Pitching our primary idea

The Pitch:

As the idea that we were pitching had been one of my initial ideas we decided that I should pitch it asI had a better understanding of the idea at this early stage. We intended to pitch both of our shortlisted ideas to Luke but unfortunately ran out of time - the other 3 members of my group were to pitch that idea as it had been more of a group creation and we all had an equal understanding of it. The two ideas that we shortlisted had equal strength, yet due to the fact that the pranking  concept hasn't got a song yet we decided to prioritise the Gang/rave idea.

Here is a video of me pitching the idea to Luke, Phil and my classmates, and receiving feedback after our pitch.

In the video Luke and Phil cover various points, the key feedback I can draw from their response to the pitch is as follows:

• Origionality - A lot was said about the concept being unoriginal and leaning toward being cliche - "the first thing you think of when you hear the track" - which is a very true statement. As was said in the feedback two groups of teenage boys fighting is neither original nor particularly interesting to watch, as is a group of people dancing.

• Impractical - There are many impracticalities in the concept such as: filming a rave environment, filming a fight scene, filming a menacing gang walk around public streets, filming outside at night is difficult (extremely difficult to find a plug socket out on the streets for a studio light and also difficult to carry a massive 80/90kg generator around) It is also difficult to find actors that could convince the viewer that they are menacing/aggressive or drunk - they would also not be trained in stage combat so the fight sequence would rely on expert camerawork - a standard that I'm afraid I haven't yet reached.

• Concept doesn't fully suit track - A point that was referred back to a few times in the feedback was that the concept was not brutal/aggressive/shocking/violent enough for the track - that having an underwhelming fight scene between two groups of teenage boys wouldn't effectively match the track, also there are comical aspects in our idea, in the feedback we are told that this would look out of place in the video. I agree with this, I now think that a comical aspect in the music video would bring the viewer out of the sense of danger - and would detract from the aggressive tone of the video.

At the end of our feedback Luke advised my group to watch three music videos that really dramatise and emphasise violence and a feeling of discomfort. They are as follows:

The Prodigy - "Smack my bitch up"

 

Smack my bitch up  uses a gopro camera, establishing a POV shot throughout the entirety of the music video - exhibiting the wild nightlife of a clearly unstable club-goer. This is a good example of how to make a music video brutal to support the aggressive music behind it.

Aphex Twin - "Come to daddy"

Rather than making the music video to this track particularly violent, this concept is extremely disturbing for the viewer to watch - with little children with the face of the artist running around breaking things, and a weird alien-like creature screaming into the face of an old woman...it's really quite effective.

The Bloody Beetroots - "We are from venice" (Hurtwood Music Video)

I couldn't find the official music video to this track, but I did find a Hurtwood rendition. (whether or not this is what Luke was referring to I don't know) Either way I would use this video as a bad example of how to make the visuals to an aggressive track impactful - in my opinion a group of boys smoking, breaking a fridge, tipping over chairs, and drinking gasoline isn't a good build up for setting a car on fire...in a scrapyard in the middle of the woods...did I mention that the car was already derelict and devoid of any signs of current use? However I could take something away from this music video It would be that when the boys cut their hands with shards of glass I as a viewer felt uncomfortable - blood is a visceral entity in any kind of film - I think that when shot in the right way and used in the right context blood could very effectively be used in our music video.