A2 PITCH OUTLINE

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1. THE BAND

Originally David Bowie, have considered many other acts (Depeche Mode, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nirvana, The Prodigy)
Suede were formed in 1989 by couple Brett Anderson and Justine Frischmann who met at University College London, and along with Brett's childhood friend Mat Osman formed the core of the band.
Guitarist Bernard Butler and Drummer Simon Gilbert.
However, Frishmann soon broke up with Anderson and left the band while dating rival Blur frontman Damon Albarn.

A media frenzy surrounded the group (Melody Maker article). Their first single didn't chart as high as to equal this excitement, however their second Metal Mickey was a commercial success, and enthusiasm for the band continued, however there were always cynics in the press.

They are now seen to have started the Britpop movement along with Blur. Bands that would follow include Oasis, Pulp, Elastica, Supergrass. They were supposed to be a contrast to the deal, heavy grunge bands from USA that had entered the mainstream like Nirvana, Pearl Jam. If one listens to a lot of these tracks, they are much more positive/upbeat then Suede's music, and the second album, Dog Man Star, feels like a contrast (screenshot of Top 10 We Are The Pigs).

While they were finishing the second album, Butler left the band. Many of the media and some of the fans thought the band would be finished, however they managed to get a replacement through Richard Oakes, and also got a keyboardist/backing vocalist Neil Codling onboard.
This set-up from 1995 - 2001 is the set-up they have still today.
Coming Up is seen as a more commercial album, as it saw them reach No.1 in the UK., and one of the singles, Beautiful Ones is by far their most well-known song with its Spotify and YouTube clicks.
Head Music saw them going in a more electronic, and this where my chosen track is from (I'll talk more about the chosen track later). It did not receive as much enthusiasm from
The following album, A New Morning, like Dog Man Star, was interrupted by one member leaving, Neil Codling citing Chronique Fatigue Syndrome. They took on a replacement, Alex Lee. It is looked down on by a number of fans, and critics (quote of critic saying you still have fans, go for pitty sake)

In 2003 After releasing a Compilation Singles, they released a new song, Attiude, it was seen to be an improvement compared to the previous two albums. However, the band soon announced that they would be going their separate ways. Brett Amderson went on a solo career as is typical for lead singers even when they're still in a band (Freddie Mercury, Dave Gahan, Morrissey).

He even formed a short duo with Bernard Butler, The Tears, although there was and arguably still is between these two creatives. After having released four solo albums, there were rumors of a reunion.

Then in 2010 they decided to play an intended one-off gig at a Charity Concert, with the line-Up of 1995-2001, without Alex Lee.However, they enjoyed playing again together so much that they decided to go on tour again, and released a compilation album ranging from singles, B-sides and normal album tracks, Suede - The Best Of.

They however soon felt they couldn't carry on without creating new tracks. It took them a while to develop the new album, and there are a number of songs they discarded. In 2013 they released their sixth studio album Bloodsports. It was received with critical and commercial. And in 2016 they released a seventh album, Night Thoughts, this time going in a very avant-garde, arthouse direction. And instead of creating a few music video as is the norm, they created a whole film m, directed by Roger Sargent. It received even bigger critical acclaim, and also increased its commercial success. Many critics called the album the best work the band has done since Dog Man Star.

Brett Anderson - Sex Symbol.

Their Music, influenced by Smiths, Bowie, Kate Bush 
Deals a lot with unrequited love, but in a very sexual and often dark, anguished way.
Also has dystopian (Dog Man Star) but some very socially relevant messages like Sleeping Pills. The average Suede song could be described as a decadent, celebration of being an outsider and embracing it with full expression, often with a sexual vibe added. Obviously in a school context this needs to be toned down somewhat (limit of creativity).
Arthouse vs Mainstream
We just do pop songs, nothing complicated
Brett Anderson
Brett + Mat talking about stage in their career + Ed Buller being there again. 

2. OLD AUDIENCE

16-25, not quite sure whether to focus more on teens or 20s, or treat both equal.
Popular in the charts in Sweden and Finland, someone who was there at the time
I don't want to tone them down more than is school appropriate and possible in terms of a school context. 

The commercial and critical success of Bloodsports and Night Thoughts shows they have a stable audience that wants to buy their albums and also attend their tours, so both forms of succsss are achieved, though in commercial terms not to the same level as the mid 90s.

Dog Man Star is widely regarded as one of the best albums, it is No. on NME' s 500 greatest albums ever.
They have an audience globally, Brett sees them as a European band

3. MUSIC VIDEO CONVENTIONS 

All bands will feature the lead vocalist not only signified as the central figure in the band through screen time when singing, but also often have him involved in a narrative. Rule of Thirds in performance set-up. Shot variety showing other members performing.

