BY ELISA AND TAYLOR

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OUTLINE OF MAIN IDEA

There is a man, "Big C", who is in "charge of it all" who believes he could rule the world by controlling those in it. He "numbers" the people that he "controls" by writing the numbers on their masks. It is as though they are products - making it as thought they do not have an identity. They are just used as means to an end. The video shows the masked people trying to recruit others to join them. It is as if they have been brainwashed and want others to follow them. We chose this to occur through out the video because we wanted to make a connection between government control and how regular people are being exploited due to Althusser's ideological state apparatuses such as media, religion, family, patriarchy and capitalism. "White hoodie" sees what is going on, she has a class consciousness that makes her aware of the situation. Whilst being aware, she wants to stop what's happening, her plan therefore is to find "Big C" and put an end to the problem from the roots. "White Hoodie" then takes over. 

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REASONING BEHIND OUR SONG CHOICE

At first, we had come up with the narrative concept for our video. After we had an initial idea, we started researching for a song that would suit our criteria. Once song that came to mind was Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."

 

However, we figured that this song was a bit too 'funky' and fun - complete opposite of what we wanted in our video. We then stumbled on Lorde's version of the song. Due to this being just a short cover, only certain lyrics were chosen.

 

We, as a group, figured that these lyrics and this particularly eery melody would fit in much better with our idea.

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CHARACTERS/CASTING DECISIONS

Range of ethnicities = less conventional - no need to conform  

 

All of our characters except Big C will be female, this is because we believe all women (of any race, age, sexuality etc) are affected by exploitation in the media and we want to show a different side to this.  

 

We wanted the character of Big C to be a male to represent a patriarchal society

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Reasons for Costume Choice (1)

 

MASKS:

• In our video, our characters will be wearing masks to 'mask' their true identities. Using masks to hide their face makes it eerie and mysterious, adding to the suspense of our song and the idea of the video.
• With masks, we all look the same, uniting us, creating a 'community' that the characters believe is loving and caring due to their oblivion and false consciousness.
• In reality, Big C has created their identities he has stripped them from their identities so they do not have individuality.
• Big C will wear a black cat mask, as people's superstition of a black cat connotes bad luck. We wanted to portray Big C as a cunning* leader, the masks obey him and think of him as this champion, yet the audience will see the truth in him. 

*having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion.

 

 

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Reasons for Costume Choice (2)

 

BLACK/WHITE CLOTHING:

• We wanted our characters to wear either all black or all white so that we would not make assumptions based on social stereotypes.
• Black is representative as one in authority and power -  implying that he/she is a villain. An example of this being "V for Vendetta" (2005).
• White symbolises innocence and purity hence in the media heroines are often shown wearing white and other light colours.
• Hollywood often portrays their characters in white to suggest that they are the good guy, such as the White Horse, Olaf the snowman (Frozen) and the White Wizard etc.  A recent example being the portrayal of the characters Snow White and the Evil Queen in the TV show 'Once Upon a Time.' Even the lighting is different:  

The Evil Queen:

Snow White:

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Difficulties faced

 

• Not knowing how to accurately represent individuals in todays society so that we could not cause offence. We wanted to create an idea that showed the problem within society today in a mature manner in order to get a serious message across about government control and ask the question; "do we really have our own free will?"
• We wouldn't be able to shoot some of our initial areas due to lack of money and time etc, some ome of the locations we chose at first - around Westfield Stratford city, required special access which we could not obtain.

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Do we think our video will be successful?

 

• We believe our idea will be successful due to it not being a conventional music video, it is an increasing general issue, which we thought it would be useful to include to as a narrative.
• Government control and the breach of individuals' privacy's an increasing matter that affects society as a whole. For example  a recent bill announced in the UK, by politician Theresa May, gives power to police able to browse through citizens internet history with no repercussions. 
• We also believe our video will be successful because it is following Todorov's theory - allowing the audience to easily make sense of the narrative. 

 

 

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