Final Treatment.

I plan to create a music video for a band called Jet Pack Man. Using their song titled Prisoned pulse in deceased fortresses I chose them because I thought that they are current and their music has a strong rhythm to work with. Jet Pack Man are a four piece indie band from Torquay, Hugh - Vocals, Tom - Drums, Alex - Bass and Warwick - guitar. After researching into their backgrounds and influences I found that they take influence from bands such as The Cure, The Maccabees and The Kooks. Jet Pack Man play regular gigs in alternative music venues like Rude Bar and Plan B. Venues such as these aim towards alternative music that steers away from the mainstream therefore a perfect venue for Jet Pack Man to play. An audience for Jet Pack Man are both male and female as they have no aspects about them that would make them appeal to a specific genre. Age range from teenagers to young adults (16-21), this due to their young vibrant image and the current style of music. There are differences within the audience when compared to the mainstream audience as they may attend regular gigs and be involved in the arts. Whereas the mainstream audience may tend to be involved in more commercial activities like going clubbing. Jet Pack Man appeal to their audience by playing in alternative venues where their audience would feel comfortable in that type of atmosphere. Their appearance is important as they are part of a subculture therefore certain dress code may apply. In this case they are from the indie genre so a dress code that abdicates them from the norm would be typical. Jet Pack Man use Web 2 to promote themselves distribute their music. I researched into their myspace page and found that fans are able to find various tracks, photographs and videos from gigs, information about gigs, information about the band, contact details and a space for friends and fans to comment.

My idea for a video is disjunctive as it does not have a relation to the lyrics. The character roles do not follow Propp’s character theory of Princess, Villain, Hero) as there is one character and she is subjected through a surreal world. The narrative to the video begin with a indie girl sat in a dark room, she is looking at a game option menu, she picks the Jet Pack Man experience and enters into another surreal world. Everything and everyone in this world moves at a great speed and she struggles to find a way out, she is stuck in the game. To create this speed effect I am going to use time lapse. She wonders around this world trying to find a a way out, searching among the streets, ally ways and road sides. I want the setting and mise en scene to represent the indie genre, therefore I am going to film in urban settings as indie kids tend to hang around more urban areas like cities. I am going to film in exeter as I think it has an urban, young and trendy vibe about it therefore fitting the image of Jet Pack Man. The girl never find a way out of the game, but finds another person like herself at the end of the video. Todorov’s theory of narrative cannot be applied to my video as there is no form of new equilibrium at the end of the video as she is trapped in the surreal world. I want to base my video highly on the rules of photography, rule of thirds and composition as I feel that I can bring my knowledge of photography to my work this way. One of the directors that I researched called Anton Corbijn based his work highly on the rules on photography and I was inspired by his work. I want to use a lot of jump cuts, hand held tracking shots to create an uncertain atmosphere, long shots to establish the setting and finally I am going to base a lot of my shots on framing and composition. I am going to use night mode on the camera to represent the difference from when she in not in the surreal world. I want the mise en scene to represent the indie genre well, traditionally I wanted the girl to wear a gothic laced dress to represent the change into the surreal world. However I rethought this idea and came to the conclusion that the audience may not understand why I had put her in this costume. This could be navigating too far away from the indie genre therefore I decided to keep her in the same clothes to avoid any confusion. I want the lighting to be natural as I plan to change the contrast slightly when I edit the footage to create a vivid and bold visual look. I want to edit a lot of the shots synchronous to the beat within the song. I am also going to speed up the footage to create the time lapse effect. In the opening scene I am going to have ambient sounds to create an uncertain and uneasy atmosphere for the audience.

I think there are three main genres that are presented through my music video. First there are elements of gothic as she is trapped in a world that she cannot get out of. Second there is a sense of surrealism as it is a game like world where every one moves at a great speed compared to her. Finally the video represents the indie genre as the song itself sounds traditionally indie. When researching indie bands music videos I found that a lot of the time the lead singer was filmed for the majority of the video as the main character. As I have chosen not to have any relation with my character to the band I am subverting the typical conventions of the genre. However I think this will still appeal to the audience as it is an alternative idea that is interesting and still has links to the audiences interests like the setting and clothing.

If my music video were to shown on a music channel on television I think it would be on NME as it diverts away from mainstream music, the focus is on alternative bands and artists. Another music channel they may appear on would be Q as again they play bands and artists that abdicate form the norm of the mainstream. Music magazines that Jet Pack Man may feature in would be again MNE and Q for the same reasons as above.

In conclusion I plan to create a music video that is around 4 minutes long. This video will illustrate how a girl becomes trapped in a surreal game like world that moves around her at a great speed. I plan to use a wide variety of shot types in order to gain the ability to edit synchronously to the song. I plan to use speed up the footage to create the time lapse effect to create an idea of surrealism and isolation for the character in the video.