Greetings and salutations! We've officially completed our entire storyboard and I'm thrilled to be able to share it with you! It did not take too long to create because, as mentioned in my earlier group blog, we had already pitched concepts for the music video. This time around, our only concern was ensuring that we could have each of the shots and angles properly visualized to simplify the actual filming process when we got to it.
Scene 1:
In Scene 1, the video will begin without a fade-in and be positioned as a medium shot showcasing the main prop, our subject's cell phone, from an angle to the side. This is done to ensure that there is easier mobility of said prop upon moving it out of the frame during the beat drop. However, prior to doing so, the phone will be turned off and display two pieces of text, the name of the song, "Saturday Nights," and the name of the artist, "Weston Estate," which will both appear at different times, one after another. This will then allow the audience to have enough time to read both the title and subtitle, providing them with the context regarding the song that our music video is centered around. As for the text itself, we intend to have it written in a glowing font to capture the audience's attention from the very beginning and resemble the "natural" glow that cell phones exude. During this time, the instrumental introduction of the song will fade in and play non-diegetically. The music will not be interrupted, but rather overlapped by the diegetic, generic pinging of a notification, specifically, the "Note" sound offered exclusively by iPhones, that turns the phone on and simultaneously causes the title and song artist to disappear. As the phone lights up, the lock screen, containing an image of the subject and their former girlfriend, who is wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, appears with a hidden text message from the subject's friend. The image on the lock screen is meant to establish the relationship that the subject had with another character that will not be shown directly in the music video. The name that appears on the top lefthand corner of the hidden message will be the name of one of the members of the band, Weston Estate, Marco, the lead singer of this particular song, as an ode to the group. After remaining at the same angle and pausing on the lit-up phone screen for a bit, the subject's hand will enter the frame and pull their phone out of the frame and to the right as the beat drops. This will take a total of ten seconds.
Scene 2:
In Scene 2, a cut will occur to another medium shot, which will now frame the main subject in the center as they sit on their bed and swipe up to unlock their phone. The subject will be wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, the same as the one their former girlfriend was wearing in the photo that they use for their lock screen. The subject will then scroll up on their phone, leading into another cut where their phone becomes the main focus in a medium close-up shot to create a sense of detachment. In this scene, the subject will scroll from the top of their iPhone to reveal the contents of the message which will read as such: "Hey dude, been a while...you've been MIA lately, let's hang out!". The subject will then clear away the message, with a cut occurring to the subject's eye in an extreme close-up to make the transition smoother. The camera will then switch its angling to adopt a close-up overhead shot as the subject enters the iMessage app where they will open up the text thread between them and their former girlfriend. This, in turn, creates a more intimate and personal relationship between the subject and the audience. At the top of the text thread, her profile picture will be an image of her happily smiling wearing brightly colored attire with her name being the nickname Eve, which is short for Evelyn, followed by a green-colored heart. The nickname Eve means "life" in Hebrew and also acts as a biblical reference, being the creator of human life. Upon being opened, the most recent text message will have been sent from their girlfriend a couple of days prior and say, "I hate you." The period is used in an effort to underscore the anger felt by the subject's girlfriend at the time she sent them the message. The subject will then type the message "I miss you" followed by a red heart and send it to her. All of this, of course, will occur as the music continues to play non-diegetically. This will take a total of nine seconds to execute.
Scene 3:
In Scene 3, a cut will act as a segue between the previous scene and this one, when a medium shot will be used once more to frame the subject in the center as they grip a pillow in their arms, to recreate the feeling of holding their former girlfriend, and fall sideways and to the right. This sideways falling will then cut to black once they come into contact with the bed, using a match cut to transition to them walking through their bedroom doorway which is also sideways, but that gradually straightens itself upwards with a dutch tilt, whilst they walk through, showing them from the front. At that time, a full and tracking shot will both be employed. As for when the subject completely exits their bedroom and walks through their living room, a medium tracking shot will be used to follow them from behind through their home, falling in line with one of the many conventions I highlighted in my research blog. This will be able to achieve the effect of distancing the audience from the subject by leaving them unable to gauge how they truly feel at this given moment in time, being that they are not able to see their facial expressions. Throughout this time, the music will be playing non-diegetically with no interruptions by diegetic sounds. All of this will occur over a time span of eight seconds.
