Music Video Script

All Time Low- Somewhere in Neverland

Video

Audio LYRICS/NARRATION/MUSIC/FX

1.       The introductions of the song will last between 10 and 15 seconds, this will give enough time to establish the two main scenes and introduce the characters in them but not to the full extents as to know who they are fully. The scene will fade in with an over the shoulder shot of Wendy scrap booking in her first scene, follows with light point of view shots panning the photos and objects which lay before her. The shots will also be intertwined through jump cuts with shots of the band stage set up, close ups of instruments and lights. A series of drumstick hits will count in the music in the form “1, 2… 1, 2, 3, 4.” Shots of the backing artists playing there instruments will continue when the song begins. 2.       Close up of the microphone from a side view, Peter leans into shot to begin singing Wendy is sat on her bed scrap booking still and you are shown closes ups of photos of her and Peter and school friends (“weekends with old friends”). 3.       Close up shot of one backing singer but still for you can see the other in the background as they lip sync the lyrics. Lots of different angle changes in both scenes, especially performance stage, close ups of each signers and establishing shots of the whole set up. Wendy and Peter are shown to meet up in a park; Wendy staring off into the distance on a bench/bridge to a stream, peter comes up behind her hugs and kisses her holding her close. Multiple shots (Close ups, Mid shots, Establishing, panning, zooms etc.) of the band and lead singer Peter lip syncing various brief clips. The scene ends with Peter and Wendy just laughing and having fun lying on the ground in the grass- grass fight / rolling around etc. (“we sing along to forever young”). 4.       Shot of Peter in performance stage, Over the shoulder view of Wendy looking very distracted and upset from behind peter (“Wendy”). Over the shoulder of Peter from behind Wendy as he lip syncs the “run away with me” O.T.S of Wendy again, she simple looks up and smiles. “cute couple” shots of Peter and Wendy in the grass having fun again, Peter  points to sky “I can be your lost boy” The two of them close their eyes and as the open are surrounded by long grass (“Wendy we can get away”). The two run through the long grass – tracking shot. A few shots of Peter singing to Wendy in this long grass setting (“your everything better plan”) The two get to an forest opening from the long grass, the camera is placed inside to forest looking into the field at Peter and Wendy, initially you cannot see the forest, the camera zooms out so you can see the trees in the frame of the picture (“somewhere in Neverland”) 5.       Healthy balance shots of the performance still and the shots to the two in “Neverland”. The Neverland will gradually get more colourful and creative: start with the balloons in woods, paint fight, underwater, then built to darker ones – fort scene, during the fort scene Peter gives Wendy an acorn Necklace (“so here we go again”). Close up of the necklace in Wendy’s hand but only for a brief second so it doesn’t show too much importance yet. 6.       Wendy “wakes up” in the short grass again, this time alone (“lost boy”). Thinking it was all just a dream she go home back into her room, looks around the room, finds the acorn necklace in her pocket (“so here we go again”). Last shot of the light performance stage set up, light could begin to fade and darken. 7.       Wendy begins to run back to find peter (“run away with me”) I will have this set inn night so that the shots don’t contrast each other, possibly running through a town where there are street lights so Wendy is still well lit. Creative darker shots from Neverland will be shown in the form of flash backs – fairy lights, star projector, glow in the dark jars etc. the performance stage scene will now be the darker themed setting. Tracking shot of Wendy and Peter running to each other from different angles. 8.       Finishes with Peter and Wendy in each other’s arms (“Somewhere in Neverland”). Fades out.

No lyrics No narration but the sound of scissors cutting while scrap booking may be heard. Music intro and from 0:00 – 0:15 No FX “Say goodbye to the halls and the classes” No narration 0:15 – 0:26 No FX “Spilling into 9 to 5 routine” No Narration 0:27 - 0:45 No FX “So here we go again wishing we could start again” “Run away with me” “your everything better plan” No narration 0:45- 1:30 No FX No set lyrics, but various lines/words will be lip synced in the performance scene shots. No narration 1:30 – 2:11 Possibly some slow motion with some Neverland shots (e.g. holi powder) “wishing we could start again” No narration 2:28 – 2:58 Possibly the use of black and white/ darkened or faded colours when Wendy is alone to reflect her mood. No set lyrics, but various lines/words will be lip synced in the performance scene shots. No narration 2:58 – 3:37 Possibly some slow motion with Neverland or running shots. No lyrics No narration 3:37 – 3:45 (End) I may use a gradual slow motion which increases with intensity as the song fades and finishes.

Magazine Adverts Analysis

Often what an artist will do is they will show their album cover artwork as a full A4 page in the magazine being advertised in; this creates a very recognisable image related to the album and shows a strong synergy between the two items.

For example You Me At Six shows their exact cover on their magazine advert just with the release date and sponsor on the bottom of the page.
The Killers have done the exact same, just extended the bottom with a black background, faded this up and added the album details.

All magazine adverts I have studied I have found to be very minimal. As with any advert those featured in a magazine must be concise and simple. there cannot be lots of heavy text and information as this will not be as effective. In a magazine full of text a picture based simple page is going to stand out far better than a heavy text based page which would essentially just blend into the rest of the textual pages.

I like the idea of having a graphic design based image, this would also help the advert stand out from the magazine, while other image based pages in the magazine are likely to be photographed a graphic design, computerised image will help the advert stand out even further.

To the right shows the magazine advert for Coldplay's 2011 fifth album "Mylo Xyloto". The advert it's doesn't feature the band members themselves, this isn't needed as the band is very popular and well known, people do not need an image of them to be able to relate and identify them. The graphics displayed on the front of the advert are also those which are featured on the album cover which creates the synergy like You Me At Six and The Killers. Off the back of this album from Coldplay they produced a six part comic book issue under the name Mylo Xyloto, the very graphical design of the album and advert links to this graphical comic design well and the very confusing busy advert which often wouldn't work in context of this album and comic series shows the complexity of the series. The bright colours do help the advert stand out well within a magazine though, while a photographed advert may blend in to the magazine this advert certainly doesn't and would "jump out" at any reader flicking through.

Album cover Analysis

ALTERNATIVE ROCK ALBUM COVERS

To the left shows the latest album from The Script, I have chosen to analyse this band cover as the band fall into the same genre as All Time Low.
The album shows all three band members, however Danny- the lead singer, is shown to be a larger image and essentially "makes up" the other photos this use of hierarchy highlights his importance to the band, how he is the main focus.
The use of colour is very limited and is main black and white, sepia colours. This creates a very simple minimalistic appeal to the album cover, this simplistic element highlights the alternative element of the band. Alternative albums are usually either very simple or steer the other way and are very creative and concept based almost like a piece of artwork.

 

  I chose to analyse You Me At Six as this band is almost a brother band to All Time Low they share very similar themes, values and share the same music genre also.
The album cover to the right is very similar to that of The Script, this cover is the 2011 album from You Me At Six

This album cover is much like The Script's in terms of colour and minimalistic.

However this album cover is very different to the usual covers from You Me At Six

 

 

Above show two of You Me At Six's albums, "take off your clothes" 2008, and "hold me down" 2010. These albums are very different from the Sinners Never Sleep, they are a lot more creative and colourful, they are focused highly around graphic design and creating an art piece which will stand out from the other albums. I really like this style of album cover, while the minimalistic theme looks very professional if executed well, the concept graphic design based covers are really appeal and I believe would work well with my chosen song as it highlights the colourful childish settings of neverland creating good synergy between the music video and album.

HOLD ME DOWN

The use of images overlaied creates a very engaging album cover, it gives the same effect as a music video in the sense that the more you look at it the more you see. Each photo/image in the "explosion" has a relevance to the album name/band; the image of wings and rockets (far left and right) link to the idea of being untaimed and not able to be held down contrasting the album name, however the fact that the phrase states "hold me down" suggests the idea of being unable to hold yourself down just like the uncontrolable elements of the wings and rockets.

