Treatment sheet

13 Monsters by Lightning bolt

Concept

The concept of my music video will be a man who thinks he is seeing “monsters” and that they are trying to attack him. In reality he is insane and the monsters are figments of his imagination. To illustrate this I will use a mixture of low-key and high-key lighting and canted angles. Faced paced editing will also be used to fit with the genre. Thought beats will also be important in the video to create the desired style.

Narrative and Performance

The narrative will be broke into three parts; the protagonist first experiencing fear and confusion, the monsters appearing in his mind and the moment he sees them in real life chasing him. The performance by the person playing the protagonist must be very powerful and effective to make the video believable. The moments when he is experiencing fear, confusion and anger must be believable for the video to work. The performance by the two musicians wearing masks must be believable and I will ask people I know have experience of performing to an audience and can play instruments.

This is a still from the film Psycho. The sense of fear and fright that the female lead shows in this scene in particular is something create through the mise en scene of expression.

Lighting

The lighting will be quite low key throughout the video although I may have to add this in post production as footage taken in low light can be grainy and unsaturated. To counteract this I may also “light the darkness” to make sure that the footage isn’t grainy. High key lighting may be used in some early scenes but I would like to primarily use low key lighting.

This is a music video from the band The Horrors (before they were rubbish). The use of contrasting high key and low key light is something I would like to use to unsettle the audience and set a very uneasy tone to the video.

Camera

A camera technique I will use as the first shot of the sequence is a slow creeping steady cam shot of the protagonist visibly distressed and afraid. I will also try a variety of shots from different angles and positions while trying to keep the camera as much as possible. Fast cuts are something which is common with music videos for songs with the same tempo as mine so I will be mindful to get as many different shots as possible. An extreme close up and canted angles may be used to show the state of the protagonist’s mind, as well as POV and over the shoulder shots to give the audience an idea of what he is seeing and feeling. When filming the band I will try to capture them playing from many angles so when I finally edit I have a lot of footage to chose from.

A still from the Lars Von Trier Film Antichrist. Von Trier uses an editing technique called a jump cut to show a subtle passing of time while an action is taking place. I shall attempt to use this in the opening few shots of the music video.