Music Video Idea #1 - The Golden Age by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

My first idea for a music video that my group could make next year as part of our A2 Media Portfolio is the song, The Golden Age by a Danish band called The Asteroids Galaxy Tour.

The Golden Age is the only single from the band to chart/receive certification, but, whilst still being an immense achievement, only hitting the peak position of 70th in the UK top 100, meaning that the song is amicable, but also obscure enough for us to have more of a creative license when making the music video.

In terms of the official music video for The Asteroids Galaxy Tour's The Golden Age, it features very psychedelic themes with lots of colour and weird and wonderful moments. For the most part, the video explores the actual lyrics to the song whilst maintaining a very cosmic theme to the piece, in reference to the band's name. The band could easily be comparable to The Beatles due to the similarities with their otherworldly, psychedelic themes, and thus, in many ways, channels a vintage 60's vibe.

However, as part of a marketing campaign for Heineken beer, the band also made an alternative music video for their hit, The Golden Age. The other music video is a stark contrast, featuring the band looking very glamorous and entertaining at a party. Whilst the music video does retain a number of weird and wonderful moments (perhaps in reference to the band's style), they are to a much lesser extent, namely through the narrative's protagonist, a magician attending such a party.

For my take on The Golden Age, the artist would be a band called "Tina and the Jellyfish", consisting of a lead singer (the so-called Tina), guitarist, keyboardist, saxophonist, trumpet player and drummer. Within the music video, the band would also be accompanied by a trio of backing singers. They would be a very organic band, with an acid jazz/psychedelic pop style in reference to the band they were based off. Artists they would be comparable to are that of English duo, The Ting Tings and a more light-hearted version of South African duo Die Antwoord. The music video would be a combination of a Performance and Concept video, taking place across multiple locations.

As the song opens with its drum roll, there's a wide shot of Tina standing alone within a windowless seemingly abandoned bathroom, severely dilapidated with mould in the corner, cracked tiles, and black graffiti.

Tina stands with her head downcast, facing the floor, but dressed in vibrant, colourful clothing - some rainbow leggings, a fluffy pink jacket, retro round pink sunglasses and a bright yellow bandana. Her make-up is thick and colourful, almost clown-like.

When the music erupts into its first piano key, Tina snaps her head up, revealing a big grin as all around the room coloured powder explodes. Therein is the music video's first location, consisting of Tina lip-syncing and dancing within the coloured fog. In order to create the psychedelic nature to the music video numerous editing effects would later be applied (such as slow motion and reversal). For some of the dancing sequences, in order to capture the wacky, crazy nature of the band behind Tina, amongst the coloured fog, there would be someone in an animal costume (perhaps a tiger or panda - perhaps both?) dancing. For the lip-syncing sequences in such a location, should the fog get too much and obscure Tina as she sings, it might be prudent to have a fan off-camera and ready to operate.

For the song's chorus, there's a new location: some form of garage or basement with a reflective epoxy floor. There's brilliant blue lighting, creating an atmosphere of almost being underwater. The set consists of a number of spray-painted silver platforms each at various levels: on the uppermost platform and at the very back, the the trio of backing singers, on the next highest platform, the band's drummer (his drum kit emblazoned with the band's name and logo), the next, the saxophonist and trumpet player and the final platform, the keyboardist with his shiny, silver keyboard. On the ground and in front of them all is the guitarist and even more-so in the foreground than him, Tina.

Each person is dressed in some form of silver outfit ranging from the guitarist in a shiny silver suit, to one of the backing singers in a silver sequin dress. They also all have crazy silver makeup - painted lips, eyeshadow, glitter (even the men). In particular, the headliner Tina is wearing an outfit similar to what Elizabeth Hurley's character Vanessa Kensington wore in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery - despite the character having being set in the 90's, an indirect reference to the vintage 60's vibe channelled by the band. The drummer also, in particular, wears a jellyfish-like hat on his head in reference to the band's name.

The next verse sees a couple jiving in a large, wooden sauna. Behind them is Tina laying down quite nonchalantly, dressed only in a towel with big, Amy Winehouse-esque hair and long, dark blue eyelashes with matching lipstick lip-syncing along to the song, holding a carved out pineapple with tiny pink umbrella and yellow straw. The female dancer is wearing character shoes and an emerald green dress and the male dancer is wearing a white shirt, black trousers, dress shoes and red suspenders.

The dance would be choreographed based on the jive below:

The chorus returns to the second location (with the underwater theme) this time with two people dressed as giant jellyfish running around and dancing along. When the song slows down, the shot changes to the entire cast laying with their heads in a circle, facing the sky, laughing manically as the camera spirals around them from one face to the next, continuously speeding up.

The third verse has Tina sitting within the bathtub from the first location, the coloured powder having settled from the previous explosion. Wearing a vibrant green leotard, Tina sits with her knees cradled, the bathtub filled with murky, rainbow coloured water. She is completely soaked, with mascara all over her face. On her lips she wears bright red lipstick. The verse is one long side-on shot, slowly panning in on Tina staring at the camera and lip syncing in an almost overly enthusiastic way. Various different random objects have been placed in front of and around the bath tub, such as a model of the Virgin Mary, various teddy bears, a reggae hat, a couple of plants, Tina's pair of silver platform go-go boots, her pineapple drink with umbrella and straw, her pink fluffy jacket, and the drummer's jellyfish hat.

For the ultimate chorus of the song, it returns to the underwater-themed location, everyone having fun and performing. After the chorus has finished, in the last bridge-like sequence, it returns to the sauna where the whole band now sits in their silver costumes, watching as the couple jive.

As the song finally comes to its end, the video flicks back to the underwater-themed location, everyone dancing as silver glitter falls from the sky and covers everything and everyone, using the same slow motion and reversal editing techniques as used in the very first sequence with the coloured powder.

The song would be the band's title track of their debut album and thus the reasoning behind the importance of featuring their image and identity as they try to construct their lead singer's star image as a carefree, fun, alternative artist.

To summarise, this idea would need: three locations (abandoned bathroom, underwater-themed basement with numerous platforms, and a wooden sauna) technically all build-able, a cast of 14 (singer, guitarist, saxophonist, trumpet player, keyboardist, drummer, two dancers, two jellyfish, three backing singers and a panda/tiger) all cast-able from people at school, and a number of costumes (nine silver costumes, a colourful costume, two jellyfish costumes, one panda/tiger costume, a white towel, a male dancer's costume, a female dancer's costume, a green leotard).