2. Lighting Idea
Spotlight and Silhouette Idea
While reviewing some music videos I noticed that while the music played on
the cameras focused on the actual singer mainly. I’ve always liked the look of
videos that use the silhouette technique but with this song it seemed more like
a documentary of what has been lost when heading into battle so instead of
the usual silhouette idea I wanted the opposite, showing a dark background
and the actual singer and to do this we could use a spotlight shining from
above, pointed down at the singer as he sings. This way we get the singer
and only the singer.
Along with this idea we could move the light to try and cast a silhouette of
each band member, this way the audience will see only the singer making him
appear to be the “Narrator” of this documentary and the rest of the band aren’t
important as they are there to aid the “Narrator”. This can also link to the lyrics
“Yeah, you’ve been alone” as it is showing the singer alone.
3. Background idea
Tv’s
Another Idea that was also part of the Documentry and “Narrator” theme is the
idea that in the background are tv/compute screens either side of the singer
displaying war videos or battle videos. This combined with the Spotlight could
work well as the spotlight shows his connection to being alone yet the tv’s
could show the connection to the horor that people see during war which will
also connect to the lyrics “The pain I’ve grown to know”.
This will also give us a wide range of shots that we could use. One of my ideas
for this idea is that it will slowly pan fro the singer to the tv’s showing the
audience the footage that is being played. During 1:40 of the song when the
music kicks in we could have a wide shot of the singer and all of the screens
and then have all the screens showing the same footage, which could be a
really devistating scene e.g a mushroom cloud caused by an explosion.
This will also allow for the use of military scenes and operations without the
need of filiming them yourself meaning that no time will be wasted on getting
the scenes perfect as there would be no need for acting at all. It also means
that there would be no need to find multiple locations or wait for the weather to
be the correct weather condition or time of day, thus saving time to get the
singing close to perfect.
4. Costume ideas
Classic Narrator
By Classic Narrator I mean the normal look you’d see from a narrator and that
is smartly dressed. This will give the audience the impression that we are going
for a narrative/documentary theme for the video. This will also be great as
people have grown up to think of a narrator as a smartly dressed individual as
there have been both cartoons, TV shows and movies that have used
narrator/narrator-type characters, e.g. the narrator smurf and the narrator from
Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Casual Narrator
This idea is similar to the one above except having the character dressed in
casual/comfy clothing. This could tell the audience that he isn’t just narrating from
a script, that there may be an actual story behind what there singer/narrator is
singing, that it may somehow means something to him.
Genre Specific Narrator
This idea plays on the stereotypes that the genre of the music is. The narrator will
have the stereotypical appearance of a rock band member as that is what the
genre of the song is, tattooed, vests, short sleeved shirts, wild hair, jeans/black
trousers, etc.
5. Ending ideas
Ghost Narrator
At the end of the song we could show the narrator standing over a tombstone,
this scene will be taken from behind, so that the narrator is covering the grave so
you never see the name until he walks away. The camera will then slowly move
down the grave to show the name and details and focus on a picture of the
narrator with flowers laid besides or we could have it so that the camera stays in
the same position when the narrator walks away and then have it slowly zoom to
the picture and the flowers.
We can also hint this to the audience by having “blood” trickle down the singers
face/arm during the song. It can’t be over used as that will give of the impression
he was heavily wounded, with the right amount it will make the audience realize
that there is a connection with the narrator and the song and possibly the scenes
of war and will only tell the audience that he has been in a war/battle himself and
was injured.
Memorial
Similar to the previous idea this one could just show the narrator again in front of
the tombstone and when he walks away the picture isn’t of the narrator but
instead of the narrator and a man in an army uniform with one arm around each
other smiling. This will tell the audience that the narrator lost someone close to
him who most likely went to war or fought in a battle and died, linking the narrator
to the song in more than the usual