Treatment for Music Video - First Draft

Treatment Draft:
I was sent my track about a week ago by my Artist, Abandoning Sunday, and today he announced that the album it is taken from, "Struggle" will be released in two weeks time. At this point, no one else has heard this track and this is quite exciting from my point of view, making the video to accompany it. The track is called "Real Talk", and this is the initial draft of the treatment for this production.

Title: Abandoning Sunday - "Real Talk" Music Video.

Duration: Song length is 3:41, video length an estimated 4:00

Director/Producer: Joe Weston

Audience:
- Fans of different music genres, particularly Acoustic, Pop Punk, Post-Hardcore and Rock, as these are the genres that proved most popular amongst my target audience who are
- A mixture of teenagers, young adults and over 18s, of both genders, who can connect and relate to the artist's lyrics.
- These people are of different lifestyles, be it working or studying, with different interests, as everyone "can relate to the lyrics at some point in their lives", claim the artist.

[full Audience Research analysis to come following a full sample of surveys, click here for Audience Profile]
Outline:

My video to “Real Talk” follows the lives of 2 people, one of whom I will play, the other will be played by Tom. One is in a complicated relationship that is going through a difficult stage, and the man has to cope with his own personal issues and attempt to resolve the problems of the relationship, such as arguments over his drinking habits.  The other man feels as if he does not belong and is so used to being left out and being alone that he has become so reserved that he cannot see how much his friends care for him. The video explores how his friends come to his aid and how the relationship is solved, through the music of the artist, and how music brought everyone together. Hence, my third character, will be seen playing the acoustic guitar on top of a cliff to symbolise the meaning of the song.

Cast: 

Character 1 – Myself – Man in a difficult relationship facing issues about himself
 - later confirmed as Elliott Doyle
Character 2 – Tom Seago – Man facing issues with friendships and self-worth

Girl – yet to confirm

Guitarist – Ben Winter 

Group Members

- yet to confirm - later confirmed as Ben Winter

- yet to confirm - " Lee Johnson

- yet to confirm - " Myself

- yet to confirm

- yet to confirm

Potential cast: Elliott Doyle, Bradley Wilson, Sam Viganux, Cameron Dallas, Sarah Rodway, Jack Osborne, Grace Bridger, Megan Ballman, Ellie Weston, Beth Warne

Locations:

Sheringham Cliff

Cromer/Sheringham Beach

Bawdeswell Heath

Cromer / Overstrand Forest

Cromer

Taverham/Thorpe Marriott

Norwich

My House / Room

Rough Shot List and Reasoning
"-" indicates not applicable
"...." most likely indicating a lyric being sang here
Sections left blank, I know I need a shot here, but haven't developed an idea yet.

For the introduction and first verse, I want to establish the music video and get the audience questioning what might be going on in the music video. Before the introduction begins, I want to utilise establishing shots of the main locations the video will be set, and also make use of props to create depth to the characters stories, such as the bottles and scrunched up pieces of paper that were from writing songs etc. in the room. I also think using Time Lapse photography at the locations when the music kicks in will help show the passage of time, and hopefully establishing some themes. This also helps to create a state of equilibrium by showing the passage of time, adhering to Todorov's Narrative Theory, which I reference throughout my planning.
In the verse, I attempt to establish the story that the video tells, by utlising Goodwin's theories and connecting the visuals to the lyrics, such as "real bad habits" and then showing empty bottles. I want to create two distinct feels to this video, as literally, the meaning is about a relationship and how the male wants to change to keep them together, which I label "story part 1" which is what my character will take part in. However, I also feel the song could be interpreted to be about friendships, and how your friends will always help you through "we've come way too far..". Hence in the second part of the verse I introduce a second character, likely to be played by Tom for logistical reasons and the fact that he typically fits my audience profile due to his interests, as he struggles to find his way in the world. I place him in a forest, where naturally you have literal sense of direction and can easily seem lost, relating to the lyrics.
My third character is an equaliser. Meant to represent my artist, I will have him playing the guitar near a cliff, probably at Sheringham, as it was the first location I imagined after hearing the lyric "it's a long way down", the main lyric of the chorus and one of the main themes of the song so I thought it was quite important, and it can capture the emotion well.

