Props

As far as props go, there are very few which I do not already own therefore it shouldn't be too hard to attain them. As there are no guns or anything which isn't a regular household item I don't need to rent anything from a prop shop or borrow from other people.

Costumes

For my costume all I will need is a V cut white t shirt, which I can buy at most clothes shops for not a lot of money, and jeans. For Jack we are undecided on whether he will wear women's clothes to further accentuate the parody element, or whether this could be interpreted as offensive because he is playing the role of a gay person. My band members will be able to more or less wear anything as the band in the video don't have a specific style, if anything they are just wearing dark colours, shirts and hoodies. 

Props

I will be using a hoover in the first scene as I hoover inside the house. I am using a Dyson hoover because I have one available to use, also it is a fairly common hoover seen in households in the UK. If we decide to do the car scene then we will need two cars to be cleaning/repairing. In the video he uses an american muscle car which unfortunately I do not have access to, therefore I will most likely be using my mums car which is okay because it will add to the parody element due to the difference between the cars. Jack has a car so we will use his car as his own in the video, he gets a free car wash out of it, although he will be the one doing it...

Instruments
Instead of hiring or borrowing band instruments I have decided to use instruments from the game guitar hero world tour which I own. This also adds to the comedy element of the video because people will notice that they are clearly not real instruments.

Location

I will be filming my production at my house. The reason for this is all the specific areas/scenery are available without having to book permission etc. My actors all live fairly locally so they can get to my house easily as they know where it is. Some of the video involves filming indoors, however some will involve filming outside which is when we have to rely on good weather, or at least good enough to not get drenched.

We will be using the living room for the scene where I will be hoovering and jack will see me through the window. I have a decent sized window in my living room so any angles I need to film should be possible, also I can turn the light on inside to make it easy to see. The only problem will be seeing Jacks face which might be hard depending on the outside light or reflections from inside. To get around this we might ned to use some form of lighting.

The other scene with the car washing will need to be outside, however I might need to change the stage directions slightly so we are doing something other than washing cars because if the weather is awful then you wouldn't be washing your car in the real world. Perhaps we can do some kind of indoor activity. If we can do the car washing scene then I have a large enough drive to make it seem as if the cars are far enough apart to not be on the same drive.

I had considered doing the band scene in the garage also however I had the idea that rather than playing real instruments my actors could be playing guitar hero on the playstation. This is good because it is parodying the original video and also it means we can film it indoors.

The thermostat I will use in the video is in my living room also.

Casting

I needed two main characters for my production, the role of the male interest and the role of the stalking character, then there are three band members who only appear in the band shots. I told several people about these roles and I have had success in finding people willing to do it.



As the main male character I have decided to play the part because I'd like to be in my production, also as the director I know exactly what I want to happen and I think it's easier to do it myself than try and get someone else to. furthermore I meet the requirements for the role which are tall, slim, not ugly etc. I am quite specific about the way I like things to be when I am producing a project such as this therefore I would like to have a direct part as well as being behind the scenes.

To replace Carly I have chosen Jack Ramsey. I think Jack is a good choice for the role because he is confident and willing to play the role which will involve some singing and strange behaviour on his behalf, however he will be able to pull it off because he is good at that. I will film all of the shots with Jack on the day of filming, and also record him singing the whole song so I can play the audio of him singing over the footage.

As my three band members I have chosen a few people, however there is a chance I may have to change them as they might become unavailable. One of which will be my camera man for when I am in a shot, however we will switch when they are on screen.

Not yet filmed

I was not able to film on the sunday because some people were suddenly unavailable, and also the camera I wanted to use was unavailable. This is a problem because now I need to find another date which everyone is free on and where the weather wont be atrocious which is going to be difficult as we enter December. It will have to be on a weekend as the people I need are at sixth form during the week, same as me. I will do my best to get it filmed as soon as possible. I am ready to film with the storyboard complete, and the props I need.

Filming... Hopefully

Hopefully filming should begin on Sunday 23rd Nov. I have asked people to help with he production e.g acting, filming etc. The original person I asked to be the camera man is busy so he can no longer come. This is annoying because he is a good photographer and knows plenty about cameras and how to film/ take pictures. However my new camera operator is also a photographer so she should be able to do a good job.

The cast consists of 5 people including myself, the jobs include acting and filming. I will not need anyone to be a sound operator as I am going to add in the music to the footage along with the lyrics, therefore the footage needs no audio supervision. I will be acting as a main role, however shots which don't have me in them I will be switching with the camera operator to film, as they will also be acting.

The original issue I had with weather is no longer a real problem, as I have accounted for it and planned the video to be indoors mostly rather than outside. I don't yet know how the weather will be on Sunday, however providing it isn't raining all day we should be okay.

Satire or parody?

I have done some research on the differences between satire and parody to refine my decision on what angle I will come from regarding the original video as I don't intend to cause offence to anyone who enjoys the original, or to the original artist (not that she will ever see it).

The definition of satire according to Google is "the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues." This essentially means that satire is when you mock or joke about something which is a somewhat serious issue, however you do so by softening it with comedy.

