M4 - MEETING THE CLIENT BRIEF

In my client brief, I was asked to make a music video for an upcoming festival - MUSIC VIDEO VAMP. The content had to not be higher than a BBFC rating of 12A. The festival only accepted songs that did not have a current music video already, however the song could be from any genre, era, or artist. The music video had to be the full duration of the song, and compromise a minimum of 70% original content (if sourced footage is used it need to be copyright/royalty free and references. The video could be narrative, concept or performance styles and include live action and/or graphic elements. There was also many non negotiates from the client. This included: it must appeal and be suitable for the target audience, it must take into considerations the conventions of the genre, must comply with all legislation/regulations and not exceed a BBFC rating of 12A. It also told me that my final master video must be exported as HD(1080) and 25fps, and I must export a full HD final master version and a compressed mp4. The deadline for this was Friday 13th January, the the final export was due on the 25th January ready for the festival on the 18th/19th February.

When creating, filming and editing my video I was constantly ensuring I was staying in line with the client brief I was given. If I did not my client would be unhappy with my results and not be able to use my work, and potentially not come to me or future projects. 

When I was planning my video, I wanted to make sure that I met the BBFC rating of 12A. When I decided that I wanted to pick a narrative style for my video, I took into consideration that my story could not include any mature themes e.g. drugs, alcohol, violence etc. Because I was sticking to the indie style, I knew that my story would not consist of these but I was still aware to not make my story too distressing for a younger audience. I landed on the story of losing someone because it is very versatile to everyone, and is appropriate to children without distressing them. I was weary about including the fire scene, but because I was filming a controlled fire outside for only a few shots I didn't think this was too inappropriate for the category of 12A. During making my storyboard and shot script I also planned in that I was using at least 70% original footage. I knew I would only be potentially using outside sourced elements in 1 or 2 cases, and would mostly stick to live action original footage so I knew I was sticking to the brief. 

To ensure that my music video appealed to the target audience, I was careful when planning my video. I was looking at music video conventions (theory by Andrew Goodwin), uses and gratifications theory by Blumer and Katz, as well as representation of my audience (theory by Stuart Hall). I decided to use the indie/alternative genre for my video as that is the genre of the song and one that the often often sticks to in their work. I researched my target audience, this ended up being slight difficult as my artist isn't incredibly popular so didn't have a lot of published research on their audience. This meant I had to search for the small amount of sources there were on it, look to artist who are alike them as well as looking at their social media and other work and making inferences to who their audience may be. I came to the conclusion that my target audiences were both men and women ages 15-40. This is because Lord Huron have had an older audience from albums/songs that gained popularity a while ago as well as gaining popularity recently with younger audiences because of their songs being included on popular shows like 13 Reasons Why on Netflix. This meant I had to try and make the narrative of the video versatile to this large age group and also fit the music which is why I landed on the story of losing someone and it can be interpreted in many ways and is also an experience that everyone goes through so people will have an easier time relating to it. I also didn't use lots of really bright colours in my video, as I didn't want to make it look too childish even though I have there is the younger bracket of the target audience. Using colours but making them deeper, and more related to the indie colour palette means they attract the late teen to adult target audience and also helps me to stick to the conventions of the genre. The demographic of my audience is C1-C2 workers, because these are lower middle class/skilled working class people, I made sure not to include any designer or flashy labels in the protagonists clothing as well as avoiding lots of very expensive looking locations or areas as settings for my shots as these are things that aren't relatable to the audience. They are looking for a protagonist who represents who they are, and if they are seeing on screen this glamorous lifestyle they don't have they won't be able to escape into the character and really relate to them. The psychometric profile of the target audience is explores and strugglers and the use of the video (uses and gratifications theory by Blumer and Katz) is for escapism and the audiences personal identity. I have used outdoor scenes (moors) with the storyline of loss because they are explorers and strugglers, they love the outdoors and new things and this sad storyline may be something they can relate to. The fact of the protagonist being in a situation the audience can relate to means that they can escape into the character and almost relive their experiences through her. This allows them to understand how to deal with this which helps them with their personal identity, even if they just feel like they are seen with the story still fits this purpose.

I decided to intentionally play into the conventions of the indie/alternative genre. This was because of the theme of my video and how I felt like it fit my song, I wasn't making any statements which meant I would subvert the genre conventions. As this is a requirement of the brief, I made sure to check genre conventions as I was making the video. I intentionally chose costume, narrative, colour, filming and editing to fit with the alternative/indie genre. 

To make sure I was following all relevant legislation/regulations I did a lot of filming in my own house which I was allowed to use, this means I didn't have to ask anyone permission to use it. When filming on the moor, I didn't need to ask permission for this as this was a public area I was allowed to be on and film on. In the drama room (for the projection scene) I sent emails asking for permission to use it in my video and was granted permission freely. I got permissions from all my actors for them to be in my video, and make sure that no one was in the background of my shots as I wouldn't have their permission to be in my video and would be unable to use these scenes. I also did risk assessments for all my locations, and call sheets to give to the actors to make sure I was following all the relevant legislation and regulations to make sure I was sticking with the brief. If I didn't do any of these things I wouldn't be allowed to show my video at the festival as I wouldn't be legally allowed to show my video, the client wouldn't be able to use my video and I would not be following the brief.

As I was exporting my video I followed the guidelines of the brief and exported two versions: 1 final HD master version, I exported this as the Apple ProRes version on Final Cut Pro. This format is useful to keep for personal use in the future and also to show at the music festival. This is the highest quality version so takes the longest time and largest space to process, but at the festival i will want to show the best version i can and is why i am sending my video to them a few weeks before to ensure it fully sends. I also exported a smaller mp4 version, I exported this as the H.264 version on Final Cut Pro. This version is good for YouTube and other online streaming platforms like Instagram and Twitter which i planned to distribute my video on as it is a smaller file size so it will take shorter to send but is not as good quality than the Apple ProRes version. 

I referred to my work plan throughout the process to check I was meeting deadlines. I didn't stick exactly to the plan of each task, as some tasks involved me coming back and doing more work on them later, or they took longer/shorter than i expected however all of my milestones were reached with the correct time which meant i was able to export my video on the date the client wanted. 

Along the process, I had to adapt my idea to suit covid guidelines. Luckily, there wasn't any lockdown rules I had to stick to so was therefore able to film in all the locations I planned on. To try and minimise the risk of spreading covid, the actor I used for the protagonist is my sister who I share a household with. Because I was only using on main actress, the risk of infection to all parties was very low so I didn't particularly need to worry about this. However, if my actors became ill we all made sure to take covid tests.