1. Josh Robinson and Dominic Hayes Music Video Report
We have decided to create a music video that follows the Pop/Dance genre, and the song we have chosen is Hey
Brother by Avicii. We will be using cinematography as well as mise en scene and various other micro aspects to create
a music video that follows conventions of a narrative video.
One of our main focuses was what character types will appear in our video and whether they match our chosen
genres. Three characters will appear in the video, two male and one female, the two men are brothers and the
woman is the love interest of the two. The first brother is currently going out with the woman, but he is abusive and
can be seen hitting her at certain points in the video. The second brother, which can be told by his body language and
attitude towards the woman, clearly has feelings for her. He is the nicest out of the two following the Good Samaritan
stereotype that appears in some music videos of the pop genre, he wears bright clothing to connote light, unlike the
abusive brother who wears dark toned clothing, and this creates a binary opposition between light and dark following
Levi Strauss’ theory of opposition. The woman is very distant from the abusive brother but her mood changes when
she is seen around the nice brother, the clothing she wears is also high key to give the audience an idea how the video
will conclude. In terms of Propp’s character roles the woman can be seen as the princess needing to be saved, the
abusive brother is the villain and the good brother is the hero of the video, this follows conventions of most music
videos of the pop/dance genre.
The narrative focuses on a man who is torn between helping his abusive brother, trying to stop him from hitting
women despite them not sharing eye to eye, or the woman his brother is abusing who he sees as a sister because of
the friendship they share. The narrative follows Todorovs theory of equilibrium, it begins in a state of equilibrium, the
three characters are socialising, there is high key lighting and the overall mood seems happy, but when the nice
brother is sat watching television he notices the girlfriend getting hit in the other room by the abusive brother, this
creates a disruption in the equilibrium. Following this the good brother ignores the situation and walks home, while
walking home shots appear on the screen showing the woman getting hit creating the sense that he can’t get this
image out of his head, showing the audience his personality, that he has a conscience. When the music changes to a
dance beat he realises the situation and starts to run back to the house, during this sequence slow motion shots
appear of the woman crying. When the good brother returns to the house he catches the woman getting abused, it is
here that he punches his brother, grabs the woman and runs out. The rest of the music video consists of shots of the
twosome running away, confronting the abusive brother for a second time, slow motion scenes of the abusive brother
with his head in his hands and the restoration of the equilibrium appears when the two have stopped and look at each
other before the video fades to black. He then snaps out of a state of thought and realises that none of that actually
happened and he just imagined it.