4. (INDIE) ROCK CONVENTIONS

Rock Videos feature them performing, however not always with the instruments, you might only see the lead singer singing, and maybe the other band members doing movements.

Mention I've looked at Pixies, Kraftklub, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Still can't quite pinpoint conventions of indie rock specifically.
Often females juxtaposed with the band: Arctic Monkey's One For The Road, Snap Out Of It, Why D'You Only Ever Call Me When You're High. Also with pop rock band Maroon 5, but something you see with a number of male artists like Pitbull, Bruno Mars, often sexualised.

5. SUEDE VIDEO CONVENTIONS

Often there's a female character that Brett or the band is longing after:

Animalstic, Sexual: The Drowners, Animal Nitrate
Stay Together, Saturday Night, She's In Fashion, theme of love
However, Brett has said he hates those later  videos now, so it wouldn't be appropriate. Something to avoid is the video Positivity, that and the other video on the album aren't available on Suede's YouTube channel or any other, showing that's it something they wish to remain forgotten.

Concept of the Other, extravagant characters, rebellion: Metal Mickey, Trash, Attitude, Hit Me 

This concept of Otherness was fully transformed into isolationism of the music video film Night Thoughts.

Dystopian videos, urban: Stay Together, We Are The Pigs, New Generation
Just Urban: Saturday Night

Also have done pure Performance Videos: The Drowners (US Version), Filmstar, Can't Get Enough (Australian Version), Barriers, It Starts And Ends With You, For The Strangers

6. THE VIDEO IDEA, DEVELOPMENT 

from Sweet Thing idea. Dystopian Influences, link again to Suede's Dog Man Star

I always knew I wanted to go against the very stereotypical narrative of a relationship, and also sexualisation that you see in that.
For a while last year I started to develop an idea/scenario of a video idea influenced by the lyrics directly of Sweet Thing/Candidate, and the music/themes of Diamond Dogs album, the story of an adolescent male Prostitute. So instead of an atypical relationship I wanted  to do a twisted relationship between a prostitute and his client. I would hint at a grim, urban city set in a dystopian future where society has broken down. The character of the prostitute would be based on Lana Del Rey and the general mood/themes of her videos would be in mine, especially that of Ride which had a very similar narrative. Fitting with androgynous and gender-bending image of Bowie, I soon changed it also transgender, so you also wouldn't have the atypical sexualisation.

I thought I would be able to carry this trough without showing sexual content, using choreography as a simulacrum and also singing and talking to each other, but my Media teacher saw it as not possible to accomplish in a school context.

I tried to adapt. And I also changed the artist from recommendation of my teacher. 

I wanted to keep the dystopian setting, and looked at Anton Corbijn's Depeche Mode set in urban environments such as Strangelove, Behind The Wheel + Policy Of Truth.

I chose Suede because I realized in order to achieve full potential of shooting a music video for the first time, a good balance between narrative and performance would help me to reach good production values.

I wanted to incorporate the black and white in those videos (as well as many others such as Arctic Monkeys's One For The Road), but thought  that just black and white would be monotonous, and wanted to have colour correction as is seen in Corbijn's work, and also switch between full colour and b+w, sth I first saw in The Chemical Brothers's Galvanize.

A really good sudden change from b+w to colour I want to mimic is Rita Ora's *insert track*.

While not taking it as far as a transgender prostitute, I still want to include the concept of gender-fluidity in my narrative.

The narrative is more about fandom, how some feel so connected and invest so much in a band, based on the Ziggy Stardust cult figure. Some hints of sexuality, but not an atypical romance narrative.

The Track, Lyric Timing Sheet

Performance and Narrative explained 
Start off with cross-cutting between the band and the protagonist with edges of the band's bodies, and have a match cut with the feet/legs of Brett and The Girl, he then turns (maybe they have the same back, and then at 0.25 it goes from black and white into colour, switches like in Suede's So Young and Sonic Youth's Kool Thing.

Jump Cuts of boredom after the mystery is over from 1.06 - 1..11, single take but she moves from one place in the frame to another.
Starts to wish for and dream , at 1.53 she can wake up from a dream startled.
Later she dances at the stones at night, where the band is at day, cross-cut to that
David Bowie's Blackstar - The Occult 

Second part she goes into forest where loads of books and art is, and then there's
As it fades in the final 5 seconds, have the sound of a VHS.

STILL OPEN TO THE NARRATIVE

• Whether to have the band dressed like the Droogs or in any other costume, and then whether to have them appear as that first and then later go into dress as the band (like in Arctic Monkey's One For The Road)

Literary, Theatre  Influences: JG Ballard

The Band
Have the shirt unbuttoned to the middle at least, maybe all the way like 
Since Bernard Butler the original guitarist left, Mat Osman as the only other original member next to Brett Anderson and his childhood friend, seems to be the most evident member as he is often with Brett on interviews, bit untypical for a base player. So should I have an emphasis on Mat Osman more than the other members, like Martin Gore often is in Depeche Mode videos

The Characters, Looks 

The Protagonist -  Costume like girl in The Smith's How Soon Is Now? + The Pixies's Ring The Bell

Representation Issues (Gender of the
A female character can be afraid/alarmed (of the visions she's getting, waking up at night)
Startled at some of the encounters.

