Music Video: Onset Photos

Music Video: Planning - Shooting Schedule

“Stacy’s Mom” – Shooting Schedule

Project: Stacy’s Mom Music Video
Artist: Fountains of Wayne
Client: A2 Media

Crew: (number deleted for privacy)
George Leadley
Katy Hobbs
Jordan Coulson
Andreas Symeonides

Date: 06/10/09

Time: 09.00
Location: York College (Green Room)
Scene: Band Performance (including guitar solo)
Crew: All
Resources: Mic Stand, Camera Equipment, Outfits

Time: 12.00
LUNCH BREAK

Time: 13.00
Location: Train Station (Bench)
Scene: Stacy’s Mom walks past guy on bench who brings down newspaper to watch.
Crew: Jordan Coulson, Katy Hobbs
Resources: Newspaper, Camera Equipment, Outfits

Time: 14.00
Location: Town (Phone box)
Scene: Stacy’s Mom walks past guy in phone box who drops phone.
Crew: Andreas Symeonides, Katy Hobbs
Resources: Camera Equipment, Outfits

Location: Town (Street)
Scene: Guy following Stacy’s Mom down street, ignores Stacy trying to get his attention.
Crew: Katy Hobbs, George Leadley
Resources: Camera equipment, Outfits

Time: 15.00
Location: Town (Museum Gardens)
Scene: Camera closing in on Stacy’s Mom
Crew: Katy Hobbs
Resources: Camera Equipment, Outfits

Time: 16.00
Location: York College
Scene: Scooby-doo like chase scene
Crew: All
Resources: Camera Equipment, Outfits

Date: 09/10/09

Time: 10.30
Location: York College
Scene: Meet
Crew: All
Resources: Camera equipment, Outfits

Time: 11.00
Location: Jordan’s House (Bedroom)
Scene: Guy looking at picture of Stacy’s Mom
Crew: George Leadley
Resources: Picture, Camera equipment, Outfits

Location: Jordan’s House (Bathroom)
Scene: Camera looking at guy in mirror with shaving cream on face
Crew: George Leadley
Resources: Camera Equipment, Outfits, Shaving Cream

Time: 12.00
TRAVEL & LUNCH

Time: 13.00
Location: Katy’s House
Scene: Car Wash
Crew: Katy Hobbs, Jordan Coulson
Resources: Camera Equipment, Outfits, Car Wash equipment

Location: Katy's House
Scene: Guy trying to be older with beer, spits out
Crew: George Leadley
Resources: Camera Equipment, Outfits, Beer

Time: 15.00
FINISH ANY OUTSTANDING FILMING

Music Video: Planning - Locations

Before we get shooting, we need to choose where we are going to film, looking back through the audience research I can see it is important we have vibrant exciting locations.

Band Performance

For the band performance, all we really wanted was just a blank room, but after we couldn't find one, we enquired about use of the college's green screen room, and found out we were able to book it for one morning. So that is what we did. We decided that during editing we would keep the green screen in the video to add to the effect that the band is simple but still cool (airband) and doesn't care about its image.

Green Screen room pictures:

Train Station

We also wanted to shoot a scene at the train station, but we had to go prior to filming to choose the best spot. A platform not used regularly would be ideal

Train Station pictures:

Museum Gardens

We wanted to shoot part of the video in the Museum Gardens as it is a vibrant bright location, and can be used to film anything. Again we needed to plan where we would shoot in this location.

Museum Garden pictures:

Katy's House (car wash)

As we were planning to shoot a car wash scene in the video, we needed a place where we could have enough room to park the car, set up the camera and have the actors moving about. We thought the best place for this to be would be at someone's house, so we chose Katy's as its closest to York College.

Katy's House pictures:

Music Video: Planning - Storyboard

Music Video: General Ideas after Research

After looking over and analysing the research on our target audience and similar videos, we now know what we want as the main features to be the backbone of our video.

Firstly, we are going to be using a "real" Stacy's Mom, rather than a guy dressed up. With both the video research and feedback from the audience indicating that this is what they want.

Secondly, our video needs to be fast paced and fun like the song. We plan to do this by shooting in various different locations, have bright colours, and also adding some comedy. Editing will also become very important in making the video seem fast paced, and making the comedy come out from the video better.

Lastly, having researched that there was a movie to be released late 2009 called "Stacy's Mom", we decided that this is what we would base our project on (both video and Digipack/magazine advert). So we thought that the story parts of the video should look a bit like straight out of the movie, for example, have the band performing then cut to a scene from the movie, then back to band again.
This is clearly shown in the following video, "Where Are You Now" by Honour Society from the movie "Bandslam":



Again editing will be an important factor of achieving this aim.

Overall the research carried out, both Audience and Music Video, has been very useful in our decisions to how we want our video.

Music Video: Research - Music Video Analysis

To get full effectiveness into our music video I need to analyse current official videos in the same genre (Power Pop) of Stacy's Mom.
The videos I'm going to analyse are:

1. Fountains of Wayne -> Stacy's Mom
2. Jimmy Eat World -> The Middle
3. Bowling for Soup -> High School Never Ends

Fountains of Wayne - "Stacy's Mom"

Storyline

The storyline to the video follows a young boy who gets close to a female friend just to be around and see the girl’s mother more. The boy does jobs around the house to watch Stacy’s mother doing things such as getting changed and swimming in the pool. At the end of the video Stacy catches the boy fantasising over her mum but thinks he is in love with her.

