Lyrics & Cut Song

As we have discovered our song lasts 5 minutes and 7 seconds, we felt it was too long we would be unable to create a quality music video which lasted this long. herefore we have decided to cut a verse out;

The lyrics we have taken out:

'Cause sometimes at night,
I dream of the most terrible things
I take a hammer and I creep out of bed
And I raise it high
And I smash your head
Fibular and tubular
And ribs and cages, too
In fact, while I'm here
I'll smash the whole of you
Smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash                         The New Lyrics;

                                                                         

Skeleton you are my friend
But you are made of bone
And you have got no flesh and blood
Running through you to help protect the bone

Skeleton we have been friends for years
And you have seen me through some trials
And tribulations and some tears
But everybody thinks I'm weird
And I should have known
That it wouldn't be long
Until you, you've got me standing in an awkward position
With unwanted attention and a need for explanation
And it's not that I'm letting go of you
But I don't know what to do
Skeleton we are so close
But you have got no body
So why do you insist on wearing clothes
Skeleton when we were young
It was easy
Even though the other kids
They would tease me
But I was only seven I had you
But now I'm twenty-two
And now it's different, when I take you out
And you, you've got me standing in an awkward position
With unwanted attention and a need for explanation
And it's not that I'm letting go of you
But I don't know what to do

But Skeleton, you are my friend
And I could never bring your life to an end
Yes Skeleton you are, you are my friend
And I will be there for you until the end
And even though, when I take you out
You've got me, you've got me standing in an awkward position
With unwanted attention and a need for explanation
I could, I could never let you go
And that is all I know
And that is all I know
And that is all I, that is all I know
And that is all I know, know


The length of our new edited version of the song is now 3.35 minutes as we will also not begin the music video until it is 12 seconds into the introduction, when the piano features in it. 

This is the cut song.

concept pitch feedback

We designed a pitch for our music video as part of our research and planning, we then asked for feedback from the audience of teenagers, of both sexes, as to what they thought.

'Great Concept...too in key with the artist rather than devoting the video to the tone of the music', 'The song is quite long, maybe you could try to edit a section out...Liked the skeleton idea'. 'The vintage look you are aiming for is too focused on, and should perhaps be less of a priority...the theme is really interesting and captivating of our attention'. 'The song is a little long, and one or too ideas may be unachievable, however  the over all concept is great!'

We now have lots of suggestions to take into account whilst we plan our music video further, we have been able to see our potential audience's initial thoughts, and now have a clearer understanding of the direction we want to take our video in, what we can and can't include, and what our audience's  likes and dislikes are. By completing our pitch we have shaped our music video to complement it's target audience.   

mood board

I took this screen shot from Lady Gaga's video 'Bad Romance'. I like the way she has used the skeleton as if it is a real person because it it lying in the bed next to her. It has a really edgy effect. 

I though this would be a good idea for if we decide to do a scene in a cafe/park. The cakes look home made and simple. Kate Nash doesn't tend to go for the really glamorous expensive look so these cakes would be perfect to fit in with this idea.

I love the way these two pictures are edited to make them look like vintage films. This effect would be good to use in part of our music video as it fits in with the Indie conventions and genre. The idea is to make them look individual which would mean not fitting in with the other glamorised music videos that are around at the moment. 

These three pictures would make great props for the scenes. As well as focussing on the location, little touches like props would really complete the mise en scene.

The four pictures above are ones that will inspire the costume we will have in the video. I think it would be affective to incorporate a 60's indie look such as floral and gingham dresses, high waisted shorts/skirts and loud patterns with subtle skeleton accessories such as rings and jewellery.      

We thought as part of the narrative that we would use pictures of the skeleton and the main singer growing up together. Polaroid pictures would be a good way of showing this as the exposure makes them look old and look as if they are from far back in the past such as the 60's/70's.

As part of out video we are going to use musical instruments to show the performance element of the song. These instruments are simple looking and again would fit in with the indie ideology and conventions.

These pictures are ideas for props and CD design. The first three pictures would be good to use on the CD cover as they are simple looking and use the skeleton idea. The last picture uses the idea that the skeleton would fit into every day life and fit in with humans/mannequins. 

PITCH PART 2 and pitch assessment

...Our pitch in words

Our pitch in words

PITCH

CONTENTTT

What content, Style and Image will your audience expect from your music video for this artist?

M  In terms of content, I think our target audience of 13-21 year olds will expect a classic pop/indie video. Ideas we have currently brainstormed for our video surrounding this includes some levels of performance for example: lip-synching and elements of role play; characters other than the main playing unconventional instruments such as the flute (instead of the standard guitar for instance); many costume changes, all bright and vintage clothing with a unique edginess to them; various close ups, especially during lip-synching and scenes of high emotion; a narrative is essential: all Kate Nash videos we have researched contains a story- usually surrounding the theme of love; perhaps animation, depending on how effective this is- there is use of animation in ‘Pumpkin Soup’. Choreographed dancing is a possibility however, we are unsure as to how effective this would be for our particular video as there is plenty of narrative planned which would over-shadow this. There would definitely not be any provocative images- indie music videos in particular (and some pop videos which are aimed at a young audience) seem to have a certain innocence to them and sexual images would not fit in with our video.

