2. Crystal Castles – Air War Crystal Castles is an experimental electronic punk band from Toronto, Ontario, consisting of producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. Crystal Castles are known for their chaotic live shows and their melancholic lo-fi home productions. The duo have released many vinyl EPs between 2006 and 2007 and also two eponymous albums, in 2008 and 2010 respectively. The band's debut album was included in the "Top 50 Greatest Albums of the Decade" by NME Magazine, at number 39. Electronic punk isis a music genre combining elements of electronic music and punk rock which involves musicians playing synthesizers in place of electric guitars. One of the first known innovators of the genre are Suicide, an American synthesizer/vocal musical who are known to have influenced numerous modern electronic and experimental artists including Crystal Castles. Air War is a single by Crystal Castles. It was released on 17 December 2007 on London UK's Trouble Records as 7" vinyl. An earlier version of the song was released in July 2006 as the B-Side to "Alice Practice" on London UK's Merok Records. The lyrics are from the James Joyce book Ulysses. The cover art gathered public interest due to its odd feature as Ethan Kath and Alice Glass with ice cream cones as heads.
3. Outline The video will follow a narrative structure, following a young girl as she sits alone in the library reading Ulysses and her wild, dreamy experience as she experiments with psychoactive substances.
4. Image The purpose of the video is for the band to appear quite quirky but also dark and deep. As the song already has a video, which is quite light and upbeat, it will be an opportunity for fans of the song to see it from a new, darker perspective. This video will probably appeal to fans of Crystal Castles more recent darker image.
5. Aims The aims of the video is loosely to tell a story but more to provide a visual feast for the eyes and project strong imagery upon the audience so it will affect them and affect their own interpretations of the song. Also, the aim is to inspire thought in the audience, so as not to present all the answers within the plot but to make them think about what they are watching and what it means.
6. Target Audience The intended target audience will be young people, probably around 14-25, fans of electronic music and fans of crystal castles. But also anyone who is accustomed to gothic imagery and thoughtful symbolism within the music video viewing experience.
7. Treatment The tone of the video will be quirky but dark but rather than an angry or sad or scary tone, it will be sinister – an underlying darkness to contrast the quirk.
8. Plot - Exposition The exposition will show the lone girl entering the library and choosing a book. She chooses the James Joyce Classic, Ulysses (as a reference to the intertextuality associated with the lyrics). She finds a table in a quiet corner, sits down, pours herself a glass of water and takes a single heart shaped pill from her pocket. She swallows the pill and begin to recite from the book.
9. Plot – Rising Action The rising action will come in as she finishes reciting because she can feel that the pill is starting to take effect. She sits and enjoys her high, watching the how light streams through her fingers and placing her head on the book and running her fingers down the page. As the tension in the music rises she raises her hands to her face as the song says “when love absorbs”.
10. Plot - Climax As the song reaches a climax, she parts her fingers, revealing her wide eyes, and shouts “war!” and the scene switches from her in library to her in the same position in a wild woodland area. This is when her experience begins and she sees herself as an emancipated, care free, ‘queen of the wilderness’ type figure. She performs, proclaiming the space around her as her own, giving off a dominant air over the woodland.
11. Plot – Falling Action As the climax ends, she has a vision of three sirens beside the sea beckoning her over (referencing Ulysses). The scene suddenly switched to a vision of herself dancing seductively in a cramped, dark space, with a mask on. And again her vision switches to a crooked hotel hallway where two masked figures can be seen in a room at the end, they look up.
12. Plot – Resolution The resolution comes as her dreams begin to fade and she brings her mind back into the library. The camera pans up as she says goodbye and then pans down again to reveal she has disappeared.
13. Shots In the introduction, I will use a variety of long, wide and close up shots edited in extremely quick cuts in order to sync the images with the dial up tone sound effect. In the following recitation scene I will keep the shots quite consistent in order to show her ordinary state of mind, just a simple wide shot of her at the table throughout. In the climactic woodland dream I will use a wild vibrant red and use a variety of shots such as wide shots, longs shots and tracking shots and edit them together in super quick cuts and delayed/ghosting effects in order to give a trippy feel. During the final shot, I will use a continuous shot rather than editing several together, using a wide shot of the girl at the table and panning upwards to some sort of focus on the wall behind her (deer head, painting etc) and then pan back down again as the girl disappears.
14. Framing I will use setting and framing to my advantage using trees and woodland structure in order to frame the character in the woods and bookcases or windows in order to frame the character in the library.
15. Props I will use various props during the filming process in order to use symbols effectively, for example heart shaped pills, animal masks and I am considering incorporating red smoke pellets in order to continue the red theme.
16. Justification I think this will be the best approach to sell the song because for those who have already heard the song/ seen the previous video will probably be intrigues to see a different take on the song and those who haven’t will be drawn into the song through the powerful and thought provoking imagery. I think it will reach the target audience because the protagonist will be relatable the angsty teenagers who feel they are misunderstood and also they will find the imagery interesting as it is fresh and the video keeps a consistent pace.
17. I think the main challenges forseen in the production of the video is that perhaps some of the scenes will be too hard to organise/film, for example the beach/sirens scene and it may be difficult to organise transport/cost/materials to dress the sirens but if this is the case I can rethink the structure of these parts of the video.
