"Dark Night" - Le Kingste

Working Title: “Le Kingste”
Song title: Dark Night
Duration: 4:19

About the Band:
Le Kingste consists of three brothers: Paul Kingston on guitars, keys, and vocals; Arthur Kingston on bass and vocals; and Caleb Kingston on drums and vocals. Hailing from Tamworth, they currently reside in Sydney.

They have recorded an EP, available by emailing them at le.kingste@gmail.com.

The band’s musical style is a mixture of rock, funk, and pop, particularly on tunes like Two Pills and Dark Night.

Song Lyrics or Manuscript:
Unavailable.

Musical Style of the Video:
Form:
The musical style of the video combines performance and concept.

Tag Line:
Dark is the night, and in a dreamy, glittery landscape, can we ever truly be connected?

Intended Musical/Visual Approach and shooting style:
I chose this song because I instantly liked it, and I could easily find ways to visually represent the energy of the song while still maintaining focus on a performance-based, studio-made music video.

My main visual influence for the video doesn’t actually come from a music video or a band, but from a director I greatly admire, and that is Alfred Hitchcock. One scene in particular inspired me. There is a scene in Psycho when we can hear, but we can’t see, Norman Bates being yelled at by his mother. As the camera gets closer to the source of the sound, it moves up toward the room, as though the camera itself is trying to find a way into the private exchange between Norman and his mother.

Another great example of this is a British television program called Peep Show. The camera work in that series is entirely subjective. When the characters speak to one another, or engage with one another in general, they directly address the camera, and I thought that was really interesting, breaking the Fourth Wall and all that.

I’ve always liked the idea of having the camera take on a human persona, or become an embodiment of the spectator’s frustration at not being able to see everything, and I thought that it would be fun to experiment with this idea in the video.

Essentially, the idea is that the band is playing in a dark night, and that the camera or cameras are constantly searching for the band members. As the camera finds them, or attempts to connect with them, the lights brighten around that particular band member. The cameras are looking for a connection to something, or somebody, and through that primary identification with the camera, someone watching the video can engage with that desire for connection.

To shoot this, I would say that the cameras need to be very fluid, always moving, whether they’re fixed on a tripod or handheld. If they’re on a tripod, there should be lots of panning, and tilting, and zooms. The handheld camera should be trying to weave in and out among the band members, moving up as high as the camera operator’s arm can reach without endangering the camera, and moving very low across the ground, and I think the cameras we’ll be using will be perfect for that constant movement. I’d like the cameras to evoke almost a restless energy.

Much of the setting, and the mood of the video, can be established with lighting. Blue or purple gels, and dark lighting, would give the set a dreamy, night-time atmosphere, and spotlighting, done softly, could be used on the band when the cameras find them. There’s a really beautiful black and white image that accompanies the song on their Myspace page, and featured at the top of this proposal, and that could be used as a background for the shoot, but I think the look and mood of the shoot can be achieved predominantly through the lighting. I’d like to cover the floor and sprinkle glitter on the covering, to give the set a twinkling look, in keeping with the idea of turning the set into a dark night.

Treatment:
There is darkness, but for a faint twinkling. We hear a bass line, and we move toward it. As we move to the sound of the bass, we see a little better. Suddenly, a man playing a bass guitar is visible. Then, we hear another sound: keyboard and drums, and as we pull back from the bass player everything darkens a little, as we search for the source of the new sound.

We search for the drums as they continue. We follow the sound of drums, and find the drummer. When we find the drums, they and the drummer are illuminated.

Then we hear a voice. The drummer falls into darkness as we try to find the source of the vocals. When we find it, the singer is illuminated. This is it! We’ve found what we were looking for in this dark night. We start to move in time with the singer’s voice, almost swaying as though in a trance.

Then out of nowhere, guitars break the spell. We have to find them, they’re unlike anything we’ve heard before. We find them, and we linger again. As the tempo slows for the chorus, we find ourselves becoming mellow, then restless, wandering around the band, taking in the band as a whole.

As the bass begins again, we glide to the sound. We can see the fingers of the bass player as he plays, and we are fascinated. As the singer continues, however, we keep glancing over to him, and back to the bass. But we can’t stay still. Our attention is drawn by the drums, then the bass, then the singer. And as the guitars start again, we can’t decide what we want; the guitar, the bass, or the drums? The lights are almost blinding, as though reflecting our inner turmoil, and our indecision.

As the song mellows out again, reaching the chorus, the lights settle, and we are left to wander again, looking to connect. We settle down in front of the band, almost sitting and looking up at them while they play, like a child listening to a fairy tale, and the place begins to lighten, sensing our inner peace.

Then the guitar causes us to jump up, and we zero in on the guitar, as the lights illuminate each band member in turn. Then suddenly, the place darkens and we are lost again. But then we hear it, the bass. The bass player is illuminated, but very softly And a sound, almost like a flourish, reflecting the twinkling, starlit quality of the room, heralds the end of the music, and the room darkens once more.

Budget
Shooting days: 1
Editing days: 2
See attached budget.

Crew Size & Equipment:
Equipment:
Four cameras
Three tripods
Studio lights
Playback facilities
Gels for lighting
Blacks (2)
Props

Crew:
Producer
Production Assistant
Director (2)
First Assistant Director
Four camera operators
Lighting assistant (2)
Art Director
Make-up artist
Playback operator
Editor

Locations:
There is only one location, and this location is the media production studio in the ICT building at the University of Newcastle.