1. Estelle Naughton
Ideas Generation – The 1975
CHARACTERS
The character we are planning to use is a girl who has her heart broken and then the
presence of her boyfriend will be there through flashbacks and pictures but the
boyfriend character isn’t actually present in the video. The boyfriend’s presence will
be apparent within the flashbacks of happier times, however in the current scene of
the girl in her bedroom, he won’t be there in person. The girl will be sat on her bed
with a mirror across the room, allowing the girl to see into the mirror and look at the
evidence of her drug use on her arms, with tears running down her face. The video
will be shot in black and white which will intensify the pain and hurt she feels by
losing her boyfriend and the physical pain of using drugs, which will be shown by her
looking and contemplating her life choices regarding drugs.
NARRATIVE
The narrative will be visually fragmented due to the flashbacks of her relationship
that she’s lost through drugs, yet the narrative will be linear as from beginning to end
you will see the progression of the girl’s life from being positive and declining and
becoming negative and lonely. The girl will be on her bed crying due to the broken
relationship due to drugs, with flashbacks including boyfriend and the activities that
couples do and then towards the end of the video, you understand that she’s lost her
boyfriend to drugs. We’ve decided to demonstrate this narrative in our music video
as the song talks about drugs and it’s relevant to ideas we have.
GENRE/STYLE
Our music choice is by an indie/pop band and our music video will reflect this as our
video will be in black and white which is conventional for that genre.
ICONOGRAPHY
The iconic elements featured in our video will include the Manchester skyline,
Manchester Wheel/Eye, Fopp and the general streets of Manchester to show the
area in which she lives in is local and links in with where the band originates from.
Elements of love and pain are present due to the relationship suggesting love and
pain as the breakup and the drug use is present. The most evident iconic element
would be the use and representation of drugs and how they will be shown through
our music video, slightly conforming but deviating from the stereotype of who use
drugs as she’s a teenage girl in love. The drugs can be seen as a metaphor for their
relationship as the drugs are abused between the two, which leads to the female
character getting abused due to her boyfriend’s over dose on drugs.
SETTING
The predominant setting of our video will be the girl’s bedroom focusing on her pain
and the environment in which she feels is safe and secure unlike the outside world
which has led her to drugs. Alternatively, to show this we will shoot flashbacks
around Manchester with her boyfriend and being introduced to drugs and becoming
addicted. The flashbacks we will shoot will be positive at first and then get
progressively worse showing the emotional and physical separation of the couple.
They will visit iconic visuals of Manchester including the Manchester Wheel/Eye to
2. show the connection and bond at the start of the relationship, being all couple like
and then the outside shots will show the deterioration of the relationship.
TECHNICAL AND AUDIO CODES
We will cross cut the flashbacks into the video and use close ups when
demonstrating the pain and hurt she feels in regards to the loss of her boyfriend and
the addiction to drugs.
NEALE’S ‘MENTAL MACHINERY’
Our idea isn’t conventional of the genre as it will include flashbacks, and flashbacks
don’t really appear in music videos especially not paired with an indie/pop song.
However the black and white element is typical of an indie band as the band itself
produces many black and white videos, adverts and digipaks. The narrative of the
video will be both fragmented and in order due to the flashbacks disorientating the
audience but with the sequence of events regarding the girl in current times in order.
