Birds and Planes Step Outline

Throughout the video there will be shots of the band playing interweaving between the shots in the narrative. The performance shots will use a lot of panning and tracking shots so that the entire band gets pretty much equal screen time. There will also be close-ups of the instruments at important parts of the song, for example the bass bridge, and close-ups of the singer to show emotion. The characters in the narrative will be mouthing along to some of the words to glue the performance and narrative together.

 

0.00 – 0.14	Intro	Introduction to characters of the bird and pilot. Both are sitting on a sofa at home with the bird glaring at the pilot (relationship troubles). The bird then throws something like an egg at the pilot at the same time as the music kicks in.
0.14 – 0.54	Chorus	Cuts to band performing in warehouse with various shots interweaving between shots of the narrative. Shots of the pilot (sad) looking at pictures of the bird. Flashback to pilot eating KFC in house then bird walks in on accent of song. Bird gets angry and pilot has subtitles like – “It’s not what it looks like!”
0.54 – 1.10	Verse	Transition back to pilot being sad and looking at photos mouthing along to words of the song. More shots of band performing.
1.10 – 1.57	Chorus	Shots of bird getting increasingly angry and mouthing along to words of the song. Like with previous chorus general shots of the band performing between shots of narrative. Bird eventually gets so angry he gets initiated into a gang. Montage of the bird being initiated with clothes and various tasks.
1.57 – 2.23	Bridge	Pilot walks down a street in the dark and stumbles upon the gang and the bird. The gang harass him by tripping him up and laugh at him. As the pilot walks away the bird turns around and feels sorry for him. The gang notices this so starts to harass the bird.
2.23 – 2.45	Bridge (Bass)	Slow zoom on the bassist whilst he is playing the bridge (solo) and as the gang harass the bird the pilot turns around to see what is happening. The pilot gets gradually angrier as the bridge goes on until a cut to the singer screaming. The video then cuts back to the pilot who is screaming in time with singer. This shot is in slow motion.
2.45 – 3.25 (END)	Chorus	Pilot runs towards bird and helps by pushing the gang away and hitting them with briefcase. Montage of fight scene with bird and pilot teaming up to fight off gang. Shots of the band now head-banging and jumping around with music. The bird and pilot become friends again after the gang have gone and walk off into the distance together.

Textual Analysis for Dinosaur Pile-Up - Mona Lisa

Above is a textual analysis grid for Dinosaur Pile-ups 'Mona lisa' video.  This is the band we are using for our music video and looking at an already used video from them is a good way to have a look at the setting, location and overall feel to be replicated in our video.

Textual Analysis for Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

I looked at this video to focus on the way that the director used panning and camera movements to portray the band in the video.

Joe Rees-Jones

This mind map shows the visual style we hope to use in the video for Birds and Planes.  

Practice shoots - Birds and planes

Above is the test practice/shoot for our music video for the track 'Birds and planes' by Dinosaur pile up. we used a variety of shots which all where successful and covered all areas of shooting we will be using for our actual video. The lighting in the shot is regular lighting from artificial bulbs. The whole video is performance based and no narrative is used or covered even though are actual video will contain a story. The performance as a whole worked well and suited the use of only one person. We tried to mimic there track 'Mona Lisa' and there video for the track and its use of focusing on the singer playing in the intro, like we did, and its jumpy edits to increase visual pace.

Antonio Panzera
Joe Rees-Jones
Elliot Newton

Music Video Genre - Alternative Rock

This mind map shows the typical conventions of a music video for the Alternative Rock genre

Target Audience

This mind map shows the target audience for the band Dinosaur Pile-Up.

• Targeted at middle class 18 to 30 year olds
• No specific sexuality is targeted
• The band has mainly a male audience but also have female fans
• Subculture of Grunge/Rock/Indie

PITCH

 

Pitch Summary

Introduction 

• Song - Birds and Planes by Dinosaur Pile-Up
• The reason we chose the song is because the band is still relatively small but getting some publicity plus we really like the song
• We will use humour to attract the target audience of middle class 16-30 year olds
• The humour will be influenced by the excisting Dinosaur Pile-Up video 'Mona Lisa' by using home-made looking costumes which will also be similar to comedy shows 'The Mighty Boosh' and 'Flight of the Conchords' 
• The band will be promoted by posting the video on social networking sites such as Facebook and Youtube

