Storyboard

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Treatment

The narrative of SK Productions' music video is the story of how our male protagonist met our female protagonist. The video is mainly flash forwards of what the male protagonist is thinking i.e what could happen in the future if he talks to this girl that he just met. There are two parts of the video.

Music Video Treatment (Chris Brown ft. Kevin McCall)

A beautiful, relatable song deserves a video with the same message. This is a fun and young love song and so the music video should be filled with the same connotations. There will be a lot of soft focus and extreme close ups to create intimacy between characters and the audience, also soft/dim lighting for interior shots and slow motion in certain scenes would romanticise scenes between our characters. The speed in this video will vary from fast, to slow, to normal. This is only to emphasise the unexpected trail love sometimes takes; especially when it involves young people. There are different characters singing their particular parts of the song either at normal speed, in slow motion or scenes are just sped up.

The beginning is where the narrative begins and is the instrumental for about 10 seconds before Kevin McCall starts singing the first verse. The male protagonist (Mickael Bolenge) is being followed by the camera as he walks down the street with his headphones in. He spots a young lady from afar (Sharlene Kawooya) and they catch each others’ eyes. The street will be relatively empty with only a few pedestrians and cars. The follow on will be in mid-shot of Bolenge and Kawooya will be walking towards the camera from further away. Using a POV shot, we will be able to create the effect of the audience seeing through Bolenge’s eyes. Bolenge will be wearing a white top, black jacket, jeans and black shoes/trainers. This is a typical urban teen look to create an appeal and make Bolenge relatable for young urban teen boys of around his age. Kawooya will be wearing tight skinny jeans, a red dress top and a black jacket; she will also have red hair. She won’t be too glamorized as we would like young girls to relate to her rather than meet an impossible bar. The red could connote a certain danger but also in this sense it’s more about ‘love at first sight’ and attractiveness.

Bolenge contemplates whether to talk to Kawooya or not and starts to daydream of what could be if he does. When he starts the daydream the audience will see him looking up then a cross fade into a scene in the future. The lyrics begin and Bolenge is on a bed with his arms behind his head looking straight up at the camera, lip synching part of the first verse. When he turns, his bed is empty but then Kawooya appears there fast asleep. This shot would be a close up that fits both Kawooya and Bolenge in it with a closer look at Kawooya and Bolenge behind her. Bolenge gets up and the next scene is him in the kitchen trying to cook whilst Kawooya is at the table. We’ll be able to make this apparent with both POV shots of Bolenge and over the shoulder shots also. The main shot would be a long shot though. During the rest of the first verse both characters play around together, laughing in slow motion, soft focus etc.

As the chorus kicks in with Chris Brown’s vocals, the second male protagonist (Dennis Kamara) is leaned against a wall on a pavement. He doesn’t lip-sync at this point but the scene is a very short scene with Kamara looking bored, like he’s trying to find someone to love. He is wearing a black winter jacket, a white shirt, jeans and white trainers with ‘nerdy’ glasses to finish off his look. This look is relatable for some whilst still unique and showing this characters personal style as opposed to Bolenge’s. There will also be extreme close ups of the couple (Kawooya and Bolenge) in slow motion for parts of the chorus. These will be very quick and in black and white. This particular filter creates a memory with the audience relating it to ‘old movies’, denoting memories or thoughts and fantasies. There will be a close up of Kamara as he lip-syncs the chorus. In the background are regular people in the street, paying no attention to Kamara or the camera. There will be another extreme close up of the couple for around 3 seconds in slow motion in soft focus.

The last part of the chorus starts and there will be a long shot of Kawooya walking towards the camera in slow motion. Not only does this glamorize her but it adds to the ‘fantasy’ Bolenge is having. Next are cameo appearances from some teenage boys and girls in different places such as school, their bedroom etc. They will be listening to this particular song in their head phones and through fast editing they will be lip-synching the end of the chorus: ‘Number one (one) number one (one) number one (one)...’

Once the second verse starts, focus will be diverted onto our second male protagonist (Kamara). Firstly, a close up shot of him lip-syncing against the wall, taking no notice of the camera. Another close up shot of him is shown when he is lip-syncing the rest of the verse while regular people walk behind him taking no notice.