Shot	Who/Where	Description
1 PRE	- / Room	Establishing shot of room
2	Room	Tape or CD with “AS” or “Real Talk” inserted
3	Forest/Track	Low angle of the autumnal forest/track floor
4	City/Town	Establishing shot of the city or town I will use
5	Room	Tape/CD press play
6 INTRO	Cliff	Time lapse looking out over the cliff
7	Forest	Time lapse or just a still shot of the forest
8	Room	Untidy room from start, with bottles/paper, etc. Text will be displayed in editing.
9	Field/Cliff	Close up of grass moving in the wind
10	Guitar / “	Same Shot but movement in the background
11	Forest/Track	Pan from skyàtrack or v.v., then track name
12 VERSE	Me / Room	Sending a text, close up of a phone
13	Guitar / Cliff	Close up of guitarist singing lyric “I’ve said before”
14	Room	Close ups of the empty bottles (ash tray?) for “bad habits”
15	Me, Girl / Field	Talking, not an argument (Todorov) “repeating myself”
16 V1.2	Tom / Forest	Shots of Tom exploring the forest area, don’t show face, climbing over trees etc. (Bawdeswell)
17	“ / “
18	“ / “
19	Me / Room	Close up of someone holding a photograph. Could either be of a girl for story part 1 or friends for story part 2.
20	“ / “	Photograph discarded
21 CHOR	Me, Girl / A Room	Argument, establish story part 1.
22	Guitar / Cliff	Singing lyric, side on “no one said..”
23	- / -	Cool shots as filler?
24	Guitar / Cliff	Tracking shot, move in towards feet of man on cliff for “long way down”
25 V2	City/Town	Shot of the city during the day, TL?
26	Group / Pavement	Group of friends together on the pavement having a good time.
27	“ / “	One character, Tom, is left behind “little I’ve got left”. Establish story part 2.
28	Me / Room	Shot of me becoming frustrated, bottles etc.
29	“ / “	As a result I grab my coat
30	“ / “	OTS of me going downstairs, cut as door shut
31 V2.2	Me / Tav. Church	“Lose my way” – sees church
32	“ / “	Switch perspective, walks away
33	- / Any location	Shot of a signpost, loss of direction etc.
34	Group / Town	Group laughing when out. I feature, away from girl.
35	Tom / Forest	Finds clearing / Cool shots
36 CHOR	Guitar / Cliff	High angle of guitarist on cliff singing lyric
37	Me (maybe Girl) / Room/Town	Phone call or conversation, saying lyrics “no one said…”
38	Tom / Forest	OTS of Tom running through the forest
39	“ / “	Tom skids to a halt at drop off
40	“ / “	“Long way Down”, low angle of Tom on drop off
41	----	“Lose hope” ? Church?
42	Guitar / Cliff	Singing lyric “you’ll keep me leaving”
43	Tom / Forest	Change forest. Cromer? Escaping
44	“ / “	Coming out of the forest and onto the beach

The second verse focuses on Character 2, and his issues. Little is revealed about him but I want to show him feeling excluded when he is out with his friends, hanging back and feeling anxious. He too could be undergoing relationship issues which is something I could explore later as I don't want to stray too far from the literal meaning of the song. Also, as the band are quite religious, when I heard "lose my way" I thought of both a Church, and how religion is often people's guidance and helps them find their way, and a signpost, for the more literal interpretation. I felt this was better suited to Character 1 and will probably show my character at the Church, and Tom's at the signpost. The music at the second part of verse 2 has an upbeat feel to it and so I want to make use of this by showing positive shots of Character 1 with his friends as he escapes his troubles, whilst Character 2 is still in the forest through the extended second chorus, and eventually finds his way out. All of this will be juxtaposed with images of the guitarist and other images to form the narrative.

45 INSTR	A series of good looking shots
46	Girl	Girl makes her decisions, show close ups of worry etc
47	Tom / Beach	Skimming stones, synced to beat
48	Guitar / Field	Shots of several people playing guitar
49	Group / Town	Having fun, realising one is missing
50	Stills	Pictures of the friends
51	Time lapses
52

The instrumental is the area that can probably include the most varied shots, relating to all sections of the narrative. It is the preceding section to the bridge where the disruption will occur (relating to Todorov's theory), and I think it can reveal a lot about the characters themselves and allow the audience to identify with them. This would be a good place to include intertextual references.

DISRUPTION

53 BRIDGE	Group / Forest	Group go into forest searching for friend
54	Member of group	“Over and Over” camera circles one while they are looking, spinning effect
55	Tom / Beach	Long shot of Tom sitting alone on the beach
56	Me / Room?	Shot of me screaming or releasing anger, “I’ve gotten so good”
57	Guitar / Cliff	Singing lyric
58	Me, Girl / Room, Town	Say lyric to girl, “I can change who I am” literal meaning
59 QUICK	Group / Forest	Quick shot of the group running
60	Me / Room	Punching  a wall? Show anger/despair
61	Girl / Room	Head in hands close up
62	-
63 PRE CH	Me, Girl / -	Talking to each other
64	“ “ / “	Switch over, SRS.
65	Guitar / Cliff	Repeat shot, “I’ve said before” (13)
66	Tom / Beach	Long shot à Mid shot of Tom on beach at sunset, head goes down.
67	“ / “	Fade to black

In this section, the lyrics reach their emotive climax, and I wish to encapture this. I thought I could have the group of friends go looking for Character 2 (Tom) as he was in the forest and a lot of people have a place they go to think so the forest could be his, and the friends know they'll find him there and want to make sure he's okay. Meanwhile, my character is releasing his anger at the fact he cannot convince the girl to make the decision to stay with him so they can "make it right", and they could gave a conversation at the end where the initial lyrics about repeating themselves are repeated. Tom's character will be alone on the beach, and the shot could fade to black to lure the audience into thinking it will not be a "happy ending" for his character, only to show hope, a key theme of the song and artist, when the chorus kicks back in again.

