Lauren Stephenson

Treatment:
For this project I would like to do a song which depicts a sense of no
belonging and discomfort in a current situation. The song is called ‘Airplanes’
and is by a man named B.O.B featuring a woman from Hayley Williams. I
think this would be an ideal song to work with because of the fact the lyrics
tell a story and would be effective with the ideas I have.

Based on my research of hip hop the hip hop genre, it is evident that quite a
few of them use a narrative and I will be applying this in my music video. The
locations we are going to use will vary to create an overall, very effective
music video.

Narrative:
For the beginning of the video, during the first 8 seconds where no vocals
are heard, I would like to show flashes between each of the actors used
starting with the male rapper in the airport terminal, then I would like to
show a flashback of the female and male actor happy together. I want to do
that because for the rest of the narrative they will represent a couple that
split up due to domestic violence. Then I would like to show the male actor
from the couple alone and then the female actor in a darkened room with
projections of the couple together in the background, showing a happy
scene. I would like to do this because it would be like an introduction to all
the actors that will be in the video. I would like to flick in between each
setting briefly using a fade to black transition to split them up. Then I would
like to begin the video by using the female actor in the dark room with the
room with the projection, singing along to the song.

Using this song, I would like to show the journey of a man and I will continue
it on throughout the whole song. I would like the first verse to show the male
actor in his home, I want to make that home look very unpleasant so it
doesn’t appear homely at all; this will show the life he lives. There will be
numerous points in the first verse where the male actor will be seen in his
empty house, with eviction notices around him and I will use various
different camera shots to show the emptiness of the house and also the little
amount of belongings he owns. In addition to that, I’d like to have the male
actor who does the rapping in the song, to play as a sort of guardian angel
who is always in the background when things are going on in this male
actor’s life, but is never in contact with the male actor until the second verse
of the video. In the first verse, I would like the male rapper to be in an airport
lobby; this will represent the beginning of the other male actors’ journey.
This would be effective because it would mean that he would appear more
than once and have an actual significance to the video. I will cut between the
two different male actors for the duration of the verses. In addition to the
eviction notices, I plan to have a moment in the first verse where the male
actor is looking out of his window and we can see a for-sale sign is hung up
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outside the his house. This will emphasise how his life is falling apart and add
to the overall story and concept of the music video.

For the chorus I only want to use one location and scene. The chorus will
consist of various different camera shots whereby only the female actor can
be seen in the darkened room, I want to show a projection of flashbacks from
the couples’ relationship both of good and bad memories. Not only that, I will
also show projections of a ‘night sky’ because those lyrics are included in the
chorus, it would be relevant. I will repeat this for every chorus but use a
different order of camera shots each time so that it doesn’t look repetitive.

On the second verse, I would like to have the whole scene in a boxing ring as
I want to make it look as though the male actor is fighting with himself
because of the guilt he feels inside for the pain he caused his girlfriend. I
would then like to bring the male rapper into this verse by having him as the
announcer for the boxing match and I will then use various camera shots to
make it look as though the male actor is fighting himself throughout the
whole verse and I will also use another white male and use over the shoulder
shots to make it more obvious that he is fighting himself. In this verse I will
also show flashbacks of the male actor abusing the female actor so it will
show how he is fighting with his conscience and why. I will then show the
male actor surrendering to himself, so he admits defeat which will then tie in
with the end of the video.

To end the video I would like to have the male actor meeting up with the
male rapper in the airport lobby again but this time they both collect their
suitcases and walk off as though they are boarding a plane, I would then like
to have the female actor watching them walk off as she sings along the last
few words of the song. I think this ending will be effective because all the
actors will be bought together in the end and the story will have a proper
ending.

Mise-en-scene:
For house scene where the male is alone, I would like him to be in clothes
that look old and worn to represent his lifestyle. In the boxing ring scenes I
would like him to wear a plain vest and shorts and I would like the male
clone of him who represents him in the video, to wear the exact same thing
so that it is apparent the actor is fighting himself. As for the other male and
female actor, I would like them to wear clothes that fit in with the urban and
hip hop scene so that the genre of music can be represented but the same
time, I would still like them to look smart.

For the male actors’ house, I would like it to be very basic with only a few
pieces of furniture, just to show the emptiness of his life and the place he
calls home. I only want to use lighting in the house scenes, to add to the dull
atmosphere and deprivation. I think if I make the lighting dull for the majority
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of the time it will be effective. However with saying that, for the parts where
the male actor is alone in his home, I would like to have the light focused on
him, possibly looking down on him as he sits on the floor flooded with bills
and ‘final notices’; by having the light shining down on it him it will make him
and those letters the main focus of the shot and drown out the background
which I feel would be very effective.

Camera shots and techniques:

We will be using a range of camera techniques in the music video to
represent different things and also bring other things into focus at various
points in the video. We will be using techniques such as birds-eye, wide
shots, close ups, extreme close ups and medium shots.

The use of wide shots will come into play when filming in various locations,
the airport lobby especially I think wide shots will be useful if we switch
regularly from wide shots to medium shots, focusing on the male rapper and
also on the scenery around him. I also think using a lot of mid close-up and
close-ups will be useful because of the narrative we are using, the use of
those camera shots will help to show the emotion we want to show.

Editing:
The pace of the song is quite medium paced I think and so the editing will tie
in with this. I don’t want to use too many camera shots in extremely short
spaces of time because it will confuse the audience. However with saying
that, the first 8 seconds of the video will show a range of different shots just
to establish the different settings used in the vide and the sole purpose of
doing that is so that audiences can instantly see and recognise the different
actors. For the rest of the video, the transitions and different cuts will be
done so that they fit in with the pace of the song and the actual planned
narrative.

Location:
For the music video we will be using various locations, our first one will be in
a house and we will only be filming in one room of the house because that is
all we will need to film in. The second location we will use will be the school
dance studio where we will set the room up with so that we can use the
projection onto a clear wall and bright wall. The third location we will use will
be Wolverhampton University where we will transform the top floor of the
library to make it look like the airport of a lobby. We will then use a boxing
gym for the second verse and we will only film in and around the boxing ring.
Our last location will be an empty car park; there we will film the end of the
music video where all of the actors come together.
Target Audience:
The target audience for this video will be the younger generation who enjoy
the hip-hop genre and not only that, the narrative in the video might be
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something the younger generation can relate to so even if they don’t like the
genre of music used, they will still enjoy the video and therefore are the core
audience for the music video.