as our digipak includes iconic signs of rebellion, youth and freedom. Binary oppositions are also evident here, whereby one of the cigarette panes will be an image of a pen in the same position, and the cigarette pane. Lastly - we like the idea of incorporating titles into an idea, and as 'Uptown Special' does sound like a beer name, our album cover will centre around this iconographic item - such as tracklist being in form of beer.

Ben - The first scene is set in a public toilet. The second will be filmed in a classroom. In the third, we are using a friend's swimming pool. Some scenes are to be filmed in Hurst Wood. One of our scenes takes place outside a bar, we have identified one at the pantiles. The running car scene will take place on Ben's road. Lastly, the final shot involves an area where it looks like her house has burnt down - other than doing it in the woods, we are at a loss here and welcome suggestions.

Tom - Here are the props we plan to use.

Tom - The girl is going to wear a green school uniform, the bailiffs will wear dirty white t-shirts, and the flirty man will wear a suit. We believe the signifiers and connotations of costume are important, and ours will contribute towards character exposition.

Jack - After speaking to Tom's friend, who is a good actor, Sam Andine - he was happy to act in the role of the flirty man, and managed to get a girl onboard as the main part. With regards to the three bailiffs - these will likely just be our dads.

Ben - In terms of the technical brief, the only pro-filmic effect we plan to use is the presence of fire. In terms of post-filmic effects, the funk genre rarely includes special effects in their music videos, but we will address colour grading, and already have a very vibrant, colourful colour palette in mind. Perhaps similar to the colour grading in Utopia.

Tom - Camera excellence will be achieved in a number of ways. Primarily - the composition and cinematography behind our shots. We have already planned to have action occur simultaneously on the lines of two thirds, on top of this - an advantage of already storyboarding means we have composed some shots to contribute towards character exposition and the narrative. Secondly - the range of camera angles we plan to use will gain us camera excellence, as shots will be juxtaposed using high and low angles, for example. Thirdly - our camera distances will contribute towards our narrative, such as the extreme long shot at the end highlighting the lonely, isolated nature of the character.

Jack - In terms of editing, we have already planned a number of transitions which will achieve technical excellence. An example is zooming into the back of the character and then zooming out to change location, panning up to the sky and panning down to change time scale, and zooming in on fire and zooming out on a cigarette end to change location.

Ben - Thanks for watching our pitch.