Breezeblocks Narrative Case Study

Breezeblocks narrative study from Sam Glover

Final Music Video

Here is (hopefully) the final version of my music video!!

 

Initial storyboarding and changes

I recently found these drawings in an old folder. They are my initial storyboards from the beginning of the process, which detail how I originally thought the plot line and the movie itself would turn out.

In the end, the majority of this storyboard was changed so it is somewhat obsolete, but I thought it may be beneficial to upload it so the massive changes between the start of the process and the ending point are apparent.

The major differences are the form and the amount of information left in the piece.

Originally, the 'trip' sections were going to be wholly segregated from the awake sections, and there was going to be multiple awake and tripping parts, but the feedback I got showed that the beginning scene wasn't capturing enough - it was too boring and left nothing to the imagination. From this feedback, I decided to partly merge the tripping and the awake section together, but still have a discernible difference between the two: in the awake part, there is a central 'plot line' of the girl arguing with her friend, then taking the drug, then going to sleep, whereas in the 'trip' section, there is no plot and it is completely abstract.

Also, a lot of the plot had to be cut due to not being able to film enough footage for each section. For the film I have got, there is hours worth of raw footage, so by doubling the length - like the original was planned - it would just be far too excessive.

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Note to self

Having reviewed my footage, I have decided to condense the dream sequence down into one drop, as opposed to having multiple with different content; this therefore makes the singular dream start as a happy, pleasurable one, and end up turning into a nightmare.
It still explores ecstasy vs. fear, just no longer are they separate.

I have also been advised by my teacher to take out the drug use, as they believe that keeping it ambiguous will avoid clichés and leave it open to interpretation. I, in a way, agree - granted it makes it more open, and potentially something to discuss. Having explained my original concept and showing it to other people, the feedback I have got is that the lack of explicit references to drug use make it confusing.
I will try getting more feedback from people who do not know the original concept of the video, and see what their interpretations are, and whether I need to clarify.

Prop List, Costume, Mise-En-Scene

Costume:

White dress - The colour white has connotations of purity, innocence, wholeness and completion.
The reason I chose said colour, is because when the protagonist is in her dream-like state, she doesn't need to put up a guard;
the rebelliousness which she demonstrates in her real world life, is only a reflection of her lack of happiness. In the dream world she can be happy without judgement, and escape her stresses and fears.



Dark blue denim jacket - Denim jackets have been a working class staple since the late 1800s - they have never been 'stop the runway' fashionable, but they never seem to have been out-of-fashion.
'As the 20th century progressed, the denim jacket wrenched itself away from western wear and became something rebellious and pop-culture-worthy, as worn by Beat poets, punk guitarists, and hip-hop's best and brightest. Really, the point was that the denim jacket was so not formal; anyone who wanted to openly rebel against the ironed suits of the Establishment threw a denim jacket on. Think The Clash in faded denim with the sleeves pushed up, or Tupac in a denim suit-coat. However you wore it, it was clear you weren't headed for law school.'
The connotation of rebelliousness is what I mainly want to focus on when it comes to my use of a denim jacket in my music video.

Torn, acid wash black jean short-shorts - Denim also; has similar connotations to the jacket.

Blue Beanie

Black tights

Black top

To me, this is somewhat similar to various 'goth/grunge/punk rock' fashion styles, which is exactly what I was going for.
Stereotypically, people which comply with this subculture's style are emotionally troubled. The majority dark clothing connotes negative emotions i.e. depressiveness etc.
These fashion cliques all connote a certain sense of anti-establishment / anti-majority, which is often seen amongst various neotribes. The desire to stand out is what separates them, but the innate need to fit in is what draws people to one another. This complies somewhat with Hebdige's theories of youth's resistance to mainstream culture and it's relation to style/fashion taste.

Prop list:

Pink paint - poured onto the protagonist; the colour pink has connotations of compassion and love. The fact that this has become a physical object in her dream shows that although she acts otherwise in the real world, she does have a desire to be accepted and loved.

Cigarettes - a metaphor for substance abuse

Pink petals - used in the final shot. The meaning is open to interpretation, but the way I see it is that it blurs the lines between reality and her dream / trip - since the colour has not turned back to black and white like previous, the audience is unsure as to whether she has woken up.

Sparklers

Locations:

For the falling paint shots,  I specifically wanted a blank white background, as the falling paint has intertextual links to splatter paintings, and the wall behind is acting as my 'canvas'.

Another inspiration for this shot was the music video for 'Egospect' by Sheep, Dog and Wolf, and in that video the background is entirely plain and concrete coloured.





A lot of the scenic shots where taken in my back garden; the roses, the cobwebs, the apple etc.
I chose this location because of it's filming potential - there are many types of flowers and plants and the area is very wild and unkempt, which I think is a nice reflection of the protagonist herself.





The lamppost at which the character engages in the phone call and smokes her cigarette.

For the bedroom scenes, I wanted to leave the bedroom as plain as it could be, hence the lack of shots of the room itself. Mainly, those scenes consist solely of the girl, the futon, and the surrounding floor.

I wanted the ambiguity of the room she is in to be assumed to be squalid and cell-like; devoid of luxury and comfort.

The gravestones are found in the Earlham cemetery; I took these shots in the summer as stock footage, but it turns out it was completely useful for my video. When the trip starts to turn negative, imagery of death is implemented into the film; the gravestones are the main metaphor of this.

The bathroom is somewhere I also wanted to come across as entirely plain, as in a dream, one generally remembers the action, as opposed to the setting.