By Georgia McLaughlin

Music video ideas generation report

Narrative and genre/style

Our music video is to the song ‘So Far (it’s alright)’ by indie pop/rock group the 1975. The

video is a combination of narrative and conceptual through narrative enigma and

fragmentation. This is done through the narrative as we show a teenage Girl crying in her

bedroom. In between this we have several flashbacks as to what has made her this way. The

first shows her happy with boyfriend. This creates a narrative enigma as it confuses the

audience as to why she would be crying. Following this is several flashbacks related to drug

use; in this case the main girl’s boyfriend is a frequent drug user and this breaks up the

relationship. In-between each flash back we will cut back to the girl crying in her room;

perhaps looking at specific iconic objects or performing another action whilst crying to

create a misperception and keep the viewer enthralled. The overall narrative will be linear

however we will add Visual fragmentation through the use of flash back. The end shot will

show the same girl crying in her bedroom however, at the end she looks in the mirror and

finally sees the physical effect of the relationship on her face as she is shown bruised.

Setting

The scenes showing the girl crying will be set in her bedroom, it will be styled in a way that it

will be instantly recognisable as a stereotypical teenager’s bedroom. We will also film in

Manchester City Centre to show the scenes between her and her boyfriend, this will also

add to the iconography; being iconic Manchester landmarks. We will also film some scenes

in the music/film store ‘Fopp’ to relate it back to teenage pop culture. We may also film in

media city and Eccles town centre to suggest the journey they have been on together and to

use some more locations that would stylistically fit the song and overall all video

themes/style.

Iconography

In terms of Iconography we will show some Manchester’s landmarks in an establishing shot

taken from the top of the big wheel and again in the various setting. We will show several

symbols and objects representing drugs, love and pain which are our main themes. A mirror

will be a key feature as it will reflect how she see’s feeling and how she is seen an/or viewed

by others as it shows what the relationship has done to her physically whereas every other

time she is shown in her room is it is only the emotional pain we see.

Characters

The characters we are planning to use is main female lead who has had her heartbroken.

She is seen crying in her bedroom and happy in the first flashback but getting increasingly

upset as the flashbacks go on. She will be portrayed as a typical popular teenager who is

usually happy but a tainted relationship has changed her persona. The second character will

be her boyfriend who starts the video the same as her; happy and devoted. However after

experimenting with drugs and becoming addicted, his persona also changes unfortunately

By Georgia McLaughlin

for the worst. The male lead will present in in flashbacks but won’t be there in the present

day yet the audience will be aware of his presence.

Technical and audio codes

We will use cross cuts between past and present and start the video with an establishing

shot of Manchester taken from the big wheel. We are debating using hand held camera to

make the audience become part of the story and make it feel more personal. But are

definite sure we will be editing the video to black and white as this intensifies the emotion

portrays and suggests all the colour is gone from her world. We will also use low key lighting

on the more upsetting moments and high key on the happy memories portrayed through

flashbacks

Steve Neale’s Mental Machinery

Steve Neale is a genre theorist who states that genre can be defined by instances of

repetition and difference and that genre is part of a process of “mental machinery” between

“industry, text and subject”. This applies to our music video idea in the following ways -

Some of the similarities between our music video and stereotypical indie pop/rock music

videos include the use of black and white which is common for the 1975’s music videos.

It also conforms to the indie genre quite a lot in terms of the emotions that it portrays

and the themes that are featured (E.G. drugs and heartbreak).

Some of the differences include the use of conceptual shots to provoke thoughts and

feeling and the possible occasional uses of colour. We will also use flashbacks which are

not conventional of this genre of music. This will also add to the depth of the narrative

which again is not a reoccurring style in indie pop/rock music videos.