A music video pitch for '1996' by The Wombats.

1. ‘1996’- The wombats.
Music video pitch.
By Charlie, Abbi, Holly and Joni.

2. GENRE
“Independent music (often shortened to indie music or indie)
is music produced independently from major commercial
record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include
an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and
publishing. The term indie is sometimes also used to describe a
genre (such as indie rock and indie pop); as a genre term,
"indie" may include music that is not independently produced,
and most independent music artists do not fall into a single,
defined musical style or genre, and usually create music that
can be categorized into other genres”-Wikipedia

3. LYRICS

4. ‘1996’ Music video synopsis
Set in 1996, the narrative follows the everyday life of two
teenagers and their experience in a relationship with one and
other. At the beginning things are great in the relationship, we
see them venture into town, go home to make and eat cake all
whilst flirting and enjoying each other’s company. However a
flaw in the relationship resurfaces and causes a change in
scenario as the couple are left stranded as to what to do with
one and other, end it all or reunite? They choose to reunite and
focus on all the good times/fun that’s been had in the
relationship. In the performance aspect of the video, the
wombats themselves sing and play the instruments used in the
song. We only see the band in the studio and as they play
images of the couple are shown via projector onto a screen
behind the band. Their performances is synchronous with the
narrative, and as the couple have their problems the band
becomes distracted and looses interest in filming the song. As
the couple reunite, the song comes to an end and the band
perform to the best of their ability.

5. SETTING/TIME PERIOD
“Culturally, the 1990s are characterized by the rise of multiculturalism
and alternative media, which continued into the 2000s. Movements such
as grunge, the rave scene and hip hop spread around the world to
young people during that decade, aided by then-new technology such
as cable television and the World Wide Web. During the decade, many
significant events occurred that have helped shape the world as it
stands today. The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the earth after it was
launched in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields
in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War;
The World Wide Web gains a public face during the start of decade and
as a result gains massive popularity worldwide; Boris Yeltsin and
followers stand on a tank in defiance to the August Coup, which leads to
the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991; Dolly the
sheep is the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell;
The funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales, who dies in 1997
from a car crash in Paris, and is mourned by millions; Hundreds of
thousands are killed in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.”- Wikipedia

6. CHARACTERS
The couple:
Christopher & Ashley
The band:
Mathew (lead vocalist) Tord (bassist) Dan (drummer)

7. Christopher
Christopher is a 17 year old student. He lives at home with his
mum in York. His interests include watching ‘The X-files’ on Tv
and playing ‘Street Fighter’ on the PlayStation. He’s been in a
relationship with Ashely for around 10 months now.
Ashley
Ashley is a 17 year old student. She lives with her mum and older
brothers in Pocklington. She enjoys watching ‘Buffy the vampire
slayer’ and her favourite food is homemade pizza rolls. She first
met Christopher at lunchtime in their school’s canteen.

8. LOCATIONS
YORK
The historical, small town of York will provide as a great location to film in as there
are many shops, business’ and cafés that will provide an attractive setting for the
beginning of the narrative. Furthermore, it will cost virtually nothing to film in as we
don’t have a large budget for the video. In reality many indie music videos are filmed
in towns and side streets as they were seen as places were no-one had filmed music
videos before as for example in popular genres they tend to film in luxurious
locations e.g. On a boat in the mederterranian. Therefore, indie videos have the
convention of subverting from that in order to make a statement of individuality.
Furthermore it is stereotypically where the audience expect a teenage couple to be
spending their free time.
POCKLINGTON
Ashley lives in Pocklington and so we will be filming at
her house there where she’ll be baking with
Christopher, and on a separate day we see the couple
go to an ice cream parlour as this is something that
teenagers are seen to do. Teens don’t tend to have
much of a disposable income/any income as they’re
likely to be in low paid jobs or won’t have a job at all and
so rely on their parents for any pocket money. The
music video aims to realistically represent teenagers and
their daily life as this is consistently seen throughout
indie videos as their music is an expression of their
reality band their beliefs.

9. COSTUME
Both Chris and Ash are influenced by the grunge movement in the 90s therefore
this will have a significant impact on their style. For Chris he’ll be dressed in
distressed jeans, a slogan t-shirt and either a denim jacket, fleeced vintage coat
or Jumper. The look is based off of the band ‘Nirvana’ as they were a 90s grunge
band who influenced menswear significantly. The overall look aims to present
Chris in an edgy and cool way as unlike the mainstream way of dressing (dressed
up), dressing down appears to depict that Chris is relaxed and alternative.
Chris isn’t seen as of yet to be wearing any make up. Although, if in production
we did feel that Chris’ character needed make-up, it’d just be to perfect his
complexion with foundation. As well as Chris could potentially line his eyes with
smudged, black liner as some alternative boys have been seen to do this as it is
defiant and different from the mainstream.
Ashley’s costume will be a reflection of Chris’. Within alternative dress there
isn’t much distinction between men's and women’s fashion. This could be
because there isn’t too much of a strong belief in gender conformity within this
subculture. We aim to replicate the outfit as seen by the picture of the model on
the left. It’s virtually the same as Chris’ except she wears a choker and decides to
include a cropped top. She’ll be wearing heavy eye make up as it will draw
attention to her eyes and make her have a mysterious/dark appearance. The
rest of her face will be kept minimal as she is still young and so doesn’t need a
lot of make up. Furthermore it was seen as trendy (within the alternative
subculture) to apply make up in this way at the time.
The couple

10. The band
The band will be simply dressed in white T-shirts with Jeans. They
won’t be apart of the ‘1990s’ look of the video as they’re looking back
into the past in their performance. As well as videos/footage of the
couple will be projected onto the band as they perform, and so their
clothing shouldn’t distract from this as the imagery will look more
professional on plain clothes. They won’t be wearing any make-up as it
isn’t part of their personal aesthetic as a band.

11. PROPS
The cake
The cake will be used as a prop to show the couple enjoying their time together. It is something that teenagers can afford
to do because it takes little effort and money to purchase the ingredients.
The ice-cream
The ice cream from the ice cream parlour will acct as a prop to the couple as again it is something that teenagers are
seen to be doing as it is cheap and affordable to do/purchase.
The instruments
The instruments are used as props to the band as obviously the band are expected to play them to formulate the
music for the song. Even more so it adds top the imagery and overall appearance and authenticity of the band,
telling the audience that they are a band and not just a group of young men.

12. THE MEANING OF THE SONG
The general interpreted meaning of the
song would be that it aims to be
reminiscent of the 90s. The band must
have grown up through the 90s and are
therefore nostalgic about their
experiences of the time such as being
with girls, making prank calls, watching TV
and feeling carefree. Their present reality
appears to be a downfall from the past as
finally the lyrics read ‘I’m leaving…I’m not
cut out for this modern life’. For those
audience members who don’t know about
the 90s, they get to understand it and if
not it allows them to think back to
previous happy memories within their
lifetime, times that would equate to the
feeling of the 90s. (Pictured: Stills from the original music video.)