This document provides a concept summary and production plan for a music video to accompany Lana Del Rey's song "Ultraviolence". The proposed video will tell a dystopian narrative set in a dysfunctional society inspired by 1984 and A Clockwork Orange. It will focus on Del Rey's character who is torn between her friendship with a rebel leader and her role providing entertainment for the society's elite. The video will use symbolic imagery and examine human traits like greed, murder, and love to critique the negative aspects of human nature exaggerated in this world. It will incorporate varied camera shots and lighting to set the atmosphere and emphasize important story beats through its editing.

1. Lana Del Rey
‘Ultraviolence’
By Tom Millett for
Hollow Records
Tom Millett
Hartlepool 6th Form College
Brinkburn, Blakelock Road
Hartlepool, TS25 5PF
tom.millett@hotmail.co.uk

2. Concept
The concept of the video will be heavily inspired dystopian societies in modern
culture such as the societies seen in 1984 and A Clockwork Orange. While the
lyrics in the song focuses on a dysfunctional abusive relationship, the video will
show a dysfunctional, ham-fisted society that can only revert to excessive
violence to resolve their issues. This will be reflected in scenes, which will show
that the society’s rebels and policemen are only two sides of the same coin as
well as a public execution. Del Rey will be in a difficult situation as she has a close
friendship with one of the rebel leaders but she also provides entertainment for
the right-wing members of the society. The whole video will show how Del Rey
deals with this dual life and the consequences she has to deal with because of
this. There will be some intertextual references to the film A Clockwork Orange
scattered in the video as the song’s title borrows it’s name from a notable piece
of jargon form the film.

3. Narrative and Performance
Del Rey’s music videos often blend performance and narrative together while
using a lot of metaphorical symbolism and dark undertones. This will be
reflected in my music video but the narrative will be much stronger in my music
video and the performance piece will only start halfway through the music video
to show directly what effects Del Rey’s performances have within the narrative.
The way the lyrics are delivered on camera depends on the emotions that are
present in the narrative at the time. For example in the execution scene the
performance will be emotional and tragic but beforehand, the performance will
be tense and disconnected from the audience seen in the narrative.
The narrative will be initially be focusing on Del Rey and the rebel leader
together. However throughout the middle of the song the narratives will be split
equally showing what both of them go through in the dystopian society. They
will converge together at the end to give the narrative a sense of closure for both
of the characters.
The narrative will focus on key emotions and actions committed by humans.
None of which are fully positive as the music video will over exaggerate the
negative traits of human beings.
Greed
The greed of various characters is vital to the development of the narrative. The
majority of the negative actions that occur within the narrative is fuelled by the
greed within certain characters. For example the rebel leader is ultimately
executed due to his greed for wanting to steal the overseer’s diamond and the
overseer would not have been attacked if he shared his power with others within
the society.

4. Murder
It is a key theme throughout the music video that violence is the only way to
solve problems in this dire world. The most notable way this is used is by
murdering an individual. The murder of characters within the narrative will
work as a way to link between the lyrics within the chorus visually. This topic
shows the almost primal instincts that some humans can have when it comes to
protecting what they believe and care for. The murders will not be glorified in
the video and will serve to make the audience wish they were not in this society.
Love

5. While initially as positive emotion, love can be dangerous. It can cause great
emotional turmoil if the relationship doesn’t work out. This is going to be very
apparent thematically in the final third of the music video where emotions will
be running high so there will be lots of close ups of characters faces as tragedy
strikes them all.
Camera and Editing
The majority of shots will be shown at half-speed to emphasise each shot
individually and give the video a slower pace. The slower pace will complement
the music incredibly well. The camera will occasionally use some elongated
shots, which will zoom out to show the atmosphere and scope of the society of
the video. There will also be a lot of medium shots and close ups to show the
depth and life within the location. There will be many shots that will be used to
show the perspective of certain characters within the narrative and give a sense
of the scale of the situation that they are in. There will also be an abundance of
establishing shots within the video to help give scope to the society within the
video as well as give a variety of shots for the viewer to see.
As far as editing goes, a lot of thought beats will be used within the video to give
a smooth flow within the video as well as a good way to put in as many varied
shots as possible within the narrative. There will be some post-production used

6. to show the title of the song in the opening shot but outside of that no major
post-production editing will be needed. More intense moments within the
narrative will have less cuts in the video to emphasise the impact of importance
of the actual event at hand in the narrative.
Lighting
The lighting within the music video will vary depending on what location is
being used within the building. For example, locations that will be used to show
the lower members of society or badly kept areas will be incredibly dark but will
have streaks of lighting within the area to depth to the location. In comparison
areas that are used by the richer members of society will have heavily lit areas
that will make the area almost look too bright or fake in the sense that there life
may not look real.
The lighting will be key to the performance part of the narrative with the lighting
being used in the same it would be used in a play at a theatre.

7. Mise En Scene
The mise en scene for the music video is by far the most important area of the
entire production. Characters will have specifically coloured costumes
depending on their role within the narrative. For example, the lower members of
the society will have muted or dark colours to show where they live in society.
Some these colours will be black, brown or dark grey. On contrast, richer and
more influential members of the society will wear more royal colours such as
navy blue, blood red or white to show their wealth in the society. The costumes
are key so the viewer is able to differentiate who is from what background and
this is key to the conflicts seen in the narrative.
The location overall is a secondary school which has an old stage within the
centre of the building which has the perfect atmosphere for the video. It is old,
out of place and is not built like a normal school hall. It is almost constructed like
an amateur theatre. This stage at the centre will be key to the majority of the
narrative as the entire narrative is woven around a ‘show’ put on by the richer
members of the society to punish to lower members of society.
Other locations that will be used within the video will be classrooms and sports
facilities which depending on the quality of either room will be used for scenes
including either the rich or the poor. The mise en scene will also be used for
some intertextual references to films that were key to inspiring the narrative.
Some examples include a possible reference to A Clockwork Orange and a
reference to 1984.