Hiring the Skater

In our music video, we plan to have scenes of person skate-boarding on a dark road. Being an adequate skater myself, I have come about to have many skater-friends (some of which are extremely talented) and who else better than our friend Zac, who is also hosting us for filming in his house, and is also a very skilled skater. If he's up for it, we'd be grateful for his help. However, I do have a number of other friends in mind, so if Zac does decline, we wont be in the wilderness. 

Verdict on Zac's House

After negotiating when and if we could film at his house, Zac was very positive about the whole situation, as even though it wasn't possible to film at his house in Belsize Park for the necessary time, he suggested that we start filming in Belsize Park, and then finish filming at his house in Hampstead. For Bruno and I, this will be just fine, and we thus agreed and set it in stone with Zac. We will be filming there in 2 weeks.

Cast of the 'Other Thugs' in our Video

Of the 6 candidates we had for the 3 roles of 'other thugs' in the music video, Bruno and I have come to a verdict. After exchanging several conversations and what you might call 'interviews' with all 6 people, we believe the decision made by us is the best for our video, considering they were all happy to help.

The three are:

• Theodore Voutiras
• Cassian Lewis
• Michael Benderson

Using Zac's House

For our second shoot, we plan to use our friend Zac's house in Belsize Park. It has the space and furniture necessary to fulfil what we have planned. We have asked him and await his answer, but if he says no, we have other options, including a house in West Hampstead, and one in St Johns Wood.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Casting the other Roles

For what we have planned ahead, we are going to need around 5 more actors - Zacky alone wont cut the chase. So, Bruno and I will be selecting 3 of  our friends who are very comfortable with the style and rhythm of our genre of music, and another actor/actress to drive Zacky in a few scenes.

We have only 6 candidates remaining, as we have cancelled out other people we had in mind, so our final cast will be announced within the next week.

Main Character

Now that we have selected and produced the music for our video, we needed to hire and actor to play the main character of the music video, lip syncing the song. When me and Bruno were left with this decision, the first person in our minds was our old friend Zacky Agama. He is a trained actor, who also raps on the side - what else could we have wished for! We called Zacky and after a couple questions, he seemed delighted but needed to confirm with us after checking his schedule. We are currently awaiting his confirmation.

Music Video Treatment

This is the treatment Bruno and I have come up with:

Breakdown:

Music video is structured A-B-A-B-A.

A: This is a section when the camera is generally following our main character through a specific area, where things occur to him where he passes through. But there will still be brief cuts and different types of shots slotted in at different moments during the section.

B: This will be during the chorus, and is not a following shot. It presents our main character and his gang in a run-down urban spot.

A1: Belsize Park/Hampstead Garden Suburbs – The song begins with him leaving a house in Belsize Park, and then walking through the area while rapping. During this shot, he is about to light a cigarette until someone takes it out of his mouth, he turns around to chase him, trips over (falling out of the shot), then stands back up in a different outfit. He also gets in a random car – pulling the front seat passenger out of the car, then the car drives off.

B1: Golders Green – When the verse finisher, the following shot cuts, and shots of the main character and his gang in a rundown alley begin. These brief shots will involve the gang doing gestures, jamming with & without the decks.

A2: St Johns Wood – This shot follows our main character through the area of St Pauls. Again several things happen to him while he raps this verse. For example, he passes a couple, and snatches the woman from the man’s arms, kisses her and returns her.

B2: (same as B1)

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Edit (Feb 2018): Although this was our original plan, when we were out filming we came up with plenty of ideas on the spot, and through editing we channeled even more new ideas, leading to a video that is in fact almost completely different to the original treatment.