Here is the treatment I worked on for the music video. I wrote this a few weeks ago before we did any filming. So some of the ideas for the film we initially had didn’t make it into the final video.
Working title – Don’t do drugs
Genre – It’s a music video with the main genres being pop punk, alternative rock and pop rock.
Duration – 2 minutes in length… One half will be focussed on the TV studio with the music video and the other half will focus more on the plot and story.
Target audience – The music video will be aimed at 14-20 year olds, prominently males, but it can be good for females as well. I would say this age range is most likely to fall into the trap of getting addicted to drugs. I would also aim it at people of middle class and working class background. See the links below.
https://www.drugwise.org.uk/prevalence-drugs/
Outline – The music video is about a young man who goes on drugs. A drug dealer sells him drugs. To begin with, he seems unaffected by them and absolutely loves the drugs. He even says in the song, “If you’re going to be the death of me that’s how I want to go”, which means he’s willing to risk his own life for his love of drugs. At the end of the video, he will look in the restroom mirror and see his nose bleed which shows the audience something of the danger that drugs can bring.
Character breakdown – The main character is a British male in his late teens named Peter. He is a college student but has no paid job. As well as this, he has a lot of issues with his family and experiences high levels of depression and low self esteem. He was having such a hard time they he turned to drugs because he felt it was the only way to find peace in life and prevent him from having suicidal thoughts.
Visual elements –
- Lighting – In the studio, we had a rather dark room with different colour gels on the lighting. We made the room look red.
- Camera movement – Mid shots, close up shots, angle shots, pan shots, etc.
- Editing – I intend to use various different editing techniques. I aim to edit different camera angles of Ryan’s lip syncing and sync them with the original song. I also hope to use things like fast motion and slow motion when they’re appropriate.
- Setting – TV studio, bathroom and Wrexham town.
- Actors – Ryan is playing the singer and his friend Tyler will be playing the drug addict.
- Props – We plan to use fake blood for Ryan’s nose bleed, along with some props for drugs.
- Costumes – regular clothes.
Audio elements – We will have the same song in the background throughout the whole video. We won’t be including any other sounds in it.
Rationale – Ryan was the one that chose this idea. I believe it will be used as a great method of raising awareness of the issues that come from drug addictions and how it becomes a real problem. I would personally like to develop my skills when using cameras and other equipment. I don’t always know what to do when something goes wrong, which is something I could do with working on. I need to work on keeping my camera in focus under different lighting conditions.
Primary and secondary research – We looked into similar types of songs and wrote up about them. I looked up links to back why it fit best with the chosen target audience. We think we might also ask people on social media about the power of music to affect the decisions they make.
Requirements and resources – The video will feature Ryan as well as his friend Tyler. The only equipment we’ve used so far has been the two cameras and red gel lighting. Our filming will take place in the TV studio, the college toilets and Wrexham town.
Constraints and contingency – Potential barriers that could get in the way are things like Ryan not being able to turn up, some of our footage ending up out of focus and the fact that we have to rely on Ryan’s friend Tyler to turn up. If he doesn’t, we will have to find someone else willing to step in.
The Film Student Diary 