1. Written summary of ideas generation
Our music video will be a performance and narrative video with some conceptual elements.
The narrative will follow the lyrical narrative of a one-sided, tempestuous relationship and due to the
song being somewhat archetypal of love songs, we will inverse or deconstruct some stereotypes of
music videos of love songs, particularly within the alt. Rock and Pop genres; the narrative will feature
a female protagonist as opposed to a male protagonist, who reflects on her relationship with a male.
The woman will be the victim of the couple, shown as being emotionally abused and controlled by the
man, being distraught by the end of their relationship, looking in the mirror miserably as she reflects
on their unhappy relationship. Scenes of their story will be shown interspersed with the performance
clips. The conceptual features of the narrative will be used as devices to symbolise the themes and
meaning of the video, for example, the performance shots will be filmed in woodland to represent the
natural aspects of the relationship and to contrast this symbol we will show the unnatural, aggressive
elements of their relationship also in the woodland. This is one of the many iconic symbols that will be
present throughout our video that are used to explore the relationship and deconstruct typical music
video narratives about love; a major symbol in the video is mirrors which the protagonist would look in
tearfully whilst applying makeup and reflecting on the relationship, this is an image commonly used in
female pop artists music videos, except in those the female would be “empowered” by their makeup,
seen as “war paint”, whereas in ours it would represent the futility of the protagonists external
validation. Other symbols include a car, which will represent the journey of the relationship; the train
which while being a Hitchcockian symbol of sex would also represent cycles, passivity and lack of
control and the guitars which are a phallic symbol.
The genre of the song „Mr Brightside – The Killers‟ is indie rock. The song is a love story told
in a not so typical way in comparison to genres such a pop. The main genre of the music video is
going to be romance as the video is going to be following a man and a woman and their relationship.
The music video is also going to have elements of drama as it is going to follow the break-up of the
couple and the different heartbreak that each of them go through.
For our music video project we chose the song „Mr Brightside‟ which is by The Killers. Our
group choose this song as it is a well-known popular song which most people know. The song is
upbeat and has an interesting lyrical meaning to it. The meaning to this song is that a guy has trouble
opening his heart to women but finds someone that he actually likes and open his hear to her but
unfortunately he sees she is hanging out with other guys and becomes overly jealous over someone
he has only just met. For our music video we are making it based on a broken relationship between a
man and women.
As our music video is going to be a performance and narrative music video, the setting for the
performance part of the music video is going to be filmed outside in the woods to get the mystical
feeling of the singers. High key lighting will be used on the band so that they stand out even though
we will be filming in the woods in the day time. Props will include instruments such as guitar and bass
guitar and a microphone for the lead singer. The band will wear smart casual clothing like jeans and tshirts throughout the music video. The clothing of each band member will reflect their own personality.
For the narrative part of the music video little of the narrative will be seen in the woods but will also
include it in a house in particular in the living room and the bedroom. Our group will also include some
of the setting in the car showing the journey of the couple.
In our music video, at parts there will be little movement, however at other parts we are going
to try and make it so there‟s more camera movement. The little movement, which may include slow
tracking shots, is intriguing and adds to the intimacy of the relationship portrayed. However, when
there are scenes such as the couples arguing we plan to use more movement and faster paced shots
to add to the tension. We plan to use a lot of close-ups throughout the music video, again adding to
the intimacy of the relationship and displaying the characters emotion to the audience. Also, a lot of
two-shots will be used in the video between the characters signifying their love and closeness.
Like the camera movement, there will be a mix of slow and fast paced editing. The slow
paced editing will come from the meaning of the song and relate to the relationship of the characters.
The fast paced editing will relate to the tension of the video but will also match the pace of the song
as it is quite upbeat and fast. The music video will have a linear narrative and use continuity editing to
tell the story of a man and a woman and how their relationship breaks apart. As we are filming part of
the video in the woods in the daylight, we plan to edit these shots later on to make them look like night
shots. We thought that this would be easier than just filming in the night as this can get quite difficult
where lighting is concerned.