The arrows on the bottom of the album form several lines of arrows all of which lead to the album name, this helps to focus the attention of the viewer onto the artists name, which has also been places in the centre of the albums and is on of the first things you can see. the use of a very simple background where the text is helps this as it is clearer and easier to see and read the text.

There is also the figure of a man in the centre of the album, at first it is not clear but after looking closely he becomes apparent, this could suggest the element of hiding or invisability this links to the idea of uncontrolable and mystery. The mysterious appeal also gives the artist a lot of power, while he is mainly covered could suggest weakness, hiding and vulnerability, it could show how he is in control of the situation, an army marine isn't weak and powerless just because he is unseen, often quite the opposite.

 

Neverland

Here is a collage of images I have used to inspire my neverland shots. This is the type of clips I want to get to show as the neverland setting.

Fairytale lights

As the whole theme of the song is revolved around running away to some mythical fairtale land where you can stay young forever i want to highlight these aspects.                                                                                  I want to create a scene within the music video where there is a room/garden full of these jars (shown on the right), they are very unique and give a very "fairy like" appeal. I know how to make these and have already collected jars which i will use. I thought about having a trail of them leading up a pathway, like the photo below used lamps. Or there is the possibility of creating these into two seperate scene and using the jars to fill and room and then have loads of fairy lights in a woods/garden creating the lit pathway, or vise versa

Contacting the recording company

I researched and found the producers to All Time Low's "Somewhere in Neverland" track. The company behind this was Hopeless Records, from their website i found a contact information and sent an email requesting permission to use this track.

 

I have attached a screenshot of the email i sent to Hopeless Records, however unfortunately i did not recieve a responce.

Chosen song

 The song I have chosen to do is:

All Time Low- Somewhere In Neverland

LYRICS:

Say goodbye to the halls and the classes

Say hello to a job and the taxes

The weekends with old friends spilling into 9 to 5 routine

Tell me how you feel over and done with

Like your life is a map with no compass to guide,

At the bar drinkin’ way too much

We sing along to "Forever Young".

So here we go again

Wishin’ we could start again

Wendy run away with me

I know I sound crazy

Don’t you see what you do to me?

I wanna be your lost boy

Your last chance, a better reality

Wendy we can get away

I promise if you’re with me, say the word and we’ll find a way

I can be your lost boy, your last chance

Your "everything better" plan

Oh, somewhere in Neverland

(Somewhere in Neverland)

We’ll start a life of the plain and the simple

Of great times with far better people

And weekends with our friends

Laughing about the wine that stains their teeth

We’ll talk about how your parents separated and

How you don’t wanna make the same mistakes as them

I’ll say it’s all about stickin’ it out

And trying to feel forever young

So here we go again

Wishin’ we could start again

Wendy run away with me

I know I sound crazy

Don’t you see what you do to me?

I want to be your lost boy

Your last chance, a better reality

Wendy we can get away

I promise if you’re with me, say the word and we’ll find a way

I can be your lost boy, your last chance

Your "everything better" plan

Oh, somewhere in Neverland

So here we go again

Wishin’ we could start again

Wendy run away with me

I know I sound crazy

Don’t you see what you do to me?

I want to be your lost boy

Your last chance, a better reality

Wendy we can get away

I promise if you’re with me, say the word and we’ll find a way

I can be your lost boy, your last chance

Your "everything better" plan

Oh, somewhere in Neverland

Oh, somewhere in Neverland

(Somewhere in Neverland)

I have a pretty clear image of what I want for this video. 

The starting instrumental opening scene I will have as staged performance based shots, I then plan to insert clips of the main female character ("Wendy") in her everyday life shown to be unhappy and fed up. She will then meet up with the main male character somehow and he will lip sync the lyric "run away with me". From this the two of theme will leave to Neverland. This transaction I may do via a opening door/gate, have them leave through a door in a brick wall one way and exit through a garden wall gate the other side in Neverland. 

Then I want to show lot of colourful, fun, creative shots while in Neverland to show the forever young approach. 

Ideas I have so far for these shots include:

Paint fight

Multicoloured balloons in the woods scattered around them 

Fairy lights in the surrounding tree branches and brushes in the evening/night to light.

