Pitch For Our Music Video

Our first pitch:

The Corona's Closer To You video is a beautiful narrative depicting the complex relationship between a man and a woman.

Our narrative will consist of three settings or "strands", focusing on the couple Hamlet and Ophelia.
The first will consist of Hamlet, walking through the city at night, stopping people and 'telling' people his story, through the lyrics of the song.
The second will take place in a dark forest with Ophelia walking/running around in confusion, immediately creating a contrast to the busyness of the city.
The third will be a variety of still shots of Ophelia in a bathtub in evening wear surrounded, symbolizing drowning in emotions

Morrissey- Ouija Board Ouija Board Inspiration

After having seen Morrissey's music video for his song 'Ouija Board Ouija Board', I thought the spinning effect (half way through the video) would be perfect for our music video. The only problem would be the re-creation of this effect- we don't have the money to buy such equipment/technology. However, we believe that we could build this be attaching a camera to a rotating drill or table sander.
Our teacher raised the issue of health and safety- we thought that perhaps a hand operated drill would be easier to control (and thus more effective), while also being safer than an automatic drill. However, after consideration, we decided not to do this. It would be too complicated and too much could go wrong. Nonetheless, we did think that its use in Morrissey's (and our own) music video would have been effective.

The Iliad, Relationships and Music Video Conventions.

Having recently re-read Homer's Iliad for my Extended Project, I am once again in awe of the relationship
between Patroclus and Achilles, and think that in our music video, we should strongly focus on the nature of the relationship between the characters. As I considering taking Classics and Film in Germany, I believe this to be relevant to my media work.

In the Iliad, Achilles and Patroclus are involved in a ten year war against the Trojan's, who have taken Menelaus' wife, Helen of Sparta. His brother, Agamemnon arranges an army to attack Troy and take Helen by force after diplomacy fails. Achilles is the greatest warrior in Greece, the star of the army. But when Agamemnon insults him, Achilles resigns from the army, allowing the Trojans to beat the Argive army back. Only when Patroclus is killed in battle by the Trojan Hector (son of the king Priam of Troy) does Achilles return to battle for revenge, murdering Hector and securing a victory for Agamemnon and the Argive army.

The nature of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus has been a sector of study for hundreds of years, and remains an enigma. Some have interpreted the relationship as homosexual, whereas some have argued that is is purely homosocial. The ambiguity of this relationship was mirrored and adopted by Macedonian warrior Alexander the Great and his coeval Hephaestion.

I would like to have this kind of ambiguity and mysteriousness surrounding the relationship of the two characters in our music video.  It is very conventional to have the couple in a song/music video to be in a romantic relationship, and as the Indie music genre is about breaking conventions, we thought the relationship between our main characters could remain an enigma.

Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze: Sucker Punch- "Love Is The Drug"

Laura Mulvey is an established feminist film theorist who conceived the theory of the 'male gaze.' This theory deals with how an audience views the people presented in the film. It can be narrowed down to three simple strategies:
- How men look at women
- How women look at themselves
- How women look at other women
Mulvey states that film audiences have (forced) to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male, and that, to some extent, that the camera represents the man. The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events. It diminishes women to the status of objects, and thus a female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

Below is a clip from Zack Snyder's 2011 film Sucker Punch, that I think particularly exploits the image of women. Granted, it is set in a brothel, but the rest of the film is not. See the trailer below.


'Love Is The Drug'- Credits Scene



'Sucker Punch' Trailer
Set in the 1960's, women are presented in a variety of ways. The first time we see Babydoll (protagonist) she is vulnerable- her mother dies, her stepfather attempts to rape her, she accidentally shoots her sister and is sent to a mental asylum. Her father pays to have her lobotomized and to escape this she imagines herself in different realities- in one she is just as powerless but has others to help her, and in the other she is in complete control herself. In all of these realities, her clothing is highly sexualized, playing on the innocent school-girl image.

Ophelia Make-Up Tutorial

I decided to create a short make-up tutorial showing how Ophelia's subtle look was made. It was very simple- we decided to 'go for a natural look' (as they say).

Roles, Costumes and Props

Main Roles:
Hamlet- Conall
Ophelia-Maria
New Boyfriend- Fintan

Costumes:
Dress
Silver Jewellery
Black Suit
Dark Jeans

Props:
Ship Necklace
Coin/Necklace

Shot Locations:
South Park
Broad Street/Turl Street
Cornmarket
St. Michaels
Queen's Lane
Bridge of Sighs
Botanical Gardens
Christ Church, Dead Man's Walk
Exam Schools
Emma's bathtub

Narrative For Our Music Video + Lyrics

The song we have chosen is 'Closer To You' by The Coronas, which details the relationship between two people. Below is a wordle of the lyrics, showing the most important, or most used, words of the song.

My love, how does it know?
How the hell is she home?
Oh my god, she's home

You had me long before you could know
The back of my mind I couldn't get you to go
And as our conversation came to an end
I found myself closer to you again
Closer to you

I'm not sure where I stand
The best nights can't be planned

You had me long before you could know
The back of my mind I couldn't get you to go
And as our conversation came to an end
I found myself closer to you again

Several signs had led me to this place
Don't fancy my chances if it's left to fate
Something told me to take that chance
The whiskey may have had something to do with that
And a girl outta nowhere appeared
She told me to kiss you and then dissappeared
And the music it started to end
I found myself closer to you again
Closer to you
Closer to you

You had me long before you could know
The back of my mind I couldn't get you to go
And as our conversation came to an end
I found myself closer to you again
Closer to you

We interpreted the song as a story- a man simultaneously wants and does not want to be with someone. He's half her friend, half her lover.  

Ophelia by J.W. Waterhouse, 1894

After having come up with our interpretation, we asked others what they thought the song meant, and
realized that our interpretation was quite different from those we asked.
While choosing our song and reading lyrics, I had been working on a side project (A2 Art)  with a friend, focussing on Ophelia, and when reading the lyrics above, interpreted them in a similar Ophelia/Hamlet style. Therefore, our music video will be inspired by this- an almost modern re-telling of Hamlet.

Our narrative will consist of three settings or "strands", focusing on the couple Ophelia and Hamlet.
The first will consist of Hamlet, walking through the city at night, stopping people and 'telling' people his story, through the lyrics of the song.
The second will take place in a dark forest with Ophelia walking/running around in confusion, immediately creating a contrast to the business of the city.
The third will be a variety of still shots of Summer in separate bathtub in evening wear, symbolizing their drowning in emotions, inspired by Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet.