Treatment

I see this video as a fantasy with some serious aspects to it that will bring the minds of the audience into the video. I see this as a video with intoxicating visuals that will make the viewers eyes fixate onto the screen with a darkened message that will open up a different aspect to the subject. We are presenting the concept of domestic violence through our music video; the major inspiration behind this idea was Eminem’s video “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna. A dark and mystifying bedroom harbours the world of domestic violence. Shooting in black and white will add reality, sadness and remorse to those scenes. Also shown in this video is the perspective of the female victimised in this violence. Her ‘escape’ existing only inside her head is portrayed inside a forest, with the main theme of these scenes being Alice in Wonderland. The reason behind our choice being that Alice in Wonderland is a fantasy novel, something much beyond reality. The happy character shown in these scenes will bring much exuberance with vast and flamboyant costumes being used to grasp a bigger audience. Visually, I would like these scenes to look somewhat like that of Florence and the Machine’s “Dog Days”. A large dissimilarity will be obvious to the viewer’s eyes between these two worlds that this helpless girl lives in.

I picture this video taking place in a few different sceneries to help show these two very different worlds. The opening scene is a car being driven along; whilst the victim who fears her visit home is miming to the first three lines of the song. The reason behind this being that the audience now get the idea that the song comes from her point of view. The forest will help bring the fantasy mise-en-scene to life, which resembles her ‘escape’ from the domestic violence, this escape only existing deeply inside her head. The bursts of light that beam through the trees, add a sense of ‘dream’ to the scenes, making clearer that it only lives inside her head. Colourful and drifting costumes will also add to this concept of dream. The forest will come across as beautiful and unrealistic. The scenes that are to take place inside the house portraying domestic violence are going to be shot in black and white to bring reality back to the video and to help bring a clear difference between the two mise-en-scenes.

We hope to aim our music video at ages 16-30. The reason behind this being that we feel people between these two ages may be able to relate to the messages more that we will portray, the message being domestic violence. This message may be inappropriate for people ages below 16 and they may not fully understand the purpose of the video. Furthermore, the influences behind the idea come from music that is aimed at these ages, for e.g. Eminem and Florence and the Machine. Some parts of our music video are themed around the fantasy novel ‘Alice in Wonderland’. An audience of a young age, may not be familiar with this story because it was written a long time before their age, this could lead to confusion.