JAT TreatmentObsession: One Word

Format: Music VideoRunning Time: 3 mins

SynopsisTo begin our music video we’ll have a short prologue. This prologue will consist of a short montage to set the scene for what happens in the rest of the video. A man and his girlfriend live in a small apartment but their relationship is on the rocks due to his drug addiction. She finds some drugs and they start to have an argument. However the audience cannot hear what they are saying due to a high frequency ringing reminiscent of war movies to cloud the dialogue. This allows the audience to view their emotions purely from their body language and facial expressions and this makes the emotion feel rawer. The girlfriend leaves the boy and the music starts with him slumped in a dark corner to reflect where he is mentally.

He takes the drug to improve his mood, which it originally does. However when the pre-chorus starts, the drug starts to cause hallucinations. As the video progresses the hallucinations gradually get worse for the boy and he starts to fall into the world of the drugs. Things in the room start to interact with the boy in a negative way and he passes out as the song ends. The screen goes white to infer that the protagonist has died but it cuts out after a couple of seconds to the boy waking up in the room, afraid and throwing the rest of the drug away.

CharactersThe BoyThe Boy is of Asian origin and is average height. We don’t know who he is or where he comes from and this allows him to represent anybody. He is young but his age is unknown; this reflects the stereotype that young people are rebellious, drink and do drugs. He is working class as seen by the apartment and on the Socio-Economic scale he ranks as a Grade D-semi and unskilled manual worker and is a struggler; he is a heavy consumer of alcohol and junk food and struggles through life with a limited skill-set.The GirlThe Girl is of Cypriot descent and is tall for her gender, however her height is comparative to that of the boy. She represents all who have to struggle with those who have drug and alcohol issues. She, like the boy, is young and her back-story is unknown and this allows her to represent all with similar problems to herself. She juxtaposes the stereotype associated with the boy as she is responsible and only gets angry with him as she cares for his wellbeing. She is also working class but determined to move up the social scale. This makes her an aspirer; She is materialistic, acquisitive, affiliative and oriented to extrinsics. She ranks as a C1 on the Socio-Economic scale; she is in a supervisory, clerical, junior administrative or professional i.e. a bank clerk.

Key scenesPrologueThe prologue takes place in the apartment. The prologue begins with an establishing shot of the girl searching for something unknown to the audience. The lighting is dark and a spotlight is centred on her. The boy walks through the door at a medium long shot intrigued as to what the girl is doing. The girl finds what she is looking for and the camera cuts to a close-up looking angered. An extreme close-up of the pills in a plastic bag focuses out to the face of the boy looking shocked and ashamed. The couple begin to argue and the camera cuts between their two faces whilst high frequency noise clouds what they’re saying. The boy gets angry and starts to throw furniture around the apartment at a long shot. The girl storms out of the apartment both fearful and scared and the boy slumps into a corner ashamed of his behaviour and sad. The prologue ends with a close-up of the bag of pills and the boy out of focus looking over at the pills.Scene 1The boy is then seen putting the bag of pills down and putting his hand over his mouth and throwing his head back. The camera cuts to a close-up of the boy looking slightly disorientated and then of the bag. After a few seconds the hallucinations begin. This takes place through a POV shot as it allows the audience to see what is happening through the boy’s eyes. The room becomes colourful and objects start to come to life and interact with him in a friendly manner. Scene 2After a while, the colours begin to grow darker and the objects start to get angry with him and interacting physically with him, which creeps the boy out. The boy begins to look increasingly disorientated and collapses, the camera zooms out with the boy on the floor. The camera fades to white and a return to the high frequency noise.EpilogueThe camera cuts to an extreme close-up at a canted angle of the boy waking up scared and alone in the apartment. He sees the bag of drugs on the floor and throws them in the bin. The camera fades to black and the video ends.

AudienceOur target audience ranges from B to the unemployed of E on the socio-economic scale. This means that our target audience is quite wide and there is a demand for our product.B grade people are in intermediate managerial, administrative or professional positions like a middle manager and therefore qualify as either mainstreamers or aspirers from their lifestyle characteristics. C1 grade positions are supervisory, clerical, junior administrative or professional e.g. a bank clerk. These qualify as aspirers and explorers from their lifestyle characteristics.C2 grade positions are skilled manual workers e.g. Plumber, Carpet Fitter. Their lifestyle characteristics mean they fit into the mainstreamer and struggler categories. D grade positions are semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers e.g. labourer. They fit into the struggler category.

The unemployed of the E category are strugglers for the most part, however in the current economic climate more and more people from various categories are becoming unemployed and therefore it is hard to categorise this type of person.CertificationMusic video censorship allows a wider audience to view the product before the watershed. Such examples of this are ‘We Found Love’ by Rihanna due to its sexual and drug content and ‘The Real Slim Shady’ by Eminem due to language. However, if we were to make a censored version of our video we would hint at drug taking but not show the taking of the drug. Furthermore, the trip turns bad so therefore doesn’t glamorise the drug, whose identity remains unknown so therefore is representative of drugs as a whole and not one particular drug. We have decided to make a censored video as it allows us to attract a wider audience as broadcasters can show our video pre-watershed and an uncensored version post-watershed if they choose. The uncensored version would show the drug taking in full detail as it is targeted at an older audience and complies with OFCOM and BBFC regulations.