Section 5 - Treatment

Artist: AfterBurn
Song: 'Cheated'
Genre: Classic Rock

Outline of Narrative

There is a guy who has a childhood friend who was a girl; however, as they have got older they are not as close as they once were. The video leaves it ambiguous as to whether they dated each other as they got older and she literally 'cheated' on him with someone else, or, that their interests began to differ and she began hanging out with a different crowd, again, 'cheating' on him. The main theme throughout the whole narrative is him missing her and not being able to move on, whilst she carries on with her life, until the end of the narrative when she appears to stop and think about her actions.

At the start of the video, we see glimpses of the past when everything was perfect between them, and also performance of the band in a certain location. We also see the lead singer, who is the main character in the narrative, reminiscing by himself in another location. For this there will be lots of close ups of his face to show the emotion he is feeling and also a mixture of indirect and direct modes of address. We see the main character and his friends (the band) in another location, where they are laughing and joking and having fun, whilst he is absent and inattentive as his thoughts are stuck on the girl he has lost.

When the vocals come in, the narrative will shift permanently to present day, where the main character/lead singer will be reminiscing, and he will be lip-synching along to the lyrics. Throughout the song there will be glimpses of the band performing together. In the area the band perform in, there will also be a few mid shots of the lead singer playing the guitar by himself, as he thinks about his 'life of rock 'n' roll'. The narrative will centrally focus on the main character and how he reacts to seeing the girl in various places or just generally, thinking about her, such as with hanging out with his friends and thinking he sees her; or walking past her in a communal area when she’s with someone else and she bumps into him, presumably by accident; him thinking she’s running towards him when she's running towards someone else; him watching her being with other people. For this there will be lots of point of view shots so we see her in his light, where the sole focus will be her and everyone else will seem insignificant.


One of the central themes throughout the narrative is him trying to get away from her and move on, though he tries to get back to her as well, such as through sending letters. At a point in the video, when the singer sings 'I'm unsure whether you love me, I just don't know', we see him holding a rose in his room, and also shots of her holding a rose in her room, which she soon discards, showing again that she has moved on away from him. Throughout other instrumentals in the song, we again see him in his room spinning in his chair, which will be from a high angle to make him look vulnerable and the spinning will represent confusion. Again to show confusion, he will attempt to communicate with her such as by writing letters, or trying to ring her, or an email, but each time getting frustrated and not being able to think of something to say.

At the end of the video, the narrative closes. The main character is in a park by himself, one of the locations he and the girl used to play together and meet up at. He leaves a rose, an object used several times through the video, on a bench and walks off, almost symbolising that he is either giving up or still lives in hope that things could have been different. After he leaves, the girl then comes into the shot as she walks by, and sits down on the bench. As she places her hand down alongside her, she finds the rose – she then looks at it sombrely as the video fades out, the camera slowly zooming out on her face and reaction to it. The fact she keeps hold of it contrasts to what she did with the rose earlier on in the video.

Resources

The main resources we will be using is the camera equipment, which involves the camera and tripod, as well as the track. As we are making a music video and are going to have the band perform throughout it, it is also important to make sure the band has the necessary equipment they need to mime a performance, that being their respective instruments and possibly microphones, cables, amps, and so forth, depending on where the location of the performance is.We will also be using some specific props in the music video to create meaning, such as with the rose, which can be interpreted as meaning 'love' as also references to the game of '(s)he loves me, (s)he loves me not' which relates to the idea of the lyrics of the song.

Crew

We will be using the band in our music video as our questionnaire reflects this is what our audience would like to see. The video will have two crew members including Adam Webb and Samantha Brown. One of us will operate the camera and the other will direct the cast members. We also will need to cast a lead female character.

Budget

As our music video is being made outside a professional environment, we are not paying out cast and crew as we do not receive a fixed budget from college. But in the real industry, we would have to pay the coast and crew for the production. We may need to use our own money to buy props which could be featured in the video.