Planning - 4

This is our updated mind map. It shows all the issues that we have discussed over the last few days and represents some of our initial ideas.

Planning - 3

The original music video:

This is the original music video for our chosen song. It is very typical of a 70's  music video as it is very grainy and doesn't have any special effects. The video concept is very simple, which helps for the performance to convey the genre. We will re-create this. However, we will use after effects to attempt to make our film grainy like the original, as we feel it helps portray the genre. The performance is good and interesting, we shall attempt to copy this. Our lead singer will have to be animated and get involved with the music, this also goes to the rest of the band. The animated, expressive performance of the band helps to create the genre for the song, which will help us define our genre in our music video. We will film in London, like the original, and will feature different locations, unlike the original. We may not film at night, instead during a day where it is overcast. This won't give it the same effect, but it will have the same mood. We will attempt to keep the punk image, but turn it into a more modern-day punk rock image. We will also focus on the band playing, like in the original video.

Planning -2

We started to plan our idea on paper, although this doesn't look like much, our discussion was mainly verbal. We will do an updated version at a later point. 

Planning - 1

"London Calling"

London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared, and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls
London calling, now don't look to us
Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling, see we ain't got no swing
'Cept for the ring of that truncheon thing

[Chorus 1:]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out, and draw another breath
London calling, and I don't wanna shout
But while we were talking, I saw you nodding out
London calling, see we ain't got no high
Except for that one with the yellowy eyes

[Chorus 2: x2]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

Now get this

London calling, yes, I was there, too
An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
After all this, won't you give me a smile?
London calling

 I never felt so much alike [fading] alike alike alike

We looked at the lyrics and decided what we could do to incorporate into our music video. Punk music during the 70's was highly topical, mentioning political, economic and social issues. This will be hard to both represent these issues in the modern day, or to those of the 70's. We feel that there is the possibility that we don't have to make our video topical, rather that we keep the punk rock image. 

This may be hard to recreate now as some of the issues such as "Now War is declared, and battle come down" or "A nuclear error" both concern the Cold War. This is obviously something that is not highly topical now and something that would be too hard to create in our video, especially as we are trying to update the bands image and not maintain. We can't do this as we feel the band's image is too iconic and we feel trying to recreate it would not work, as it  would be too hard to achieve. It would also effect our music video and we would lose our authenticity.

 

Our initial pitch

We intend to do "London Calling" by The Clash as our music video. The song has many possibilities for us and will enable us to be more creative with locations and our visuals. We all agreed that trying do a song from the 1970's would be difficult to re-create, as the era was well-known for its punk rock image. Today, the punk rock scene is almost, if not, gone. So in order to re-create this music video, we will have to dress in the 70's punk rock image. This will mean that we will have to look at the dress from this era, and keep the mise-en-scene realistic to that era.

 This is the sort of clothing we will have to try and re-establish if we want to make a successful music video.

As the song is from the 70's, there are some topical issues that don't match those of today. For example, the song hints at the nuclear crisis of the cold war and the fall in Beatlemania, of which we don't experience often today. So we will have to either attempt to change these issues into that of modern day issues or try and represent those issues in a unique way.

Seen as the song's title quotes "London", we feel this would be a good place to shot some of our music video. We don't want to film in typical London site-seeing sites, as we feel this isn't creative enough. The 70's were quite rebellious, and punk was at the forefront of this. During The Clash's original video for the song gloomy, poor-lit  run-down areas were used. We would like to re-create this as it represents the genre of music more appropriately. The gritty nature of punk rock will be recognisable through our locations and visuals.

We plan to film the other part of our music video in a studio, as this will give us the chance to experiment with lighting and performance. We intend to have instruments you would expect from a rock band; a drum, lead guitars and a base. We will show each of the band members playing their instruments, as this is typical of a rock music video. Our lighting will be fairly dark as to represent the genre and make our video more appealing to our audience.

We believe that if we get all of the above right, we can make an effective music video the will represent that of a successful punk rock music video.

70's Punk Rock

70's Punk Rock:

For our music video we are thinking of performing "London Calling" by The Clash. The Clash were a 70's punk rock band, and for us to represent them in our music video, we will need to know a bit more about the era and what the meanings were behind their songs.

Punk rock songs in the UK were based upon mainly political and economic issues. In "London Calling" the song refers to the nuclear crisis facing the world at the time. This was highly topical, as many people in London joined protest groups against nuclear warfare. Employment was low during the 70's and the youth were in a rebellious mood. The youth looked up to bands such as The Clash and The Sex Pistols as their way of disobeying authority.

By the late 70's, punk rock had entered a new era and was recognised as a form of music. The genre had split into sub-genres and was expanding. The clothing was different in different sub-genres, however punks were highly recognisable. Their clothing was generally a mix of bright and dark and was normally extravagant, hence why it was so recognisable.

We will have to look up this image and copy it if we want to create a successful music video. We may have to turn the issues noted in "London Calling" to that of the present day. For example the nuclear crisis isn't highly topical and we will have to either find an alternative or find another way of expressing the lyrics from the song.