The fairy glow in the dark jars 

Holi powder fight

Star projection 

Fort- classic childhood thing for many people 

And possibly some underwater filming 

I'm considering having the main female character "wake up" half way threw the song (at 2:35 in official video) believing it was all just a dream, however finding an item given to her by "Peter"- ideally I am thinking of an acorn necklace this would tie in to the acorn given in the Disney film, and realising it was real then running to him and them being reunited in the end and happily together.

Throughout the song I will insert clips from the performance, stage scene to break the narrative shots  and create a more balanced and interesting video.

At the moment I am still slightly unsure as to how I would portray the transition from real life to Neverland, also the opening scene introducing of "Wendy" and how the two characters meet and end up running away together.

Target audience 

The target audience for this song is predominantly female, around the age of 17-19. All time low had their main success a few years ago, this means the typical boy band target audience who were 12/13 back then will be older now. Essentially more mature and open to more gown up video.

However as the themes in this song are all about not wanting to grow up and running away to stay young forever, the video is likely to focus on this childhood wanted. Also this age group, around 18 is when you are forced to make hard life decisions - university, job career etc. for many people this is a hard time and the whole pressure around it could push a lot of people into the idea of wanting to stay young forever and not have to worry about the future. Therefore I plan to show elements this age will relative to their childhood, (e.g. Fort building) to make the video more impacting and relatable. 

TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH

Research 

I have conducted some target audience research on 25 people of my own age range (17-19), predominantly female, I believe I will be able to relate to this group best as I, myself fall into the target audience and understand what the audience will like/dislike. To find out what exactly it was they wanted in a video, I also showed them my initial ideas and asked their favourite; here are the results.

1. What is your favourite style of music video:
Concept (Afro Jack ft Chris Brown - as your friend)

 

Video shows no real connection to the lyrics or high focus around artist but more creative, unique shots.

 

 Performance (Jason Derulo - the other side)

 

Focused on highlighting the artists and shows them performing for the majority of shots. However this video does incorporate some narrative based shots too.

or Narrative (David Guetta - just one last time)

Focused around telling a story between characters/artist.

The results of this question was pretty split with many people choosing one but saying a mixture would be a lt better. The majority of the group chose between performance and narrative based videos though. 

2. Do you prefer music videos which show  many different actors, or these that focus on particular people/couple?

20/25 said they preferred videos with less actors, saying that with the exception of club and party scenes typically music videos have few characters, and usually only 2 or 3 main characters.

3. Do you like/listen to the indie rock/pop genre I have chosen? (For example, You Me At Six, The Script, Mumford and sons, Imagine Dragons, Foals etc)
    All 25 people questioned admitted they like/listen to at least one of the artists listed.

4. Which of my 3 music video ideas do you prefer?
     Idea 1 =  3/25 preferred this idea.
     Idea 2 = a huge 17/25 preferred this music video idea.
     Idea 3 = 5/25 liked this idea best saying they liked the "creative elements" which make it "very  
                   unique"

5. Do you like this song?
     Idea 1 =  all 3 loved the song and enjoyed the beat and lyrics, they all had heard the song already.
     Idea 2 = 9/17 had already heard this song and like it, those who hadn't heard it agreed they 
                    liked the song when hearing it.
     Idea 3 =  all 5 people hadn't heard the song before however only 1 didn't like the song.


6. What type of music video (concept/performance/narrative) do you think would suit this song best?
     Idea 1 =  all 3 agreed the narrative based video suited the song best.
     Idea 2 = 15/17 agreed with my narrative performance mixture, saying it made it "more 
                    varied". The remaining 2 said the performance based video would be "simpler" 
                    and preferred this.
     Idea 3 = all 5 liked the concept idea but some stated a narrative based video "may suit the song 
                   more"


7. Would a high or low key focus suit this song best?
     Idea 1 = all 3 agreed the darker themes of the video would suit a low key focus more.
     Idea 2 = all 17 agreed that the neverland shots which portray the positive happy places   

                  should be high key focused. One person stated that the didn't want a huge vision 

                   between the two 
                   "worlds" to make it flow better.
     Idea 3 = 3/5 agreed they prefer high key videos, however the other 2 said low key would suit the 
                   themes of the song better

8. What don't you like about my music video idea?
     Idea 1 = "it matches the song very well"
                   "it is very simple and straight forward, easy to follow"
     Idea 2 = "it's really cute, the neverland shoot would look so interesting and fun"
                   "It's different to what you see nowadays, it would be a good fresh idea"
                   "Sometimes it's nice to move away from the sexualised videos, I think this video
                     would be really good."

