5. Price tag
A treatment by Cherry Cai
Concept
The theme of this song “Price tag” promotes a happy life style which suggests people
to concern less about money but enjoy our life. In addition, the song wishes people
enjoy in music as well. Therefore, I would like to use some literal interpretations as
well as some challenge ways to present a new music video of this track. Star
performance, special effects, costumes, props and editing will be used in my product.
Camera angles are extremely important for a good music video so that I aim to create
some special camera shots such as canted angle , high angle and low angle. In term
of editing, I plan to use plenty of slow motion as well as change the color of frames
into black and white, in order to suggest people who is too dependent on money is
always unhappy in life.
Performance & Narrative
The music video will be made up with two parts, one is narrative part which is acted
by the main character and lots of figurants, another part is star performance which is
the main character dancing and singing in front of the camera located in studio
through plenty of close up, long shot and medium shot to present.
On Jessie J ‘s music video of price tag, it used a large amount of star images ( star
dancing and singing in front of a blank background and then used editing to add
special effects), I will continue to use the same methods in order to promote star.
Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important
in their role of advertising. Hence, the narrative will be the light part in my product
and I will create a happy atmosphere through the actor’s strong performance.
Narrative and performance work hand in hand it makes it easier for the audience to
watch over and over without loosing interest.
In narrative part, I want to illustrate that people escape from the control by money
6. and enjoy the life after escaping. I am going to present escape straightforward likes
push away the money and threw away the price tag. Also, I am going to show a happy
life style straightforward as well after escaping, for example, a party will be hold in
music video and people enjoy the bear having fun on the lawn.
Turning to the performance, I am inspired by another Jessie J ‘s music video which is
called Domino (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJtB55MaoD0) .In Domino, Jessie
J just keeps dancing and performing in different outfits and backgrounds, it uses
plenty of special editing and adds many effects. I want to imitate it into my media
product.
Camera & Editing
This is a upbeat song and the lyric is straightforward. In this situation, the editing will
be used a lots in my media product in order to show star image. First of all, plenty of
close up of actor’s face will be presented to show his facial expression. In addition,
long shots are necessary in my music video to present his body languages and
performance. The actor I have chosen is a boy who is extremely expressive and he is
excellent in body expression, he can performs in front of camera liberally. The last but
not least, point of view of many related props will be shown hinting something such as
coins, cash and toys.
In term of editing, there are two parts: narrative and performance.
Narrative: I plan to use lots of slow motion in this part in order to show people live
unhappily under financial pressures. Slow motion can bring a depressive and heavy
motion and the frames will be made in black and white, which looks like an old film.
And then, after the ‘price tags’ are taken off from people, the frames are changed into
normal and a happy atmosphere will be created through jump cut and montages.
Performance:
Long shot, medium shot, medium close up , close up and so on all will be used in
singer presentation. The pictures are from the original music video of ‘price tag’ , I
wonder to imitate the way it cameras but challenge the editing way. I am going to
learn from a music video made by a student in last year
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwilGXoxvQg), they used lots of interesting
editing as well as some special effects, I would like to use it in my product and
challenge it adding some ideas from myself.
7. Lighting
Studio lighting will be used in the video because I plan to shoot the part of
footages in studio with blank background. I think that the light just focus on the
star in some frames is necessary to highlight star images. But most of lighting is
controlled in bright and I am going to choose sunny day shooting the clips.
However, when the lyrics are talking about people concern too much about money
which is in negative meaning , I will control the lighting in dark to reinforce people
should forget about money and price to live a happy life.