The definition for parody is "an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect." This is different to a satire in the sense that it is more of a copy but a funnier version.

For example any of the Austin Powers movies is a parody of James Bond as it follows a similar narrative structure and even makes references to the James Bonds films. Whereas a good example of Satire is Weird Al Yankovics music videos. To select one, the video "White and Nerdy" is a comedic song about being a nerd in a neighbourhood of gangsters, and how they reject him because he's "too white and nerdy". The issue being mocked is discrimination, though it is not a laughing matter the video addresses it quite well without causing (too much) offence. However Weird Al's videos are usually also parodies, as he uses other music videos and songs as a template for his own. The song "White and nerdy" is a parody of "Ridin" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone.

Here is Weird Al's music video White and Nerdy


Here is Chamillioanire's music video Ridin

Target audience

This post is just to be clear about my target audience and how I will attract them with each product.

My music video is a parody of an existing video by Carly Rae Jepsen. For this reason anyone who is familiar with the song and has seen the video will know what I am parodying, and therefore hopefully notice the differences. The original video is aimed at a female audience because it is a romantic song, it is also aimed at younger people because Carly Jepsen's target audience is primarily girls of all ages up to around 25. I know lots of dudes who know the music video but can't stand it, so I am hoping that by recreating it they will have a reason to watch it and can enjoy the version I produce.

I have also extracted some more information from Pete Buckingham's audience theory, showing that music is something that appeals to men, women and young people more than film. This shows that music is something available to all genders and ages, however my product is steered towards younger people who are familiar with the original.

My target audience will be young people aged 15-25, either gender really, who appreciate that I have created a parody of a mainstream music video.

Change of plan

I have decided that I no longer want to create a digipak, I'd rather do a magazine cover advertising the digipak. The reason behind this decision change is that designing and producing a digipak is going to take time and resources, whereas I can produce a magazine cover easily on a program such as photoshop. I will need to do some research on magazine covers to identify the key features.

I will use magazines such as Q and top of the pops to Identify the features of a pop magazine which I will then use to produce my own. Because my target audience are young people, and the genre of the song is pop, my magazine will need to be suitable and appealing to that band. The original song is aimed at a female audience as love songs are far more aimed at a female audience than at males because they don't enjoy romantic media products as much as women, according to Pete Buckingham's research on audience types.

Production Planning- Main Production

My primary product I am making is a music video accompanied by a website homepage and an album digipak.

In order to meet the deadline I need to complete the following tasks;

Music video

In my music video I will need people to play the parts of the characters. I intend to use my friends as actors because I can easily contact them, and they are willing to help me. 

Website
I will create the website on my own rather than depending upon someone else to do it for me because I need to manage my time efficiently. I have some experience making websites from projects in the past where I have used website creators such as Wix.

Album digipak
To create the digipak itself I will use a template from a graphics project in my school and create my digipak using it as a guide. I have done engineering and resistant materials in the past so it shouldn't be hard for me to produce. I can even make it out of plastic using vacuum moulding.

Filming
Weather wise I have slight problem because I was hoping to keep my video quite similar to the original, however I am going to be filming between now and December to have it finished by January. This doesn't match the original video which is filmed on a sunny day in sub urban America. If it comes to it, I will add a filter to the video to make it appear to be sunnier than it really is. 

Production Planning- Audience

Over the next 2-3 months I am going to produce a music video as my main product, an album digipak for the band and a website homepage for the band as my two ancillary products. The target audience for my music video is anyone who is aware of the music video Call Me Maybe. The original song had mixed reviews, but a large proportion of people did not like the song, myself included, so I aim to put a twist on it so it can appeal to anyone who didn't enjoy the original. My version will again be dealing with the issue of homosexuality as done so in the original video, and as this is a matter children might not understand I am aiming my video at people aged roughly 15 upwards. In order to do this I am going to plan stages which will help me along the production line. I will need to get a better understanding of my audiences and find out what they are looking for in a music video, I will do this through different types of research.


Primary research

• Interviews- I will interview people who meet the criteria of my target audience to get an understanding of what they will want to see in the music video. I will most likely perform a semi formal interview, this means before we begin I will give them a quick outline of what I will be asking them so they can somewhat plan ahead for what they will be thinking about. If I did a formal interview I would have to provide a print out of the questions in advance so the recipient can plan all of their answers. 
• Focus groups- I will ask members of my media group for their opinions because they are all above the age 15 and are aware of the original song and music video. By my guessing I think a majority of my group are not fans of the original, therefore my version may seem more appealing to them. Asking my group is a better idea than asking my family because they will be able to provide me with useful feedback, whereas family would likely tell me everything I've done is brilliant and not be entirely honest. 
• Survey- I will also create a survey on survey monkey with some questions regarding my ideas for planning the content of the video to see what people think. To make sure I can use the information I will ask people who meet the criteria of my audience to take the survey. 

Secondary research

• I will use internet research to plan how I am going to distribute and exhibit my music video to my audience. Using the BBFC I will refine why I have chosen my target audience to be young people aged 15+, and I will also consider a rating for my music video due to it's content.