Planning - Plot outline/script ( Post 26 )

This blogpost will be discussing my ideas about plot/script for my A2 music video.

Script
When decided what path I wanted to go down with my coursework, I had to decide whether or not to include dialogue within my music video. This is used by some big bands to add more of a plot to the video, and adds something more than just the bands music. For example, Greenday do this in their video for ' Wake me up before September never ends'. However; after some consideration I decided I did not want to include dialogue in my video as I don't think it fits in with my idea, and would disturb the overall feel of the video. Due to the fact I want to include some silent film inspired aspects to my video, adding dialogue would directly oppose this style and may confuse the viewer, so to make it more simple and effective I am choosing to just use the song as the only audio; which hopefully will keep the focus of the music as it was the original inspiration for my music video idea. Therefore I do not need a script for my music video as there is no dialogue.

Plot Outline:
The outline of my plot is a combination of performance and narrative. Within the narrative I plan on having a silent film chase of the typical cops and robbers, in the traditional black and white striped costumes. The characters will be running from the policemen in a comedic way, hiding behind buildings and running down the streets. A specific breakdown of the plot goes as follows:

• The video will start with shots of the band in the recording studio, going from the feet up to give an identity of the band and an idea of what the rest of the video will look like.
• It will then move to an ambient shot of the city, in the black and white filter of silent film videos, to set the scene.
• The band will then emerge into sight, with a bag of money in their hand. They will appear to be running from something.
• This will continue as the band run in the typical silent film style, around different buildings and places and then a police man will appear after them.
• Then it will become a chase, of the band running away from the police man, hiding from him and tricking him.
• During this the video will cut back and forth from the studio and the band performing the song, still in their 'robber' costume, to add more texture to the video.
• The video will end with the robbers eventually getting away from the police man and running into the distance, cutting back to them all standing still with their instruments.

Stage directions:
After putting much consideration to this, I decided that stage directions may not actually help me with the production of my A2 coursework music video. Stage directions are the instructions which we have before we film so we know exactly what we are doing, it is predominately used in plays and films, to depict the what the actors should be doing in between the lines of dialogue. Here is a picture of what stage directions within a script can look like :

Due to the fact that I have not got any dialogue in my coursework, it is all just the actors performing. Therefore I decided I do not need to make a list of detailed stage directions as my plot outline is clear enough to know what the actors have to do and it is more a montage of these different scenes. Also, during the performance element I want it to feel natural so by just telling the actors the general outline I would like it gives them room to add their own ideas and performance rather than following a specific outline, shot to shot, which could make it seem more artificial.