For the next few weeks, my group and I will be doing the Beehive Blender Challenge where we shoot a video that shows our randomly selected elements such as the character, the prop, and the dialogue. My group and I got Optimus Prime as the character, a lighter as the prop, and “Do you smell that?” as the dialogue. Right off the bat, this already feels so interesting to work on!
As for the story of our video, we’ve chosen to have Optimus Prime be the main character and have him fall in love with an old appliance. They’ll be going on dates where we’ll have the prop and the dialogue be present. I’ve worked a bit on the treatment of the video so we can identify how we want our video to come out.
Treatment
- Define the Goals and Set Parameters. What is the core message you are trying to convey in your video. Who do you want to watch the video? Whats the desired outcome youd like to create (volunteering, purchases, political change, or a good laugh?) Whats your budget and how long will the video run.
The main message that we want to convey in our video is that love can be unconventional or unexpected. The concept of a “robot” falling in love with an appliance seems so strange to us and so we want our audience to have a bit of a good laugh watching our video. This video shouldn’t be too complicated in terms of storytelling so it should be about 1 to 2 minutes long and will be low budget (no more than $10 for props).
- Whats the Concept? You’ll want to be able to quickly summarize the theme and objective for the video. Describe to others the core message and frame its delivery method.
The main theme of our video is falling in love unconventionally. With this, we’re incorporating some elements of romance and comedy through the dialogues, the music, and the effects.
- Whats the Approach? Nows the time to lay out the specifics. This is generally a narrative summary of the journey the audience is going to take. In a way, it might resemble a book report you wrote in school. A clear summary that reveals all of the important details which will be presented to the viewer. Describe specifics that will elicit response by the audience including music choice, shooting style, and editing approach. Describe the emotions you will solicit along the journey and how the audience will feel at the videos end.
The summary of our video is that Optimus Prime, a “robot” and our main character, sees an appliance at a hardware store window and immediately falls in love. He starts to imagine scenarios of him and the appliance meeting for the first time, knowing each other, holding hands, and going on ice cream and dinner dates. Although, it ends with Optimus Prime realizing it was only a daydream.
During the daydream montage, we’ll be using a cheesy love song as the background music and some effects that will make the scenes look and feel romantic. The settings will be mainly shot at a park, an ice cream store, and a hardware store. As for the shot sizes, we’ll do some wide and medium shots for the general scenes and then close-ups to set the romantic scenes.
The video will end with Optimus Prime realizing he was only daydreaming and he’s back to reality so the romantic effects and music will not be used anymore.