Lyrics of the Song (Preliminary)

When looking at the lyrics, we were immediately drawn to some verses in particular. They seemed to suggest the idea of another world. We ran with this idea and allowed it to guide our concept. For example;

Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind

The song is very upbeat and fast paced and naturally this encouraged us to want to create a positive music video that will be fun and easy to watch. The line, "and we can act like we come from out of this world", led us to look into a fantasy concept. While the line, "the night is young and so am I", has encouraged us to think about perhaps casting a child. The rest of the lyrics are as follows;


We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well, they're no friends of mine

Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind

And we can dance
Or sing!

We can go when we want to
The night is young and so am I
And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet
And surprise 'em with the victory cry

Say, we can act if we want to
If we don't, nobody will
And you can act real rude and totally removed
And I can act like an imbecile

And say, we can dance, we can dance
Everything's out of control
We can dance, we can dance
They're doing it from pole to pole
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody look at your hands
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody's taking the chance
Safety dance
Oh well, the safety dance
Ah yes, the safety dance

We can dance if we want to
We've got all your life and mine
As long as we abuse it, never gonna lose it
Everything'll work out right

I say, we can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
Because your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well, they're no friends of mine

I say, we can dance, we can dance
Everything's out of control
We can dance, we can dance
We're doing it from pole to pole
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody look at your hands
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody's taking the chance

Oh well, the safety dance
Ah yes, the safety dance
Oh well, the safety dance

Location Scout (Preliminary)

Once we came up with our idea we started discussing possible locations to film that fitted with the story and were accessible for us to film. Today I went on a location scout to Longs wood, which is in my local area to see if it would be suitable for our music video.
As well as woods there's also some open fields and areas which would be useful if we can get a drone for some aerial shots; this will also offer a bit more diversity to the close up angles that we can film in the more wooded areas and on the small trails. 
There are some different sites within the wood like the stairs, bridge and some ponds which we could use to capture more interesting shots and make it seem like there's a few different locations. 
As it had rained over the previous days the paths were very muddy and waterlogged so we will have to consider the weather when creating our shooting schedule.

Roles Within the Group (Preliminary)

Within my group (Jasper, Rachael and I) we will all be doing slightly different roles to spread out the workload and work to all of our strengths.

Filming - All three of use will be there for the filming and help to film and direct the whole video.
Editing - Rachael will do the majority of the editing as she is the best at it and will do this role most effectively, however, we will all have input into how it is edited.
CD Cover - Jasper and I will create the CD cover whilst Rachael is in the editing process. This is because I have spent many years doing art at school and have experience creating and designing. Jasper also has many ideas for the CD cover and considers himself to be creative and computer-savvy.
Blog Posts - All three of us will contribute to the blog posts, however, when all the footage has been captured Jasper and I will do most of the posts to allow Rachael to focus on the editing.
Casting - All three of us will be involved in casting to ensure we all agree we have the best suited people to feature in our video.

Format of Video (Preliminary)

Our video will be in the form of a narrative. There won't be any live performance involved in the video or clips of the song being sung. This is because the song is a very upbeat song and so we felt it would be more effective to have a very full of energy, story-based narrative to accompany the song rather than break up the video between narrative and performance. Also, the fact that we had a very solid idea that we all agreed with and very much liked meant that we wanted to put that idea into full effect. We feel our idea is engaging enough to not need any live performance to accompany it.

Research (Preliminary)

A quick check on Wikipedia told me that Men Without Hats fall into the new wave/synthpop genre. With that in mind I chose some songs from bands of a similar genre that I enjoy:

Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels:

For the most part I can understand the plot of this video; the guy wants the girl and the girl just isn't interested. However, there are some aspects that I don't understand, for example, why is there a monkey in the library? Why are peculiar effects used like the keyboard flying in? I think the video definitely holds attention.

The Cure - Lullaby:

I feel this is a very easy to understand video as it really brings the lyrics to life; these lyrics being the bedtime tale of the spider man. It is definitely an interesting video that easily holds attention and plays to the idea of strange dreams. The only really confusing parts are the shots of the lead singer trapped in a web in the corner of the room whilst he is also in bed.

Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

For such an interesting song I was quite disappointed with the video. I could not make sense of it and it was very repetitive (the same shots used over and over with perhaps some changes to colour). It definitely does not do the song justice. I do feel, however, that their use of colour fit with the tone/mood of the song.

Song Choice (Preliminary)

Our group decided to use a song by Men Without Hats entitled 'The Safety Dance'.

We decided to use this song as immediately we were coming up with concepts for the video. The song is very upbeat and lighthearted, making it easy for us to come up with something fitting to go along with it. We also thought the lyrics were good for story-telling. Lines such as; "we can go where we want to" and "we can act like we come from another world", really tell a strong narrative that will go a long way to helping us come up with the narrative for the music video.

Task (Preliminary)

In preparation for A2 coursework we have been given a task to complete over the next month to produce an original music video, as well as an accompanying original CD cover for the release of the song. I will be working with Jasper and Rachel for this project.

We had 3 songs to choose from;

• Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks

• Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA

• Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

We were also provided with some stimuli in order to aid our thinking for the video;

• 'Carrots help you see in the dark'.
• 'Day at the seaside'.