M  The style of our video would- to fit in with indie conventions- very bright and colourful. More specifically, to reach the expectations of a standard Kate Nash video, 60’s themed. This would include quite psychedelic mise-en-scene, quite Alice in Wonderland themed. For example, in Kate Nash’s video for ‘Pumpkin Soup’ she has mutant singing, instrument-playing cats dancing in the background. We want to take our audience to another place, try to get them in touch with their imagination so we will need quite strange props and scenarios in our video. The camerawork (e.g. shots and angles) would be standard and can coincide with any genre of music video.

M  Kate Nash herself has been described as quite quirky in reviews and even as ‘weird’ when watched playing live. We want to adapt some of this ‘weirdness’ and create something utterly unique. Other artists we could incorporate elements from could be Lily Allen (especially from the ‘The Fear’ video- this was based on Alice and Wonderland), The Drums as their video’s have a very 60’s, Beach Boys vibe, Florence and the Machine (particularly in her video for ‘Dog Days’- I really like the gypsy theme and we could adapt elements of the mise-en-scene from that video to ours), and possibly The Clash as a darker side to our video.

M  The image described will be constructed throughout our video using escapism and strange, fantasy situations. Bright colours and 60’s theme will help aid this and fast editing will help keep to the conventions of a traditional indie/pop video.

What will we see in your video and how will this take up 3-4 minutes of screen time?

M  In our video, we are planning various scenarios surrounding the life of a young girl and her best friend which is incidentally a skeleton. The lyrics tell a metaphorical story of how she has been best friends with this skeleton since she was very young but now ‘everybody thinks I’m weird’. We will take the metaphor out of the lyrics and use a literal skeleton. Scenarios will include really simple scenes of the girl and her skeleton boarding a tram, viewing artwork at the museum and at the park. This is very simple yet the simplicity makes it humorous as no one expects to see a life-sized skeleton on the swings. I think it will also be effective as it plays upon our target audiences’ real life situations. For example, the majority of our target audience will be experiencing new places whether that being new schools, colleges, universities and jobs and everyone has friends left behind or that are unspoken to. Therefore our video will hopefully affect out audience emotionally due to its life like message and this will help our video become a success.

M  The artist will be acting throughout alongside the skeleton, mainly doing everyday activates, as stated above. She will also be lip-synching.

M  Our video will fill up 5.07 minutes of screen time by including various scenarios, lip-synching, performance and random images (as inspired by other Kate Nash videos).

M  Our video will not be boring simply because it is different. It will tell a story, but at the same time, not a standard story. It can be perceived to be a love song, for example, but there are not many videos where there is a girl and a boy is replaced by a girl and a skeleton.

M  The theme is defiantly 60’s based with influences of Alice in Wonderland. Imagination and a sense of fun will be something we will aim for whilst making the video.

M  There is a narrative and it is fairly simple: girl has a friend, girl is bored of the friend, girl attempts to leave the friend, girl comes back to the friend. The lyric ‘I could never let you go/and that is all I know’ will be something we will bear in mind whilst making the video as to remind us that while we are making them demonstrate fight scenes, there will always be a sense of a strong, unbreakable bond between them.

Words which are probably relevant...

WORDS WE NEED TO BARE IN MIND!!!

es·cap·ism  

es·cap·ism [i skáy pìzzəm]

n

1.  escape from everyday reality: something such as fantasy or entertainment that makes it possible to forget about the ordinary or unpleasant realities of life for a while 

2.  indulgence in fantasies to escape reality: the act of indulging in daydreams or fantasies to escape from everyday reality

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

fan·ta·sy  

fan·ta·sy [fántəssee]

n (plural fan·ta·sies)

1.  imaginative power: the creative power of the imagination 

2.  mental image or dream: an image or dream created by the imagination 

3.  psychology creation of mental images: the creation of exaggerated mental images in response to an ungratified need 

4.  impractical idea: an unrealistic and impractical idea 

5.  literature genre of fiction: a type of fiction featuring imaginary worlds and magical or supernatural events 

[14th century. Via Old French from Greek phantasia , “appearance, imagination,” from, ultimately, phainein “to show” (source of English phantom and phenomenon).]

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved

fun   

fun [fun]

n

1.  amusement: a time or feeling of enjoyment or amusement

Just for fun, we wore silly hats. 

2.  something amusing: something such as an activity that provides enjoyment or amusement

Skiing is fun for the whole family. 

3.  mockery: playful joking, often at the expense of another

What’s said in fun can still hurt.

adj

1.  amusing: providing enjoyment or amusement (informal)

We’ll have a fun time tonight.

2.  cheap and flamboyant: flamboyant in style and often made of cheap synthetic materials, designed to be used or worn for fun

fun jewelry

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.