Initial Ideas

We came up with some initial ideas for costume, props, location and cast. We decided that we wanted our video to be illustrative and set at a party with the singer walking through it to each room and coming into contact with the people voiced in the song.

  Some music videos that have helped us gain ideas are the following:

Kiss and Tell - You Me At Six

This is the first video I thought about when we decided on a house party video. I think it is a really strong example.

I like the costume: typical things teenagers would wear at parties; checked shirts, jeans etc. A lot of the clothing could be categorised as 'hipster'; this is the look we want to achieve for a lot of our extras to pull in our target audience, as well as adding in other styles to reach out to a wider demographic. Also, I liked the use of UV face/body paint; I feel this could achieve a really good look in our video.

The locations are good, a living room, bathroom (we definitely want to make use of the bathtub like in this video), kitchen, garden: all of these are locations that we want to use as they are your typical house party locations.

The props used in the video gave us plenty of ideas, for example, lights, balloons, steamers, red cups, highlighter markers, silly string, confetti, a pinata, whipped cream and cereal. The boxing gloves would especially be a good idea for our video as the song is called Knock 'Em Out so it would be fitting. The girl playing with rings of fire and the boys playing with fireworks in the garden at the end is obviously not something we could do due to safety and budget. However, we could achieve the same kind of effect on a smaller scale with sparklers.

In terms of camera work, there is some dismemberment of women. We will try to incorporate some of this into our video as it will fit with the party vibe and reach the male demographic.

There is very fast editing with jump cuts which we want.

Can We Dance - The Vamps 

This is a strong example of a house party music video.

In terms of costume, the band and extras are all wearing typical casual clothes that are fashionable for teenagers right now; some of which is quite 'hipster'. This is what we aim to achieve.

The locations are typical house party locations: a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom and a garage. The first 3 we are going to use, however we do not have a garage to use but I feel that it is not a necessary location to have for our video anyways as we are not having a band performance scene.

There were lots of props in this video that gave us ideas, for example the colourful balls. Filling up a room with them is certainly something we'd like to do, however it would realistically not be achievable for us as we will not be able to buy that many balls due to budget. We could do it on a smaller scale though, by filling up a bathtub with them. Baking equipment like bowls and flour etc as well as cereal, crushed up party cups and silly string are things we feel we could use to achieve that 'messy' party look quite easily. There is a close-up and an extreme close-up of an iPhone- a typical teenage technology. I think we definitely need to have one in our video. There were also streamers, whipped cream, permanent markers and fairy lights; all things that we want to incorporate into our video to achieve the party look.

There are a range of camera angles including close-up for the important details, wide shots to show the party action, mid-shots for when the singer and a female are interacting; these are all camera shots we want to include as they will work well with the things going on in our video. Also, the camera tilts slightly at some points; this is something we could do to make our video interesting and add to the 'crazy party' vibe.

There is obvious editing when the screen looks like the camera screen of an iPhone as they are taking pictures. We won't do this in our video but we do want some obvious editing. We want to include subtitles for the dialogue in the song when the main characters are speaking.

I Love College - Asher Roth

This is another very strong example of a house party video.

The costume reflects the typical male gaze; girls wearing not much clothing. We do want a bit of male gaze in our video, but not too much so most girls will be fully clothed but with some wearing little clothing (mainly Girl #1 because this will fit with her character). The boys are all wearing casual clothing, like they will be doing in our video. The motorbike helmet is something we'd love to include in our video as we feel it helps to achieve that 'crazy party' vibe, but we may not be able to obtain one. There is a dinosaur costume, a zebra costume and another animal costume (which I cannot identify); ridiculous dress-up costumes are something we would love to have in our video. An idea we have is to make a robot costume out of cardboard as it would give it a sense of authenticity as well as achieving a 'crazy party' look.

In terms of location, it is set in a frat house in an American University. This achieves a great effect, however, ours will be in a regular house but we will try to create the same vibe in ours with the use of props, costume and activities on screen.

The props and activities are brilliant and gave us lots of ideas. The poker game is a very good idea and something we will consider doing in our video. The beer pong is a great party game to have in our video, and it will bring focus on our red cups which we want to use as synergy across our products. There are 2 people doing the milk challenge which is something we could do as it is entertaining and current among our target audience of young people; it is something they would watch on YouTube from their preferred YouTubers and is something they would enjoy watching in our video. There are beer kegs, which we will not be able to get, but we can make use of lots of beer cans instead. There are also streamers and fairy lights which we will use, and lots and lots of red cups; we plan to mirror this.

In terms of camera work, there is a lot of dismemberment of women. There is also out of focus shots at the beginning. This could help to achieve our 'crazy party' vibe. The camera often pans down on things; we could use this to show off details such as red cups (our synergous motif).

In terms of editing, there is some glare on the camera from lights. This is something we feel could achieve a nice effect in our video.

Gossip - You Me At Six

 This is a very good example of a house party video.

A lot of the costumes for the women do reflect the male gaze; we aim to do the same for some of ours. Most of the clothes are casual teenage clothing which is what we want. A lot of the clothing is ‘hipster’ which is the look we want for a lot of our extras.

In terms of location, there are typical house party locations that we will use; a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, a kitchen and a garden.

The props and activities are very good and gave us lots of ideas, for example the poker game and the water guns being used in the bathtub. Also, although we do not have a swimming pool, we can still feature inflatables in our video to help achieve the ‘fun’ look.

In terms of camera work, we like the way the camera is following the singer through the house as if he is holding it. This is something we definitely want to do while our singer is walking through the house. Also, at some points the camera moves slightly in time with the music, which is definitely something we want to do while filming people dancing in our video.

There are fast edits; jump cuts and editing to the beat. Our song has a strong and distinctive beat so editing to the beat is something that could look great in our video.