Beginning Concepts

As previously stated in my last blog, there is a definite gritty theme to our song and my group and i really want to convey this in our video. Before we could start planning our video, obviously we needed to come up with a powerful concept. We read through the song lyrics and tried to pick out some key phrases and expand on some more concrete ideas. Whilst reading through, we got a clear image of what the lyrics meant, it seemed there was a big drug influence connected with teenagers. Proceeding with this idea, we started to come up with a few ideas about drugs. We realised that many teenagers feel under pressure from their peers to take drugs because of the persona it gives them however we wanted to portray a story of where someone holds back and watches what happens to their friends around them.

Our first idea was a house party, this was a good idea because drugs and teenagers are commonly associated with house parties. We imagined a girl walking through the party, observing the effects of drugs on her friends. However there was a twist to this story, The girl would actually just be a kind of spirit, she would also be watching herself take drugs and feel the effects. The point we wanted to portray was that the girl was disgusted with her behaviour and realised she needed to help herself and stay away from drugs.

In addition, we also thought of the girl being in a classroom, at the back, and watching a promotional video about drug abuse. After discussing this idea further, we came to the conclusion that this idea would not suit a whole video but would in fact make a strong introduction. We imagined that this classroom scene would then go on to merge into another scene where the story really begins.

However, after some long discussions with my group, we realised that perhaps the house party idea would not be practical for our video. We realised we would have to involve a lot of people and we decided we were not going to be able to control them all. We did really like the idea of the house party, but we wanted the 'making video process' to be as stress free as possible.

My group and I then had to get back to the drawing board and come up with another idea where we represent the same type of theme as the video. We then thought of recording the video on the town/city streets. This concept gave the gritty, urban and grimy atmosphere we were trying to put across.

We concluded on the idea of the girl walking down the streets, singing the lyrics of 'Everyone's at it.' There will be other people featured in the video but their appearance would not be as dominating as it would in the house party. We then progressed to imagine the girl being recorded in many different looking streets which then we could edit together to create a sense of time, change and confusion.

Our group had a strong attachment to the classroom idea and therefore we decided to use it at the beginning and end of the video as if the girl is watching herself through the television.

My group asked me if i would like to star in the video, as the troubled girl. At first i was hesitant, but then i agreed believing that this would be a good opportunity to experience both working behind the scenes of the video and actually performing in it.

Choice of Song & Target Audiance

Within our group, we obviously wanted to choose a song that will be unique compared to our other classmates. Firstly, we went through a process of what genre of music we would of preferred to work with. We discussed advantages of using a Rock song, an Indie song and an R&B song. We looked at some of Kings of Leon videos and also some of The Killers. However my group did not want to go ahead with any of these genres. We then went on to discuss a different genre, Pop. My group had taken a liking to one of Lily Allen's songs, "Everyone's at it!" however i did not take the same liking. They thought it would be a good choice because it had a clear narrative and they enjoyed listening to the artist. I told my group about my disliking and they convinced me to listen to the song and see if my opinion changed. I listened to it while reading the lyrics of the Internet and began to see why it would be a good song to use, it had a harsh beat at the beginning which pulled me in straight away and then the lyrics told a very clear story that would not make making a music video complicated to create.

EVERYONE'S AT IT - LILY ALLEN.

I don't know much but I know this for certain
That is the sun poking its head round the curtain
Please can we leave I'd like to go to bed now
Its not just the sun that is hurting my head now
I'm not trying to say that I'm smelling of roses
But when will we tire of putting shit up our noses
I don't like staying up
Staying up past the sunlight
It's meant to be fun and this just doesn't feel right

Why can't we all all just be honest
Admit to ourselves that everyone's on it
From grown politicians to young adolescents
Prescribing themselves antidepressants
How can we start to tackle the problem
If you don't put your hands up and admit that you're on them
The kids are in danger they're all getting habits
Cause from what I can see everyone's at it
Everyone's at it
Everyone's at it
Everyone's at it

I get involved but I'm not advocating
Got an opinion yeah you're well up for slating
See you've got a prescription and that makes it legal
Now I find the excuses overwhelmingly feeble
You go to the doctor you need pills for sleeping
Well if you can convince him then I guess that's not cheating
So your daughter's depressed well get her straight on the Prozac
But little do you know she already takes crack

Why can't we all all just be honest
Admit to ourselves that everyone's on it
From grown politicians to young adolescents
Prescribing themselves antidepressants
How can we start to tackle the problem
If you don't put your hands up and admit that you're on them
The kids are in danger they're all getting habits
Cause from what I can see everyone's at it
Everyone's at it
Everyone's at it
Everyone's at it

Why can't we all all just be honest
Admit to ourselves that everyone's on it
From grown politicians to young adolescents
Prescribing themselves antidepressants
How can we start to tackle the problem
If you don't put your hands up and admit that you're on them
The kids are in danger they're all getting habits
Cause from what I can see everyone's at it
Everyone's at it
Everyone's at it
Everyone's at it

The narrative from these lyrics describes how drugs effect everyone and how anybody could be a drug addict. They depict how young users are beginning to become and some of the lyrics are quite scary, for example 'So your daughter's depressed well get her straight on the Prozac But little do you know she already takes crack.' This is an example of how these lyrics can be used to shock our audience. The clear gritty meaning behind the lyrics of this song and I believe this gives it a type of darkness which would be fun to play with when thinking of ideas for our video.

Target Audience

Referring to Lily Allen's previous audience, teenagers, my group and I will be focusing our attention on them and aiming our production at them as well. We believe this will be the most suitable due to derogatory language in the first verse and the constant reference to drugs throughout. I understand that if this video were to really be played on television or on the radio, the swearing would be muted and it would be listened to a large, wider audience. Our video is however going to feature teenagers, therefore this will appear greater to our audience and they will be able to relate to what they watch.

Email to record label - Regal Recordings & Capitol Records

To use Lily's song, we need to ask permission from her record labels to cover Copyright. Lily's music belongs to EMI Records.



To whom it may concern,

My name is Lucy Singh and I am an A Level Media Student at Sussex Downs College, Lewes, East Sussex.I am currently beginning my coursework for my A2.We are being asked to create a music video. However, because of Copyright Law, we can not use a song that already has a released video. Therefore, I am writing to you today to ask for permission to use Lily Allen - Everyones At It.
There are four members of my team, all of us are dedicated to making this a good as it can be on a low budget and small unit.
It would be very much appreciated if you could let me know as soon as possible if it is acceptable to use Lily's song. My contact details are listed below.

Many Thanks,
Lucy Singh.

Mobile: 07879818938
Address: 53 Hill Top Way, Newhaven, East Sussex, BN9 9TE

Introduction to A2 coursework!

For this years coursework, we have been asked to create a music video for a song of our choice, however it must be a song that does not already have a video. We had the choice to be put into groups of 2- 4, we chose 4,therefore in my group there's, Jade Townsend, Kelsey Heaton, Charlotte Hills and of course myself, Lucy Singh. We have till Easter in 2010 to complete this task and we have already come up with a song, an idea and the jobs people are going to play within our group. I believe working with a group is a better way of completing this task because we can all do different aspects of the planning and production that we eventually will record. I am looking forward to this task because i have always been interested in making a music video to try and understand how to come up with a suitable idea and the process of production.