Target Audience 

• Age range: 16-30 which is a similar age to the band members
• Mostly a male audience due to the immature humour of the music video 'Mona Lisa' plus the music can be quite immature and jumpy at times as well
• The music isn't targeted at any particular sexuality
• Targeted at the Grunge/Rock/Indie scene, very similar to music of the 90's 

Conventions of Form and Genre

• Lots of performance shots will be used throughout the music video to reinforce the idea that the band is 'all about the music'
• The band will be wearing casual clothes such as jeans, trainers and shirts and if there is a comical narrative (like our video) some sort of humorous costumes will be used
• Places such as warehouses are used for the performances shots whilst settings suitable to the narrative are used in the narrative shots
• The average shot length is 1-4 seconds, the shorter shots being when the music is faster and longer shots when it becomes slower
• Cuts will happen on the beat to define instrumental accents
• Music videos of a similar style of use special FX such as slow motion, lighting FX and camera filters such as sepia which we will adapt to our video 

Content

• Choreography will include general shots of the band playing possibly with dancing/jumping fans with acting appropriate to the narrative
• When the band is playing there will be close-ups of the instruments and the singer to portray emotion and important instrumental parts such as the bass guitar in the bridge
• Rarely, if not any costume changes simply since it doesn't apply to the genre
• The setting changes between the narrative and the performance shots 

Style 

• Lots of panning and trcking shots will be used around the band so the whole band can be seen like in the video for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
• Some minor special FX may be used in the video for example straight after the bass guitar bridge in the song on bothe performance shots and the narrative like in the video for 'Mona Lisa'
• The band will have casual costumes including scruffy hair, trainers, jeans, t-shirts and shirts whilst the narrative actors will have costumes suitable to what they are doing. For example the bird and pilot costume which will be used in our music video 

Image 

• Reviewers have compared the band to big 90's bands such as Nirvana, Weezer and Foo Fighters
• 'A judderingly melodic grunge soaked fuzz-fest' - The Fly
• MTV Rock's future hit
• The cheap hand-made costumes in our video, and lots of shots of the band playing wearing casual clothing will reinforce there grunge/rock/indie image
• The use of immature, tongue and cheek humour will attract the target audience as it has been used in previous music videos of the genre
• This immature humour has been influenced by the already excisting music video 'Mona Lisa' by Dinosaur Pile-Up and tv shows such as The Mighty Boosh and Flight of the Conchords

Our Idea

Throughout the video there will be shots of the band playing interweaving between the shots in the narrative. The performance shots will use a lot of panning and tracking shots so that the entire band gets pretty much equal screen time. There will also be close-ups of the instruments at important parts of the song, for example the bass bridge, and close-ups of the singer to show emotion. The characters in the narrative will be mouthing along to some of the words to glue the performance and narrative together.

0.00 – 0.14	Intro	Introduction to characters of the bird and pilot. Both are sitting on a sofa at home with the bird glaring at the pilot (relationship troubles). The bird then throws something like an egg at the pilot at the same time as the music kicks in.
0.14 – 0.54	Chorus	Cuts to band performing in warehouse with various shots interweaving between shots of the narrative. Shots of the pilot (sad) looking at pictures of the bird. Flashback to pilot eating KFC in house then bird walks in on accent of song. Bird gets angry and pilot has subtitles like – “It’s not what it looks like!”
0.54 – 1.10	Verse	Transition back to pilot being sad and looking at photos mouthing along to words of the song. More shots of band performing.
1.10 – 1.57	Chorus	Shots of bird getting increasingly angry and mouthing along to words of the song. Like with previous chorus general shots of the band performing between shots of narrative. Bird eventually gets so angry he gets initiated into a gang. Montage of the bird being initiated with clothes and various tasks.
1.57 – 2.23	Bridge	Pilot walks down a street in the dark and stumbles upon the gang and the bird. The gang harass him by tripping him up and laugh at him. As the pilot walks away the bird turns around and feels sorry for him. The gang notices this so starts to harass the bird.
2.23 – 2.45	Bridge (Bass)	Slow zoom on the bassist whilst he is playing the bridge (solo) and as the gang harass the bird the pilot turns around to see what is happening. The pilot gets gradually angrier as the bridge goes on until a cut to the singer screaming. The video then cuts back to the pilot who is screaming in time with singer. This shot is in slow motion.
2.45 – 3.25 (END)	Chorus	Pilot runs towards bird and helps by pushing the gang away and hitting them with briefcase. Montage of fight scene with bird and pilot teaming up to fight off gang. Shots of the band now head-banging and jumping around with music. The bird and pilot become friends again after the gang have gone and walk off into the distance together.