By Shantelle Keech

Production Team: Shantelle Keech, Rosie Betteridge and Alexie Lovelace

Budget: no budgetTime Duration: 3:23

The Song and the Artist

We have discussed using the song ‘Water Me’ by FKA

Twigs.

Tahliah Debrett Barnett is a British singer, song writer,

producer and dancer. Her music takes on the electronic,

alternative R&B genre.

When researching Twigs, I established who she was signed to:Young Turks – a British independent record label

Parent record company: The Beggars Group

The Soundtrack and the Artist

Whilst researching the soundtrack online, I was able to

locate an article which has been published in The

Guardian. The Guardian is a majorly left winged

newspaper franchise which notably maintains an

audience of mature and older people which is

alternative to FKA Twigs’ much younger audience.

The writer, Tom Lamont described the song as

obtaining a “very corporeal vulnerability that unfolds

over robotic and blippy creaks, atonal keys, and ambient

synth. ”

(http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/30/-sp-fka-twigs-interview-lp1-two-weeks-video-girl-

robert-pattinson )

Within this article Twigs stated that she’s “appealing to people who want something different.”; she’s attempting to be entirely different to anything

already in the media.

Gaining PermissionUpon finding a soundtrack which my production team and I felt would be effective in terms of a

representation and narrative, I understood that to use it, I would need to gain permission.

However, when browsing the internet for more depth of the company, I realised that the only methods

of reaching them I could use was through social media sites rather than an email address. The image

below is the message which I’ve sent to Young Turks.

Initial ideas for the visual concept

From a carnival, I thought about orientalism and

Geisha’s.

This idea of orientalism references Stuart Halls’ “The

West and the Rest: Discourse and Power” which

uses Michele Foucault’s ideas of discourse and Edward Said’s work on

Orientalism.

The central image is what initially inspired me to develop a visual concept surrounding a carnival theme. I found it when watching the trailer for the 2015 Michael Caine movie –Youth.

Through orientalism I recognised close links to

Geisha’s and their reputation of being objects

for male desire.

Time Lapse

The song Water Me features the lyrics:

“He told me I was so small…

I told him water me.”

As it’s referring to growth by water, I found that a plant would be a very relevant and effective part of the video.

I came up with the visual concept of a time lapse of plants and found a video uploaded by the YouTube channel

‘mortrek’.

Although the creator clearly states that the video can be used for non-commercial use, I believe I could gain more skills and experience from creating it myself if I decide to elaborate and use the idea.

Geisha and OrientalismDue to being interested in utilizing Orientalism and Geisha’s within my music video, I felt that it would be a

good idea to research the origins and background.

On Wikipedia I found that: “Geisha are traditional Japanese female entertainers who act as hostesses and whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music, dance, games and

conversation, mainly to entertain male customers.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha)

Geisha’s have also been a part of Japanese culture for 400 years and are still a part of it today.

The idea of them entertaining male customers refers to an initial idea we discussed involving the song relating to prostitution.

Potential NarrativeA slightly developed narrative my production team and myself have discussed is that the

protagonist is a prostitute who’s fallen in love with her client. After being her client a few times he stops going to her. As a result, when walking around as a Geisha she continuously recognizes him in

anyone she catches eyes with/encounters.

Below are three animations of the bud of a plant opening to reveal a flower, linking to the visual concept of a time lapse.

Actors/Performers

The Protagonist being somebody who’ll appear innocent and young; this will reinforce her virginity.

This will be completely juxtaposed by the supporting roles, taken up by male actors. Each person will obtain an individual appearance whilst all appearing strong and quite

neglecting.

My production team and I have discussed the different roles being represented throughout the music video if we’re following the visual concept and narrative of a virgin speaker who is contrasted

by male dominance.

These will include:

Costume and PropsWhen imagining how I’d like the protagonist to appear throughout the music video, I came up with the idea that to

emphasize her virginity, I would have the actress wear a plain cream/skin toned bodysuit or leotard.

Plain and limited texture also takes away identity making the concept more relatable and allow audiences to become more focused on the context rather than

her costume

I feel that especially the colour of the costume could refer to the fact that the protagonist is labelled as being pure and a virgin; if the idea was entirely based on this, the costume would

be completely white.

However as it would be a more off-white, skin-coloured design, it would signify how she no longer wants that statement to define her, whilst influencing the idea that her label states

she’s pure but she doesn’t feel that.

Questions?