The ‘build up’ has faster cuts and edits including extreme close up shots of both Kawooya and Bolenge; and reaches its apex when Kamara finally finds his ‘love at first sight’ (Dayna Wilson). At the end of the chorus, there will be more cameo appearances from teens listening to the song in their headphones and singing along. This just represents different types of young people all relating to the song and its lyrics. Also, it allows the target audience of teens to relate as well because many teens sit in their bedroom or at school and fantasize just like the cameos.

In the final verse and chorus, Bolenge and Kawooya will be sitting on a staircase looking at each other shyly. The use of close ups will denote intimacy, slow motion will connote romance and soft focus and lighting will denote ‘fantasies’.

The ending goes back to the beginning before the daydream and will show Bolenge looking to the camera for luck and then taking a chance asking out the girl, Kawooya. The audience will then see Kamara walk up to him afterwards and they walk off laughing together in a very boyish way. These will all be utilising fast editing and quick cutting.

Examples from videos

The use of extreme close-ups:

We would like to use Rihanna's video idea of extreme close ups to create the illusion of extreme intimacy and closeness.

The use of soft focus:

We would like to use soft focus in parts of the video in order to create romantic scenes.

The use of close ups:

This creates a voyeuristic video where attention is dive

rted straight to the protagonist when they are performing.

The use of following with the camera:

When the protagonist is being followed head on by the camera it

puts the audience into the action and is also voyeuristic.

The use of dark

lighting:

This creates a really mysterious atmosphere and the rays of light help with the mood.

The use of credits:

This is a regular convention of film and has no become very prominent in music vide

os with a narrative behind it.

The use of sepia/black & white filters:

This creates and old movie effect or is great for showing flash backs and memories.

The use if long shots:

This allows the audience to see the artists from head to toe and admire their style.

The use of slow motion:

This romanticises scenes and creates the illusion of memories.

The use of soft focus:

This also romanticises scenes and is a common code used in R'n'B videos.

Casting

Casting:

Aside from sorting out what the video is going to entail, we have finalised the cast for the

music video.

The main male protagonist:

This is Mickael and he is an A

Level student at St. Thomas More Secondary School in Wood Green. We cast him as our main protagonist because of the chemistry he has with the main female protagonist (Sharlene Kawooya) and his reliability. He is a good looking, and aspirational, with his own urban style. His age also appeals to young girls and

boys, who are our target audience.

The main female protagonist:

This is Sharlene Kawooya, she is apart of the production team and we both agreed that she would be perfect for the role of the main female protagonist. She is fairly small compared to her co-star Mickael and they share a chemistry that is very hard to find, making the music video look that much more believable. Her age and size appeals to young boys and girls (our target audience) and using her eradicates all problems of reliability.

Male Protagonist #2

This is Dennis Kamara, he is a friend of Mickael and the production team. He attends St. Thomas More 6th Form and he is 17 years old and his personal style and looks go perfectly with the teenage 'bad boy'/'heart-breaker' we were looking for.

He is a reliable friend that knows the song well and his style appeals to young teens as it is unique and individual. His gentle personality though is a challenge to the normal criteria for a 'heart-breaker' in film and music.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming:

Initially, we thought of the music video to be shot only inside and using a huge range of camera shots and editing we could make a visually aesthetic music video that won't be too complex.

After studying and analysing many R'n'B videos such as Rihanna's 'What's my name?' and Ne-yo's 'One in a Million'.

Both videos contain aspects of film and regular R'n'B music videos.

For example; in Rihanna's 'What's My Name?' there is a lot of panning and a lot of extreme close ups, the editing aspects include soft focus and slow motion. The lighting is also very bright. We could also use all these in our music video to make our own very different video.

Also, in Ne-Yo's 'One in Million' video, there are a lot of film conventions used such as white credits against a black background, a lot of long shots and mid shots showing the mise en scene and conversation is shown by over the shoulder shot.

In both videos, I noticed that there were a lot of exterior shots to show a beautiful sunny day and denote happiness and contempt. My production company could bare this in mind when filming the video also.

Also, with lip-syncing scenes, not everything is in context and we could use that to our advantage and separate the performance and narrative aspects of the music video.