Music Video Proposal

What is the title of the song and artist you have chosen for the video? ‘The Poet and the Muse’ – The Poets of the Fall

What genre of music is the song from? Alternative Rock

What are the conventions of music videos from this genre of music? (clothing / performance style / setting / narrative / grading) For alternative Rock music videos the clothing used is very casual, often consisting of simple shirts (often black,) jeans and a dark unzipped hood-down hoodie. As for the setting and colours, they are often dark yet soft. A mix of purple and black colours that blend into a filter bringing out a darker display. When other colours are used they are often bright and prominent that seem to pop out of the screen, one such example of this would be Poets of the Fall’s ‘Locking Up The Sun.’

Highlight the style you have chosen for your music video? (As live, Performance, Narrative, Concept, other or a Mixture)

Why have you chosen this style of video for your music video? The song itself is a narrative. This means that we really only need tell the story that the song is about, however we will be adding in extra scenes such as a narrator telling the story around a campfire in a classic ‘scary stories round a fire’ style.

Highlight the term, which describes how your music video relate to the lyrics? (Disjuncture, Amplification or Illustration)

Describe with examples from the lyrics and your idea for the video of how your music video links with the lyrics.  If you have chosen disjuncture please explain where you got your idea from for your video? The song is a tale of two lovers, Tom the poet and his Muse. While their lives seem to be blissful and tranquil, one day the muse dies. Distraught, Tom uses the ancient power of the lake and the power of his love through his writing to bring her back. While she does return to the land of the living, unfortunately she is not. Recognizing she is only a shadow of her former self he takes her life as well as his own, granting them both peace one again. For this music video we will not only be acting out this story, but also adding in a narrator who will be telling the story around a campfire to others. This way it allows us to have more creative freedom, switching between the narrator and the story he is telling occasionally. The music video will start with a wide shot of the campsite and one of the campers telling a generic scary story. The other campers complain about how terrible his story is and start some basic banter. One of the campers then cuts in (The Narrator) and says about how he knows a ‘real’ scary story. The others, intrigued by what the narrator said ask him to tell the tale and our song begins.

Who is the cast of your music video and what are their individual parts? As of this current moment I do not know who will be staring in the music video itself. This segment will be updated when I have further information.

Where will you get your cast from and how will you source them? The cast used for our music video will consist mainly of fellow college students, not just our group. However I would like to also get hold of a friend of mine who is also a fan of the artists who performed the song. He could cameo as one of the campers at the start of our story.

Describe the clothing and style and image of the performers in your music video? You can copy and paste images in here of the clothing, hair etc you wish for your cast to wear. The clothing for this video will consist of mainly attire such as hoodies and jeans or cargo trousers, basically typical outdoors clothing, for the campers.

What mise en scene will you need for the setting of your music video?  You can add images here of the setting and location you envisage for your music video. There are only really three locations I need for this music video to work. First and foremost is the campsite in the woods. For this I have numerous locations in mind, after deciding on a location to shoot the scenes I will need to plan out with the cast members required for the scene when to all meet up there, this is because the scene will need to be shoot at dusk or night. Ideally I would like to shoot at this time so that I don’t have to worry about editing SFX as much but if need be I could film during the day and use visual editing software in post-production. The second location needed will be a lake, ideally with a cabin or house within view of it. I realize finding a location such as this will be near impossible, so in order to make life easier I could always film the lake and edit in footage of a house into it later. It might take a while and not look great however I see no other way of pulling this scene off without a bigger budget or spending hours finding the perfect location that may end up being miles away. The third and final location need would be the inside of a house that will be made out to be the inside of the cabin by the lake. In theory we could use any house however I would have to have at least two floors, so unfortunately my own home will not do. Using filters and post-production techniques, I should be able to give the illusion of making the house look like the inside of a cabin.

Include some screen grabs of the types of shots you wish to include in your video?  Write underneath the type of shot and why you want to use it?  Which shot types are you including to promote star image? This wide angel shot would be perfect as one of the first shots of the video in the pre-music segment. As stated before, the campers will be sitting around a fire telling stories. While one of the campers tells the end of his story to the others a shot that circles the campfire slowly at this distance and angle would be perfect to build tension up until the un-dramatic end. During the opening to the song, when we here the lyrics ‘Now the muse she was his happiness….,’ this is the exact scene I would like to play (of course with different actors.) Everything about this shot fits perfectly with this segment of the story; the sunset resembling the end of good into darkness, the near embrace showing the perfect relationship between the couple and the lake in the background that not only shows a romantic location but also references the lake in the song. If I can get a shot that is even 50% like this I would be very happy.

Paste an image below that best communicates the grading or colouring you wish for your music video.  You can use some adjectives to describe your scene too? For the campfire scene I would like it to appear like the fire is the only light source in the area. In reality I would need to set up other lights that aim up at the actors from the floor otherwise the scene will be far too dark and hard to make out.

Music Video Treatment

We open on a campfire with a group of people huddled around; they have their backs to us save for one of them who is the main focus behind the campfire. He is dressed in a typical camper outfit with a dark unzipped hoodie and jeans; he leans forward and begins to tell the story of 'The Poet and the Muse.' Throughout the music video we consonantly cut back to the storyteller dramatically telling the tale to the other campers.

As he tells the story to the other campers we pan up towards the sky, which fades us into the story the man is telling. We see a young couple cuddling together while looking over a lake in the middle of the countryside; there is a rather large yet quaint house behind them. After a short montage of the couple we fade to a misty version of the lake in which we see the woman walk towards the lake and disappear under the water. 

Cut back to the storyteller, we see that he is getting really into the story he is telling. Back at the lake we see the man go running down to the lake and scream out in mute for his love. He runs along the lake screaming for her to reply as the day fades into night. He then collapses to his knees after a few seconds of standing in shock, and begins to sob. Head facing towards the ground, he looks up slightly with tears running down his face. It seams like he has an idea. Cut back to the campfire as we see the man telling the story as the other campers seem more interested and engaged into the story. We then see the man in his study writing down something, he hesitates before finally writing the final words.

The man goes to his door slowly and opens it to see his love dressed completely in a black mourning gown. Looking from behind the woman we see the mans shocked and disgusted face. Without ever seeing the woman, the man leads her towards the lake. When they get to the edge he embraces her before pulling both of them into the deep dark waves. After along time of staring at the black waves we cut back to the storyteller who leans in closer and in a creepy tone tells them about the possible haunting of their spirits.

As the beat picks up the storyteller gets thoroughly into the story, standing up. Throughout the final chorus we see a montage of the couples happier times in their lives (possibly through pictures on a shelf,) as well as the storyteller continuing to tell the story. Finally we see that the place the campers are at is the same lake the story is set.