Narrative Theories 
THE SCENES
Underneath the bridge, have the four Droogs walking
The VHS Cassette as a Proppian magic object.
Have an end that leaves the audience wanting more, like Halsey's New Americana where you think this is the start of something else, what's going on here. Also this makes them watch the videos more as they'll be anticipating them, they'll be looking out for then more, more Web 2.0 activity

7. MY INFLUENCES ON M.LANGUAGE

Extra Sounds (Diegetic Intros)
Add in other songs like in Kendrick Lamar's Alright 

Cinematography
Close-Ups like in Suede's Barriers of band members of the instruments
Focus pulls and focus pushes (Muse's Dead Inside, Depeche Mode's Barrel Of A Gun)

Editing 
The Quick Takes like in Arctic Monkeys's One For The Road, contrast then with the same beat accompanying a long take. 

Match Cut Transition of costume in Pixies's Ring The Bell.

8. MY NEW PRIMARY AUDIENCE

Bookish, quirky people, comic book fans, not the masses that just watch Marvel fans.

Students who study English Literature

Fans of David Bowie, The Smiths, who will come on to them as a simulacrum (like I did)

Contemporary acts they'd like: Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, maybe Halsey.

However still hope that through Brett Anderson and Neil Codling being used for Female Gaze will attract a slightly wider market.

9. BRANDING
link to album artwork + website

Have a number of photos of the dystopian city, including ominous high angles of a train post, similiar to the records sleeves of Heaven.

Social Media 
Get people to post what they think might appear on the VHS cassette
Have some of the books in the video posted on Instagram, don't have Anderson be extremely  lecturerly, but subtly telling teenagers to be bookish

maybe could also have a competition which books where in the video, some of them are hidden (but are detectable, most of them)

Product Placement wouldn't be appropriate 

10. LOCATION SCOUTING

General Issues with Locations, like the cold and rain, need to keep filming snappy and not leave cast waiting long, impatient due to coldness, especially for lead singer if I have his shirt half unbuttoned 

• Trier South Station, and the stairs
• Trier South Bridge and the fence, with trains 

Important: need to film there before 16:00 otherwise the light goes on, found this out when I did sample Footage. Also there Are People Walkinh through there quite a lot, but no so much that you can't have regular long takes, just need to pause in between, but I can use that to adjust myself.

• Trier West The Stones, and underneath a bridge there
• The Warehouse in Trier West (were the Protagonist can wake up)
• Underneath a bridge near Kürenz
• Underneath the bridge at Konz
• Marinensäule (still need to go there)

TRANSPORT

Julian Rambo's and Jochen's car, transport 7 other people next to us.

Silas will take his moped.

11. CASTING

THE BAND
Matthew McCillaf/Philipp Kirsch as Brett Anderson
Silas Hepke as Richard Oakes
Dennis as Neil Codling
Jochen as Simon Gilbert
Julian Rambo/Oliwer Kubrik as Mat Osman

NARRATIVE
Anisa Reichhardt as The Protagonist/"The Girl"
Norman as the John Hurt character
Julia Morgens and MBG as the Decadent Horse and Horse Riders
Janine Otto as a female version of Alex from A Clockwork Orange
Iwona as a normal person, plus other people from JugendClub on one shoot 

12. COSTUME

Nissi's Footwear

Ask and check around at Saskia's and Marie Böffgen

13. PROPS

VHS Cassettes

Books (maybe some really different ones from those I had in my AS coursework)

14. PRODUCTION RESOURCES/TECHNIQUES

• Very important, have a bottle of water with you at every shoot, it can be demanding, helps you to keep a cool head
• When shooting with multiple people, bring some Biscuits to keep people motivated, care for your cast (bring in Warp's quote)

TECHNOLOGY

• Sony A58
• Manfroto Tripod
• GoPro for some POV shots to speed up like in Suede's Animal Nitrate, as well as for maybe filming underwater
• GreenScreen Visit, bit complicated due to everyone living in Trier, however my lead performer is regularly in Lux, and we could go over for one shoot. 
• If GreenScreen Studio don't agree, then I have the Media appartment ones, and also could learn how to set up a room like Evie's or just use hers

STILL NEED IMPLEMENT

• I ASAP need to test out to lighting equipment to see whether filming at night is going 
• Need to learn how to use the Stabilizer 
• Need to learn how the GoPro works
• I feel I generally I need to ask my Media teacher to show me how to connect Camera and Tripod, and pan/tilt