68 CHOR	Tom / Beach	Head turns round as music kicks in again, towards cliff
69	Tom / Me / Beach / Room	Both withdraw respective photos.
70	Guitar / Cliff	Singing “would be easy”
71 BUILD	Group / Tom / Cliff	Group goes up to the top of the cliff, tom comes up the other way
72	All / Cliff	Everyone meets at the top of the cliff for “long way down”.
73 CHOR	All / Park, Beach, Town.	Series of shots showing the group all together again (restoration, Todorov) having fun.  Girl and I appear also, in the background
74
75
76
77	Group / Beach	Friends hugging, Tom pulled in by someone and is shook. Fist bump, high five etc.
78
79	Me, Girl / Beach	“Give up and stop now” – says line to the girl.
80	All / Beach	Long shot of everyone re-united

For the first part of the chorus, I aim to show how music unites everybody (the goals of the artist being that everyone can relate to the lyrics, drawing people together), and so everyone could climb the cliff/hill area to meet at the summit where the guitarist is for the drop lyric "Long way down" as they overlook the sea. The last part of the chorus, when I first heard it, made me smile quite a lot, and I wish to re-create that emotion with positive scenes of everyone having a good time and the issues of the video being resolved, i.e. everyone showing the character who was worried his friends' didn't like him a lot of appreciation and love. For the outro, I could focus on the character with the troubled relationship, and how they managed to fix it, and the video will end with the tape or CD from the start being removed to show it was them listening to it all along, symbolising what music means to people.

81 OUTRO
82	Shots of the group together, naturally. Walking etc.
83
84
85
86
87	Group / Field	Playing football
88	Group / Town	Pushing joking around
89	Me, Girl	Hold hands / hug, restore
90 END	Me, Girl / Room	Tape/CD removed. Cut to show it was the two listening to it the whole time.

Shooting Schedule:

-          Forest scenes, Bawdeswell: Will require Tom plus 3 or 4 members of the Group. Half term.

-          Beach and Beach forest scenes: Will require all members of cast. Half term when Ben is back from holiday.

-          City scenes – Joe, Tom, few other members of group. Half term.

-          Cliff scenes – mainly require just Ben/Guitar. Last scenes require most of group members and Joe & Tom. Weekend, Sunday.

-          Room – Minimal cast, Joe & Girl. – Any day

-          Extra shots – just myself filming,  can be filmed any time.

See update posts for adjustments to the Treatment, Shot List, Shooting Schedule and Characters.

Key Theories

Here are some key media theories that I could apply to my analyses:

• Todorov: Narrative Theory. This is where a music video will follow a distinct form when it is a narrative video. This will be the transition from an equilibrium, to a disruption, which is then resolved to restore equilibrium.
• Uses and Gratifications Model: this is the theory that audiences seek out the media that wish to consume, and focuses on what the audience does with the media text, rather than what the media does to audiences (which is another theory, the Hypodermic Syringe or Effects Theory).
• Reception Theory: The opposite of the Effects Theory, that sees media consumption as active rather than passive, and focuses on what audiences do to the media

I can apply each of these theories to my media analyses. Firstly, I can apply Todorov's Narrative Theory to the video of "Backroads" by Lonely the Brave, which I have analysed. The video adheres to the theory as first there is an equlibirum, and then a disruption in the form of the Kiev Riots, and then the restoration of equilibrium when the skaters return to being free.

Regarding the Uses and Gratifications model, I could apply this to my analysis of Deaf Havana's digipak for "Old Souls". The inside of the digipak is a completely clear blue sky and beach with nothing noticeable to the audience- this leaves the audience open to decide what it shows about the band, their music etc.

Reception Theory could be applied to my other digipak, Real Friends' LP "Maybe This Place is the Same and We're Just Changing" includes the Fearless Record label logo, and so some members of the audience, who may not know the band, will see this and listen to the music, hence why the designers chose to include it, to create label identity, and many of the choices Real Friends would have made regarding artwork would be as a response to the themes present in the Pop Punk genre that the audience has grown to expect from such a product.

