A2 G324 Media Studies Music Video Treatment

Sheet

Alex Torrens

| alextorrens95@hotmail.co.uk | Hartlepool Sixth Form College Blakelock Rd TS26 6HG | 07846374611 |

Background

The Temper Trap are an alternative rock/indie style band from Australia who formed in 2005. The band has 5 members (Dougy Mandagi, Jonathon Aherne, Toby Dundas, Lorenzo Sillitto and Joseph Greer).The band all use a variety of instruments including the drums, guitar and keyboard. The band member Dougy makes The Temper Trap an instantly recognisable band because of his distinctive, quirky voice.

In 2008, the band relocated from Melbourne to London, where they first became known by their chart topping song ‘Sweet Disposition’ which is one of their most well-known songs. Their debut album, ‘Conditions’, shortly followed after. Other songs also started to become recognisable taken from the album, such as Fader, Science of Fear and Drum Song. A few years later in the present year, The Temper Trap released their second album with tracks such as ‘Rabbit Hole’ and ‘Trembling Hands’. Since this, The Temper Trap have become bigger and bigger in the music industry, performing at annual music festivals such as V, Oxegen and Glastonbury, and attending signings and exclusive gigs all over the world.

‘Love Lost’ Concept and Ideas

Love Lost is one of The Temper Traps tracks from their first album. I chose this song as it’s not as popular as their other ones and I believe it has a few different interpretations and moods within its lyrics, such as the idea of ‘love’ and the idea’ of ‘being lost’ but mixed into two different stories. In my video, I plan to show clearly these two different features and feelings. I think the song is actually about being lost without someone you love, but I will expand this idea more by emphasising more on the idea of being lost.

Performance and Narrative

The message I am trying to get across in my video is that people need someone to love in their life. Without love we are lost in the world and one special person in our lives can really make a difference. The story I want to try and tell in my video is the idea of a boy trying to get back with the girl he loves in order to get his life back on track and feel a part of somewhere again. My main actor (Ramsay MacDonald) will be the main focus in the video as I want the audience to connect with his feelings and sympathise with him. I believe this aim will be successful as my target audience is teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19 and love is a major subject in this age range. There will also be smaller parts of ‘flashbacks’ of the actress (Grace Collins) to remind the audience why the boy feels the way he does. My music video will not include any dance routines as I do not feel this is appropriate for the style and context of the song but I will include a fragmented narrative and lots of solo shots

of the actor. I like the idea of Ellie Goulding having flashbacks in this video to ‘Your Song’ but how she looks quite serious and sad when she’s singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9AFMVMl9qE&feature=related

The Music Video

In my music video I plan to emphasize and highlight how lost the boy is with his life from not having anyone to love. Most of the shots will be of him gazing into the distance with no clue about what he will do or what he wants to do in life. There will be a few cross cuts to a girl who he longs to have and who he does end up with by the end of the video. I will include a lot of close up shots and extreme close up shots of the boy to express his feelings and to highlight how lost he really is.

Fragmented Narrative

Some parts of the video I may make in reverse so that the narrative is more fragmented and interesting, such as at the beginning the girl and boy could walk towards each other but it would be in reverse so it would subvert the idea of them finally being together. This should be possible to do on Final Cut HD software.

Locations

The sea front – Seaton Carew. When I pictured the idea of a boy feeling lost and out of place I had the idea that he could be looking out to sea, as the sea could resemble a giant unexplored place, a bit like the world to him as he has still not found the missing piece for his perfect life. The sea is also quite relaxing and calm (if on a sunny cloudy day) which also highlights the pace and style of the song.

Middlesbrough High Street. I pictured a specific shot where the actor would be stood in the middle of the high street in an extreme long shot gazing into the camera, but having the speed of the footage sped up fast, so that the detail of him stood uncomfortably while other people walk around him carrying on with their day as if he wasn’t there. I thought Middlesbrough would be a suitable location for this shot idea as it is not too far away and the high street is quite long and wide so the idea of

this shot would show clearly to the audience.

TV Studio – Brinkburn Sixth Form College. One of my ideas in my video is the idea of projecting a world map onto the green screen in the TV Studio at college and having my actor standing in front of the screen, so that he has the image of the world map reflecting onto his person. This idea will highlight the idea of him being lost as the image of the world will make him appear small and ‘lost’. Therefore I will need our college to be one of my locations as this is the only place I know to have a TV studio with a projector and green screen.

Other location ideas

A restaurant along the marina. There is also the idea of the boy being lonely as well as lost. I had the idea that the boy could be sat at a table in a restaurant on his own with another dish in front of him and the cutlery set out as if somebody will come. However, I think this idea may be a bit difficult and a bit far-fetched as I would have to get the restaurants permission to film there and the cost of buying two meals could become a bit expensive.

A forest. As forests are quite large and scary this location could reflect on his feelings and make the audience sympathise with the actor. The actor could look up at the high trees in low angle/high angle shots to highlight the idea of him feeling small in the big world.

Lighting

In terms of lighting, the main source will be natural light as the majority of the video will be filmed during daytime so there will be no need for artificial light. However, if I do go ahead with the idea of using the projector in the TV studio the projecting image will be the main source of light in the room and everywhere else will be dark as this will show the image of the world clearer and it will have a bigger impact. I think if I project the image onto the actor it will create a cool and creative effect and make him seem small with the world reflecting onto his face and body.

Due to the time of filming being in October, I may have the issue of there being less opportunity of daylight time as the clocks go back and the nights will come quicker. Therefore, I will have to plan my times to film at specific points in the day to ensure the natural lighting will be light enough for the camera.

Camera Shots

I will try to use a wide variety of shots for my video as too many of the same shots will make the video appear boring and unprofessional. I will use close ups and extreme close ups for the intense moments in the song to highlight the boy’s feelings, but use more long-shots, establishing shots and medium shots for the fast-paced parts of the song. I would also like to include some tracking movements and at least one example of a different angle (high or low) to show the camera in a different perspective.

Effects and Editing

In my video I plan to rely heavily on editing techniques in order for my music video to achieve its purpose and to make it more interesting and suited to the target audience.

Without editing, my video will end up looking dry and dull, and will end up boring the audience.

I like the idea of using at least one example of a jump cut edit in my video as it will suit the idea of a fragmented narrative and make it more ‘jerky’. Jump cuts are also one of my favourite editing techniques and are quite easy to do. I included a few jump cut edits in my AS coursework last year so this shouldn’t be an issue (last year’s coursework - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OFylZ1m-Lk&feature=plcp).

I also like the idea of reversing the footage in the editing software so that part of my video has a backwards narrative. I think this will add contrast and make my music video different from all the other usual narratives in music videos as only few use this technique to tell the story (examples: Coldplay – The Scientist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU and Alt-j – Breezeblocks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVeMiVU77wo. I have took a lot of inspiration from the Breezeblocks music video).

I would also like to include different effects in the footage, such as black and white effects for the sadder parts of the song and colour ‘boosting’ effects for the happier points.

All of these techniques should be possible to do in the software I will be using – Final Cut HD.