                   "The use of many different shot would really keep the viewer's attention"
     Idea 3 = "I like the unique concept it would really stand out"

                   "It's really creative"
9. Have you seen the existing music video, if so what is your opinion of it?
     Idea 1 = this song doesn't have an existing video to compete with. 
     Idea 2 = 1/9 people who had already heard the song had seen the video. This is positive thing, 

                    it means many people would have a video linked with the song I would be 

                    competing with.

     Idea 3 = all 5 people hadn't heard of Alex before and therefore hadn't seen the video

10. Do you have any suggestions for the music video of this song
     Idea 1 = "make sure you really portray the hurt in the characters if it is to work"
     Idea 2 = "try not to have make the neverland scenes look too cheesey, don't overact!"

                   "Sometimes simpler is better, strip back some scenes to balance the video"

     Idea 3 = "it may take longer, but focus on detail, rushed in detailed shots will ruin the effect"

Initial song choices and ideas

1. THIS IS THE FIRST THING
          - You Me At Six

This song I think old be very good to show technique. My ideas around this song would be to highlight the intensity and conflict between the couple, also I have thought about having shots focused on objects and locations rather than people to keep a balance between the shots, for example slow motion plates/glasses smashing, heavy rain falling, night shot in a higher speed. These would all have a very low light theme while keeping the clarity on the artist/characters of a high key shot, this would highlight the darker themes of the song based around the heartbreak and break up.

Also I couldn't find an existing video which means competition with a video which is already well known wouldn't happen.


2. SOMEWHERE IN NEVERLAND
           - All Time Low

This is a song I already really like, I think this would be a really fun song to do due to the fairytale Neverland theme.
The story behind this song is very clear it would make sense to do a narrative based video to portray this story between the couple. If I chose this song I would have very high key, colourful, creative themed shots; for example, lots of use of colourful items (possibly a scene using multicoloured balloons), and "fun" scenes - one idea I have is showing the focus couple having a paint / powder fight. I would highlight the childhood themes of this song through this use of fun and game, and bright colours.
However I also want to show some band performance shot to break up the location narrative based clips.

The existing music video I found for the song I personally don't like, I find it to be too "tacky", I understand it has been purposely made this way as an artificial, make belief almost doll house like world, but I just find it to look very unprofessional.  Also the official video on the YouTube page has only had just over 500,000 views. This means a lot of people who have heard the song are likely to not know the existing video and it won't have an image attached to the song.


3. HOLDING ON
           - Alex Day

I also have the idea of doing a stop motion video, I think this would be really creative and show a lot of skill, I could achieve techniques which aren't available with video. This wouldn't necessarily fit the song themes but would be more of a concept video, however could be easily tailored to follow the themes of this song.
Lyrics such as "I'll never be your Leo" could have some creative shots- I imagine a paper based scene, taking the artist photos and arranging them as a miniature cut out and surrounded be drawings and objects, of which would consist of a lion. And interacting with these drawings as though they are real. If that makes any sense.

This song isn't very well known therefore wouldn't have the attached known video which would effect the concept of my video. Alex is an independent artist and has even stated in videos on his YouTube channel that his content can be used by anyone for work and video etc, therefore copyright issues wouldn't be problem.

However this would take a lot of work and would be VERY time consuming and would require a lot of small detailed work. I am not sure if it is achievable in the time frame I have without giving constant work on the video. Creating a 3 and a half minute video on entirely photos would require A LOT of pictures all of which may need editing for the desired effect. It simply isn't logical.