What is good about the video?

• One thing is that Stacy's Mom is really pretty, so the storyline is easier to understand, this means instead of us having a guy dressing up as Stacy's Mom, we will use a girl. This will make it more realistic and as the audience are mainly male then they would prefer a "hot" Stacy's Mom (2:27-2:43)
• Another good thing is the fast cutting. This is something we will try to incorporate, such as the 3 crashes (0:24), we could flash up 3 images of Stacy's Mom.
• Also it has comical value which we will want to also have, with the young boy crashing into things and the facial expression of the masseuse (1:55).
• One last thing to note is the band's outfits. They are all wearing matching suits, this is something we could do, i.e. matching outfits, making the band seem like a tighter unit.

Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle"

Storyline

The video features a fully clothed teenage boy who attends a house party at which Jimmy Eat World is playing, only to find everyone, except the band, in their underwear. Much of the crowd is making out, but the boy is excluded. Finally, out of frustration, he starts to strip to be like the others, only to bump into a teenage girl doing the same thing in the wardrobe he is in. The kids keep their clothes on and leave the party, arms around each other, as the song concludes.

What is good about the video?

• The most obvious thing to take away from this video is the nudity/sexuality of the typical American teenage party. As this video was recieving a lot of playing time on MTV, especially on "Total Request Live", it shows this is what our target audience wants to see, again emphasising the need to change to a real Stacy's Mom
• Also added on, is that it has comic value, such as the boy in the pool with his clothes on (1:49)

Bowling for Soup - "High School Never Ends"

Storyline

After watching the band as kids fail at a talent show expecting everything to be different after High School, it fades to present day at their High School Re-union, where they are playing and realise nothing has changed, and get their own back on the popular people who bullied them as kids, which we can see as flashbacks.

What is good about the video?

• One good thing that we haven't seen before is that the video starts with a story, however this would be difficult and unpractical to film
• Though the way it cuts from the story and the bands performance is good, and something we will definately look to put in the video
• With the band performance we can see that they are really enjoying, having fun, doing tricks(i.e. spinning guitar around), which we could easily do in the music video as we will only be doing an air band performance, so we could just pretend to do it.
• Again as in the Fountains of Wayne video, the band has matching outfits for the performance, so this will probably be a good thing to also do. As well as in the story scenes, they are wearing casual clothes, which is also a good idea.

Music Video: Research - Audience Research

It is important to take into consideration the ideas and opinions of the target audience of this song to get full effect into the video, as it is being made for them, so we need to know what they like, etc...

To find this information, I need to create a questionnaire about this song and music videos in general, gathering the results to get the perfect mix of what to put into the video.

Questionnaire*
*I have only asked people who have seen the original "Stacy's Mom" music video

For my questionnaire I asked ten people ranging between the ages of 15 and 19 what they thought about the song and future video re-make. I have shown the answers each person gave atleast once.

Q1 What would you like to see in our music video version of "Stacys mom"?

Jamie (18) - Your video would have to follow the songs story, not only clips of the band playing.

Ben (16) - The band scenes need to be different to others, I like you idea of being an airband for example.

Sarah (18) - The band must look confident and into the music, if it's all static then its just awkward and un-enjoyable to watch.

Q2 Do you think we should use special effects in our video?

Beth (15) - Special effects do make some videos look really good but if you over do it the video becomes a bit repetitive.

Sam (19) - Do add effects but don't over do it.

Tom (17) - I wouldn't use many, if any effects because it can look like you are hiding previous mistakes.

Q3 What music videos do you like at the moment and why?

Scott (17) - Dizee Rascal - Bonkers. Because the video is fast paced so it is at no point boring, it also follows the music really well, with the artist following the lyrics by starting the video in bed for example.

Ben (17) - Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning. It is completely different from other music videos, the music video shows the band playing from the inside of a small rowing boad in the middle of a rough sea, it seems to give the song more hidden meanings. They have also used colours well in the video, expressing the tone and feeling of the song well.

Laura (16) - Kaiser Chiefs - never miss a beat. The video is completely random making it interesting and fun to watch. No one part of the video is the same, always something new to watch out for.

Q4 What are your opinions on the original 'Stacys Mom' video?

Joe (17) - I loved it. I liked how they moved from story to band throughout the video, making each clip different. I also liked the range of colours they used making the scene look like the "perfect world". Having comedy clips such as when that kid walked into a tree with a lawn mower really made it worth watching, and makes the video stick in your head.

Beth (15) - I enjoyed the song but i think the video was more aimed at boys than it was girls, with all of the clips of stacys mom. The video was funny but i have seen much better, and I wouldnt go out of my way to watch it over again.

Tom (17) - I liked the video, it suited the song well and ran at a fast pace holding you there untill it had finished. If the video was slow at moving from clip to clip it wouldnt have been as bigger hit as it is today i feel.

From this questionnaire I can see now that we will need to include as much of the song story as we can, and not have the song focused all on the band. Our target audience also all seem to agree that the video is fast paced and never gets boring, which we can make happen quite simpley with bright colours, varied locations, comedy, and also a confident performance in both band and storyline.