Magazine Advertisement // Deaf Havana

Norfolk based Rock Band Deaf Havana are the band that I most liken to the Artist I will be working with, Abandoning Sunday, and so I have chosen to compliment my analysis of one of their videos and their digipak with an analysis of their Tour Poster for their October tour last year in support of their new album, "Old Souls". I feel analysing this artist's work will help inform me with regard to what I will be producing, as their lyrical style, appearance and music genre is similar to that of my artist.

This poster was created to advertise the tour that the band were undergoing around the release of their new album. When doing a tour around an album, it would be expected that the artwork would be similar to that of the album artwork, however besides the font type and colour, a different colour scheme is used. This may be due to the fact that, for the digipak, the band doesn't feature at all, whereas in this poster the band are all pictured. This has been done to show the newer audiences what the band actually look like as they will be seeing them live. The blue themes from the digipak were continued in the later UK tour in April 2014, which was subsequently dubbed the "Old Souls" tour.

The inclusion of the band at the top of the poster immediately captures the audience, with front man James being pictured centrally. At first, the audience is under the impression that they are all dressed formally, i.e. James is shown in a grey suit jacket, and other members are wearing waistcoats or shirts, whereas some members are just wearing plain coats. This could mirror the different audiences the band may have due to their styles- they still appear to some as a strong rock band, but the new singles that were released prior to this tour were influenced by some folk rock, and this formal appearance perhaps reflects the sophisticated nature of the band. Combined with the continued humble appearance, this will help to sell more tickets to the concerts, as more people will view the band and feel as if they will like them just from their appearance.

This impression of sophistication continues in the house style- the lattice style border that separates the image from the tour dates has connotations of wealth (which the band don't have, they cancelled a tour due to a lack of funds) and perhaps upper class. This could perhaps indicate the band maturing and becoming established. The background appears to have a wallpaper style, with the text having the same font and colour as that used in the digipak for Old Souls. The album has been included at the bottom due to the tour being done around the album, ultimately to increase sales of both the album and tour tickets.

Another way that the poster may help to promote the band and increase sales of the tour tickets is the inclusion of the support acts. "Very Special Guest" makes the support act seem very important, and former Busted front-man Charlie Simpson has had a very successful solo career exploring similar genres to Deaf Havana. If people who like Charlie Simpson's music, or recognise the name from Busted and the style that they had many years ago, more people will come to the gig, perhaps not to see Deaf Havana as a priority, but they will still see the band perform live and could grow to like them and purchase the album.

Although the poster helps to create slightly different connotations of the band and attract different audiences, I will probably try to avoid making something completely different and create continuity through my pieces, for instance if I was producing a tour poster for this band surrounding the album I would continue the blue colour scheme and coastal themes from the digipak, or maybe include a still from an associated music video. However, the advertisement does create strong links to what the band is like, genre-wise and personality wise, and gives a distinct message to the bands fans, which is something I will try to utilise - and I will just be producing the magazine advertisement for the digipak, not a set of tour dates, so I will try to continue similar themes across my products.

Generating Ideas for the Music Video // Track Confirmation!

Brainstorming Ideas - Treatment Draft

In lesson, we began drafting treatments for our videos. At this stage, I did not have the track that I would be using, but from knowing my artist well, I could still construct potential themes to explore, ideas, and potential cast. I know that I can utilise autumnal themes and use a forest or track for an opening "title sequence" and using a tape or CD with the track name or artist on it being played at the start before the music begins. I know from previous songs that my artist explores themes of relationships and love, as well as loneliness, being lost, depression and hope. For the 'lonely' part, I thought I could use one man playing the guitar on a cliff top overlooking the sea, and utilise other shots in settings, as well as exploring props and a narrative to develop the piece. Regarding cast, I have several options. I thought maybe my piece could follow the lives of many people and their daily struggles (due to the album being named "Struggle") but this depended on the song I would be sent. My main actor will likely be Ben, a guitarist who can perhaps even replicate the appearance of my artist. I could even use myself in the video, as an actor. Inevitably, a female will probably be involved lyrically, and so I have several options here, including a friend who has had modelling experience, a Drama Student, and even my sister. To appeal to my adult audience, my Dad could feature, regarding his struggles with coping with his business. One idea I had was having close ups of several different peoples blank faces, perhaps linking how the lyrics affect many people, again depending on the song.

Yesterday evening, I received an E-Mail from Michael, my artist, saying he had two songs that would fit this project that he would like me to consider using. As the album isn't out yet, I will respect that and not name the tracks here, but one was Acoustic, and the other Full Band. I have decided to go for the full band track, as it has a much faster pace, meaning editing will play a more prominent role, and ideas for narratives became apparent.

From this, and once my Audience Research Surveys have been completed and analysed, and I have more of an interpretation of the track from more listening, I will be able to construct a full Treatment regarding an outline to the narrative, shot list, casting, and can begin getting some footage recorded and planning for main dates of filming.