Synopsis

Story

The audience follows the lead singer’s journey through her past love life:

Amy is being used by the boy she has fallen in love with for sex. He is already together with Jade his girlfriend of 3 years who is totally convinced that Anthony would do nothing to hurt her and therefore when things happen such as late night disappearances weird texts and strange receipts she remains clueless. Amy spends the time reflecting on her affair with Anthony and recalls on all the bad experiences in her life.

Generic Conventions

Stock Characters in the band

Main lead female singer (plays guitar) – shown as an edgy powerful woman that is the main focus of the narrative

Boy drummer - has a solo showing his equal importance and also emphasizing the importance of their musical instruments.

Boy keyboard player – an old-school unconventional musical instrument that gives the band a quirky side. 

Boy electric guitarist - typical musical instrument associate with the genre

Stock characters in the narrative

Girl next door – loved by all and is often the person victimized in the indie genre due to the fact that they are average      

The Other Girl – this is the person related to in the indie genre because they are often a quirky unique individual that breaks the rules of a social acceptability, however they often learn from it and pay the price of their demise.  

Boy – laidback and self-assured individual that can often be a trouble maker

Indie bands tend to focus on a small number of band members or cast because they have a more niche audience and are less mainstream in their genre.

Stock Settings

Empty shed/room etc… - this is a room where the band will be situated and perform to focus all the attention on them.

Outside/park – most indie bands perform outside to show and express their freedom in the music they write we are going to shoot parts of our music video in a park to highlight that it is the youthful past that the singer is looking back on.

Bedroom – bedroom scenes are used so that the audience can understand the characters on a deeper level due to the bedroom being a private place meaning that the audience will gain the inner most thoughts of the character.

How will you conform or challenge convention?

We will conform to the conventions in terms of setting and costume etc… and we have also kept the changes between performance and narrative throughout the video. Are band consists of 4 members however the lead is a girl which goes against the stereotypical male dominated indie band. We are also going against the typical rock look and opting for a more indie vibe from the music video however the emphasis will still remain on the musical instruments.

What narrative devices are you going to use in your music video?
For our music video we are influenced by Propp’s theory of certain characters, we are using hero and villain because we believe that this will show significant information for the audience to understand our story, and will communicate a story which is told in the eyes of one person. We are using flashbacks in our music video, because this can make our audience feel as though they are witnessing something secret, and this will also help the audience to understand the story line of our music video.

Are you going to challenge or conform to narrative conventions?
With our music video we are challenging Todorov’s theory because we are using flashbacks, this challenges the narrative conventions because Toderov uses the idea of equilibrium and disruption whereas our narrative does not start with equilibrium, due to the fact that the main event in our music video has happened prior to the beginning of our music video. We decided to challenge narrative conventions because we thought it may be another way in which we can interest our target audience. However, we have conformed to Propp’s theory by using characters which are portrayed as a hero and a villain; we have done this because Propp’s theory has a way of making a storyline more interesting for an audience, leaving the audience with something to think about, which will help us to interest our target audience. 

How are you going to appeal to audience?

The main way in which we are appealing to the audience is through the use of generic codes and conventions that they will be able to recognise and associate with the genre of indie. This means that our target audience – who are fans of indie music – will be able to relate to the storyline and enjoy the music video as it will be similar to many in the indie genre. Furthermore the fact that this is an indie band means that the audience may have to seek out more information about the band as they are not a mainstream type of music. This arguably appeals to many audiences as they can use the media for their own fulfilment.

How will you engage with the audience?

The message/lesson behind the music video is essentially about mistakes that people often make when they are young – being young and naïve in love. According to Bulmer and Katz personal identity is a primary factor in engaging the audience with a media text. This means that the audience can find out something about themselves and because of the meaning behind our music video it may be something that the audience can relate to from personal experience for example. Also the narrative in the video may also be a source of entertainment for the audience as it follows the memories of the singer’s first experiences of a relationship and the mistakes that came with it.

Could your music video be criticised in any way?

It has less focus on providing an escape from real life – it’s not really a relaxing and light entertainment since it carries a slightly heavier message. However it is more of a reflection of her past rather than something fresh and recent – by this point in our video the singer has gotten over the past.