Pre-Production: Finished Film Treatment.
‘An observational documentary surrounding a 5-piece alternative rock band in Brighton, with Germanic heritage regarding how they invoke their genre of music through their style and the reasoning behind the brands they choose to endorse.’
River Becomes Ocean are young, talented and growing increasingly popular by the day; this film will delve into not only the band’s style but also their music, heritage and how it all plays a part in their very own brand image. The way you sell yourself to your audience is key in the music industry so the bands style needs to reflect this; for them fashion is another form of communication with their fans and for this reason we will be asking them these questions:
‘What process do you use to select the clothing companies you endorse on stage?’
‘Do your European roots affect your style?”
‘Do you feel your style reflects the genre of music you play?’
‘Describe what you believe your style to be?”
‘How do you all vary in what you wear?”
‘Do you feel your style has changed since moving to England?’
In order to create a more personal experience between the subjects of our documentary and its audience, we will be filming in three areas specific to the band:
The first location used for shooting is Brighton Beach, as their home studio is on the seafront, this locale plays a major influence on not only the music they create but the close proximity of one of the city’s key landmarks must also play an intrinsic role in how they style themselves here as opposed to how they did in their home country.
We plan to shoot some observational footage on the beach of the band being photographed in a promotional shoot, this allows the audience an insight as to how important it is for them to be sure of what they’re wearing and what it represents for them as any media taken will often be as communication with their fans, therefore all media should be seen as a promotional tool. To capture this footage, as well as a plethora of cutaways, we plan on using wide-angled shots to establish our subjects, extreme wide-angle shots to set the location, low-angle shots to give our subjects power and focus in our film as well as horizontal pan shots and close-ups to convey their outfits to camera.
The second and primary setting is the home studio they use as it provides the perfect environment for us to successfully capture clear and crisp audio quality of the interview to accompany our visual imaging, it also creates a sense of unity which is paramount to exposing the stylistic choices they make not only as individuals but also as a successfully functioning unit.
Our last location will be used for cutaways only with audio being added in the editing process for the purposes of achieving a higher quality of sound. Wide-angle, panning and close-up shots will be employed to film the band performing on stage so we can capture the effectiveness of their style in motion.
When pitching this idea to the band we will keep the conversation colloquial and informal in order to create the relaxed atmosphere essential for our film. However having it down on paper as a treatment is professional and necessary for our dossier.
