INTRODUCTION TO ‘THE SCRIPT’

Released in 2008 September 29th premiering at Radio 1.

Breakeven was recorded at the ‘Great south wall’ in Dublin.

The album spent 8 weeks within the top 10 and was the twelfth best selling album in the UK during 2008.

October 2009 after performing the song ‘Breakeven’ it peaked in the US and ended up shipping over 1,000,000 copies there.

STORYLINE

The storyline of this music video is about a man who was in a past relationship with a woman, having now seemed to of broken up however he can not move on from it and is struggling. This is established by the lyrics:

I'm still alive but I'm barely breathingJust prayed to a God that I don't believe in

'Cause I got time while she got freedom'Cause when a heart breaks, no, it don't break even

The metaphor within the last line suggests that his heart has broken more and had a bigger effect while hers has not, but this storyline is something that the audience could relate too which would make it a popular song.It also creates a calm relaxed tone as the lyrics are sung slowly meanwhile the beat & instruments used are not overpowering.

LOCATION

There are three locations in this music video, the first is on a seaside, where the couple visited. The second is the band performing at a concert. The third at a shared house owned by the couple.The seaside location allows the audience to get some insight into there relationship, how they acted with each other and what they liked to do. Furthermore it also tells a separate story of a typical day with each other, this is also shown through the footage of them in the house together and having the private space they would act more comfortable with each other but there behaviour was shown to not change between the two locations, telling the audience that the relationship was very open. However the location of the concert shows its own performance and a different story, changing the topic from the relationship to something else.

COSTUME

Depending on which location the characters were in there would be a change in the costumes. Throughout the whole video the main singer Danny wore casual clothing even during the performance part.The simple costume could repr-esent his personality as a ‘simpleMan’ and it does not make himstand out anymore than the rest of the characters, I noticed this especially when the bandwas performing as he is wearinga leather jacket and not something more smart which would of been expected during a performance. On the other hand it is not 100% clear where he and the others are performing so it could be at a venue that is appropriate to where that particular costume.

STYLE

This song is at a slow pace therefore this would be shown through the speed of cuts, which would allow the audience to be able to have enough time to be able to grasp the visual and lyrical meaning of the song.The styles of this video is both performance and narrative, with the help of black and white & high key lighting there is a switch through flashbacks retelling the story of his relationship showing how happy he was and the present moment of him after the relationship and the effect it has had on him, the performance side is showing footage of him and the band at a concert. The colour of the high key lighting has a certain effect which looks a tad old fashioned and makes it a bit different. I have explained about the effects of colour further on in the Powerpoint.

COLOUR

There is definitely a variation in colours within the video, the lighting was used very well as expressive lighting to give a certain feel of the story to the audience.The black & bright expressive lighting within this video was mainly for the purpose of representing between the good and bad times of the relationship, as we can see in the left shot of a close up of Danny he has confided himself in a room suggesting this is how he feels even though he does not want to be particularly now not being in a relationship and the black colour/tone reinforces this idea of him feeling unhappy which the audience will get a sense of. On the other hand high key lighting is expressed in the other close up on the right, him re-watching a video could connote a sense of comfort that he had from the relationship and coul d be some blissful memories from his past.