Week 3 - Preparing for our Pitch Presentation

This week, we had to prepare for our official pitch presentation to our advisors. So far, all the advisors from the other fields (design, film and audio) have green-lit the project and are excited about the project. Animation was (and still is) the only drawback.

Meeting with Advisor on Monday 29th June 2020:

During the meeting with our advisor Bing, we were asked to do some tasks for the week, preferably to finish them before the pitch presentation:

In the synopsis, highlight the areas where we see animated elements
Plan and draw out storyboards for the first track Paradise
Prepare a Gantt Chart for all the animation tasks and share it with Bing
Create an animatic where the storyboards and music overlays to get an overall mood and feel of what it is going to look like.

Here are the deliverables (above mentioned tasks) that I was able to complete for this week:

Highlight Animated Elements in Synopsis

I worked on the overall Synopsis with Joshua (film and Team lead). We discussed ideas and how the story would flow in brief. I was then asked to write a detailed treatment of how the story would flow. For that, I made a separate slides presentation which outlined the details based on the story. I looked up references that best matched the idea I had floating in my head.

Moreover, to understand more about music video treatments and how to write/create them, I looked up a couple of YouTube videos that explained how to go about this. They all pretty much had the same tips, which was to tell the story VISUALLY and not write an essay (something that I struggle a lot with is NOT writing essays) (TheBuffNerds, 2017; TheBuffNerds, 2019; Gevirtz, 2019). They also mentioned how to go about creating it with what stood out to me the most when I first heard the song and how I have to wrap my ideas around it (Gevirtz, 2019; TheBuffNerds, 2017). Lastly, Gevirtz (2019) had a breakdown on how to structure the visual treatment that would be pleasing to the client, as well as explained how to research for inspiration from other music videos, and how to brainstorm ideas from listening to the song on repeat. Below are these referenced videos.

How To Write Music Video Treatments! (TheBuffNerds, 2017)

The Most Important Step to Creating Any Music Video! (Gevirtz, 2019)

Write The Best Music Video Treatments! (TheBuffNerds, 2019)

Plan and draw out storyboards for the first track Paradise

I drew out my storyboards based on how I envisioned the scene to flow, while keeping into account the story beats. By this I mean that I tried to sync up the lyrics with the visuals along with keeping the story in tact. For example, in the lyrical line "that's what paradise looks like baby..." I added a handshake between the police officer and Miles (our character) with a dreamy flutter heart overlay - almost to make it look romantic but in reality it's a gesture of harmony between the Black and Whites in this fake utopian world. Looks below for the storyboards which will later make more sense in the animatic below.

Create an animatic

This animatic was put together with the use of the storyboards and a little bit of editing overlaid with the song, on Photoshop and Premiere Pro. I am yet to receive feedback and approval on this but so far I feel it conveys our idea well. I also made a list of the assets we will be needing to create for the video, and to me it seems doable. The list is as follows:

***Main character - MILES - with facial features
**Police Officer - without facial features, but with details on clothing
Pathway
Street lamps, electric poles
Houses (6 variations)
Police car (exterior and minor interior details)
*4 extras (one dad, two kids - male and female, one female teenager)
Skateboard
Water gun (2)
Football/soccer ball
Kite
Old Static vinatge TVs and radios
Washing Machines
Heaters/ A/Cs
Omelas House
Bed
Door

In addition, we got an animation collaborator on board with us - Natasha Kitching, an SAE alumni. We had a meeting with her on Thursday 2nd July 2020 to discuss in brief what we are expecting from an additional person and she was on board right away. She liked the idea and raised some questions such as the choice of software, work styles, project management and so on. These were addressed. Right now, we are only awaiting a reply from our advisor on the idea with the storyboards and animatic.

Prepare a Gantt Chart for all the animation tasks

Below is a Gantt chart I prepared with a tentative schedule until week 5. The reason it is kept till week 5 is because I am still unsure if changes to the story is required or whether we are good to go. I will update it with future tasks once we get a green light.

Other Updates

In other news, I am officially the Head of Art Department with roles in Art directing and animation lead. I will be in charge of the animation department as well as the on set art director for the other music videos. I am super excited for this. This has always been a long awaited dream...

We had a meeting with the film crew on Thursday 2nd July 2020 to meet the team consisting of Cinematographer Laziza Muminova, AD and gaffer Lizanne D'souza, Art Director (me) and producer Joshua Marcini. It was a pleasure to meet them.

Soon after that, we all signed our contracts and now we are officially a team called PROJECT LOUDER!!!

Our presentation is looking super good in my opinion and I am thoroughly excited to present tomorrow. Hope all goes well, crossing fingers!

References:

Gevirtz, D. (2019, Jan 16). The Most Important Step to Creating Any Music Video! [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N8A0w6SyFw

TheBuffNerds (2017, Jan 29). How To Write Music Video Treatments! [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=198&v=lM2dBPwgOhM&feature=emb_logo

TheBuffNerds (2019, Feb 12). Write The Best Music Video Treatments! [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YsHGwEAxnY

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