Storyboard

Annotated Lyrics

Shooting Schedule

How can we describe and analyse narrative in your music video?

Our video for the song 'He Never Shows' by Pom-Pom Squad is a single strand narrative, focusing on only one story, as well as a linear narrative as the story is told chronologically. It follows Todorov's concept of the three-act structure, with an equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium and a closed ending. The first act is of the character in her bedroom, in equilibrium, until the inciting incident moving through to act two. At the end of act one, the character receives a text message from her boyfriend - a proairetic event, as it leads the character to move on the narrative as she goes to meet up with him. Then in the third act, where the story is resolved, her boyfriend doesn't turn up. She throws her phone - a recurring device throughout the video - into the lake, where they were to meet. This is a symbolic code, representing the character moving on and creating a new equilibrium. Our video could be applied to Barthes' concept of open and closed texts, as our video resolves in the third act and has closure as any loose ends are tied up. 

Mise en Scene

Treatment

We will be making a music video for the indie pop-rock song 'He Never Shows' by Pom Pom Squad. Our video will combine both elements of narrative and performance. 

The lyrics of the song are suggestive of unrequited love and we will try to convey these feelings of longing and disappointment in our narrative, which follows a teenage girl who gets stood up. The protagonist in our narrative receives a text from her boyfriend asking to meet up – she is especially eager to see him because their relationship has recently been conflicted and she is hoping for reconciliation. In her bedroom, where props such as photographs will signify their relationship and suggest that the character is romantic and sentimental, she gets ready to go out. She travels to the location where he suggested that they meet, passing locations which remind her of happier times with him and seeing affectionate couples who she envies. However, after waiting for him, he doesn't turn up; this links to the lyrics, specifically the chorus of the song. We will cross-cut to performance throughout our video, fulfilling a convention of indie rock music videos and creating a sense of authenticity to appeal to the band's audience. We will especially use lots of close-up shots and fast-paced editing in the performance parts of our video to make our video more dynamic. 

We are influenced by many music videos of the same genre, which use performance and lip sync to create a sense of authenticity and promote the band's live gigs. This includes bands such as Cherry Glazerr, an indie-rock band, and Pale Honey, an indie band with riot grrrl influences. Cherry Glazerr also has narrative in several of their videos such as 'Nuclear Bomb' and 'White's Not My Color This Evening', which follow similarly young female characters. 

Moodboard

Chosen Song

He Never Shows - Pom Pom Squad



Lyrics

You are the shadow in the doorway
Gently bleeding on your pickguard
Wrapped around your finger

You said you wanted to steal me away
So I packed a bag, but you never came
And I know that you don't owe me anything
I'm just sick of loving meaning waiting

And you are so hard to hold
He'll call you up but he never shows

Why do you act like you don't when you do,
Just because I used to like you back in high school?
You've got your checklist of shitty excuses
And I've got a habit of making boys like you my muses

And you are so hard to hold
He'll call you up but he never shows
And you are so hard to hold
He'll call you up but he never shows

We chose this song because of it's length, because the song is short it will be easier to a music video as less footage is needed and it is unlikely that we will have to repeat shots or find ways of filling the rest of the song which is a problem previous music videos have faced. In addition, the song's lyrics can be used for the narrative, which will be easy to structure because of the song's clear sections, such as the second verse. However the music video would probably be more successful as more of a performance video which is a convention of the indie rock genre. As the song has a clear beat and clear vocals, the shots will be easy to sync to the beat as well as the performance or lip sync parts will most likely include.

Possible Songs

This song has a clear beat all the way through, which will mean that when making the video, we will be able to cut on the beat. In addition, the song builds up, adding instruments as the song progresses, which sort of gives the song sections, but not very clear ones and once the song has built up it only changes from that for a few seconds when it takes away some of the insturments. Sections could be used to help structure the narrative of the music video, as well as the lyrics and in this song the lyrics are simple and clear, they also sort of have a story and progression, but the song is quite repetitive as there isn't much variety. It has a good length as the song is 3:16 minutes long. There is also a slight change in the song, a change in the style or possibly genre of music, which could be seen as a strength as it adds variety to the song or a problem as it may mean that the song doesn't have a consistent genre, but it is consistent throughout the rest of the song. 






The strengths of this song are that it has a clear beat which will be useful when making the video as we will be able to cut on the beat as well as having a clear sound quality and clear lyrics which could be useful for lip sync or performance in the music video. The song does have a bit of variety and a few different sections, however, the sections repeat and the main part is too long and it becomes boring. Also the song is quite slow, which also makes it slightly boring, as well as more difficult to make a video. The song is a bit too long as well, as it is 4:10 minutes long. Also, the lyrics won't be very useful for a possible narrative for the music video as they don't really progress and what the song is about could be difficult to make a music video about. However the song is consistent and has a clear genre throughout, which is useful as we could use the conventions of music videos of that genre.





This song has a clear and steady beat, which will be useful as it will enable us to synchronise the editing to it, by cutting on the beat for example. The song is a good length, it's quite short (2:26) which means that it will be easier to make a video, and also the song isn't repetitive, the song has clear sections, which add variety to the song. The sections could help structure the narrative of the video as well. Also, some of the lyrics could be used to inspire the narrative. The genre is clear, so we will be able to use conventions of the indie rock genre in the music video. 

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