Mindmap

We've chosen the track “Fallout” by an indie-rock band, Catfish and the Bottlemen, as the lyrics in the song reflect on a relationship. Catfish and the Bottlemen are a small, up-coming band from North Wales that originated in 2007. They struggled for a few years to get noticed but once signed to Communion Records, the band was soon noticed after their release for their ‘Homesick’ single. Soon after, the band released a full UK tour that sold out within 2 weeks and also before their first debut album was even released. This shows just how one or two hit singles can impact an artist’s future.

In our music video, we plan on using two types of videos; these being narrative and performance, however, there are or will be a few scenes where conceptual shots may be used to symbolise other elements. The majority of the video will be a narrative story about a girl whose relationship has gone ‘downhill’ and they've broken apart. The narrative side of the film is non-linear as there’s neither beginning nor middle, just the end, which means the audience need to piece together the different clips to understand what’s going on as the music video is fragmented. Towards the end of the song, there are lyrics which involve matches and clothes, this is where we came up with ideas for using a bonfire or fire pit to symbolise the power the girl has against the male, almost as if it’s a war. Also, we have the idea of having an 'argument' scene where our main protagonist is possibly shouting a the camera, using angry emotions, gripping her fists, pulling her hair and so on. As well as this, we were going to have our main protagonist set fire to a picture of her and her boyfriend to symbolise the end of a relationship. This is the main reason why we decided to use some conceptual imagery in the video as even though it’s abstract, it still symbolises and represents other ideas. Therefore, every now and then there will be short shots of conceptual imagery that link to different ideas and elements of the relationship, perhaps memories. For example, we plan on using shots that involve the Eiffel Tower/various other places and other shots which link to how good the relationship was before (almost like a flashback). Another example could be the use of time-lapses, these could represent the journey of the relationship or again, link with memories when they traveled. The rest of the video will consist of performance shots of the actual band playing live; I managed to get a photo pass to the event which has really helped us come up with some good ideas for shots e.g. different angles, close-ups, crowd shots etc. The only challenge with this, is that it will be hard to synchronise the shots with the actual song.

The characters within the video vary between the different types of video. For example, with the performance scenes there will be various shots of the band members from different angles, as well as crowd shots to emphasise the popularity of the band. As we can’t really control what the band will be wearing, we can only assume that they will be wearing a range of black and white clothing (which is typical clothing to wear when on stage). This is stereotypical for an indie band, as many indie bands, such as The 1975, follow the monochrome theme. For the narrative side of the video, we plan on only showing one character throughout the video that shows the females view of the break-up. We could potentially take advantage of this and use her to represent women power; this could either link with the lyrics or go against the lyrics.

There have been a variety of ideas we've came up with that could be iconic for the video/track. For example, for the performance side, we could use close-ups of the guitars and instruments as they would be iconic for the indie and rock genre. This is so the audience can easily identify the video as either one of these genres as well as identify the type of band and music they produce. As previously mentioned, the monochrome clothing could again be iconic for the indie genre as many idea bands follow the monochrome theme e.g. The Neighbourhood. For the narrative side of the video, we plan on showing clips of Paris which is iconic of love and romance. The famous city is seen as one of the most romantic places on Earth, which is why we want to use footage involving iconic areas of Paris such as the Eiffel Tower to show how in love this couple was, before they broke up. In addition to this, we plan on using other small clips that link with ‘love and relationship’ such as flowers and red colours to again reflect on the iconic or typical things that relate to love.

The performance side of the finished product will be filmed in a medium-sized venue at The Ritz, Manchester. The venue is located opposite Manchester Oxford Road station which makes the venue easily accessible to and from film locations. The narrative side of the video will consist of various locations; these locations could be a symbol of where the couple went before the break up. For example, we plan on filming in Blackpool to suggest how outgoing the couple were and how much fun they had.

The use of non-diegetic sound will continue throughout the video (the song track) without pauses so it can keep the story flowing and easy to follow for the audience. However, at the start of the video before the song starts to play, we plan on having diegetic dialogue of the main or another character speaking French dialogue (English subtitles will be shown for the audience) to the camera so that it can again link with the Paris shots and the idea of romance as well as introduce the song name. Towards the very end of the music video, we have a various different endings. One of which we plan on have the main singer, Vann, shout “Thank You” to the audience in the concert but it could also potentially be shouted towards the viewer of the music video as a ‘thank you for watching’.