Scene 4:
In Scene 4, a tracking shot will persist from behind as the subject opens their front door, giving the audience a glimpse at the dismal, dark sky as they begin to walk downstairs. At the time, the camera will remain stationary in the door frame until the door shuts. An action match cut will then occur to show a close-up of the subject's car door shutting as the diegetic sound of an engine starting plays and overlaps the non-diegetic sound of the song which is still playing. A jump cut will then occur to when the subject is exiting their car, with a close-up shot being used to focus on their foot stepping out of their car and into the parking lot. Once their toes touch the ground, an action match will occur and they will be stepping through the doorway of a diner instead, which is signified by the change in the ground's texture, as well as by the dinging of a hanging bell. This will take eight seconds.
Scene 5:
In Scene 5, a cut will occur to when the subject is already seated at a booth in which the camera will pan from their feet to their upper body, framing them in a medium shot, exactly like the one used in Scene 2. This is meant to act as a parallel to when the subject was home alone, showing that despite being in public they still feel isolated. At this time, there will also be food on the table and the subject will be actively swirling a soggy french fry around in their ketchup, looking quite disinterested in their food as a waitress, who is only shown next to the subject with her hand that has long, red stereotypical nails extending into the frame, and a conventional retro outfit that is only partially shown as she sets a two-strawed milkshake on the table in front of him. The two straws in the milkshake are meant to create a sense of irony because they typically indicate that a drink is meant to be shared and enjoyed by a loving couple; however, here the audience is witnessing a lonely young man in the pits of sorrow, preparing to drink the milkshake with no company but his won. To further emphasize this melancholic feeling, both of the straws will have meaning, with the green straw being symbolic of the subject's former girlfriend Eve(lyn) and the blue straw representing him by being the same color as the hooded sweatshirt he is currently wearing. A jump cut will then transpire to where the food is left mostly uneaten on the table and the subject is in the same positioning as the waitress, only showing half of their body in the frame, excluding their head, as they leave cash on the table. The subject then steps out of the frame and a second later, the diegetic sound of the hanging bells ringing occurs once more, indicating to the audience that the subject has left the premises. This entire scene will take eight seconds.
Scene 6:
In Scene 6, a cut will occur to show the subject walking in front of stores outside that are nearby the diner as a couple approaches them from behind in the blurred-out background. The scene will be framed as a medium-full shot and a front tracking shot will be used to show the couple as they become more prominent in the frame holding hands and inaudibly laughing as they walk by slowly and without a care in the world. This will take a total of nine seconds to complete.
Scene 7:
In Scene 7, a loose close-up shot will be used to emphasize the subject's feelings of envy and uncomfortableness towards the happy couple as they tighten their hooded sweatshirt strings around their head, breaking off from the path to lean against a wall. A medium shot framing will then be used as the subject pulls their phone out of their pocket and stares down at it, with the camera capturing their side profile. This will take five seconds to complete.
Scene 8:
In Scene 8, an over-the-shoulder shot will be used to show the subject as they page through their gallery and look at old pictures of their former girlfriend. A cutaway will then occur to show the subject with a sad smile using a close-up shot and then cut back to return to a close-up of their phone screen. This will take nine seconds.
Scene 9:
In Scene 9, the subject will open their text messages to see that they have received the same text message back from their girlfriend, raising intrigue within the audience as to why that might be the case. The subject's phone then pings with the same ring tone and the message "Hey, I heard that Evelyn, passed away I’m so sorry." appears from the same friend who texted them earlier, revealing that their girlfriend was dead all along. Of course, in this case, the period is used to exemplify the seriousness of the situation rather than non-verbally expressing anger. The music video then ends there with no fade out to allow the audience to take in the true gravity of the situation as the plot twist finally sinks in after having experienced it through the "eyes" of the subject, which was made possible with the close-up shots. That plot twist being that the subject has given into a grief-induced delusion and has been texting themselves, not their (who we now know to be deceased) girlfriend, the entire time. This will take a total of nine seconds.
Music Video:
In total our music video should be about one minute and fifteen seconds long, meeting the criteria of being between one minute and ten seconds to one minute and fifteen seconds.
Storyboard:
I have attached an image of our storyboard below to make the above text easier to visualize:
Clarifications:
- The arrows found within some of our scenes' frames are meant to show the movement of either the camera, as indicated by the color blue, or a subject, as shown by the color purple, within the frame.
- In Scene 4- Part 1, we used four blue, L-shaped lines in each corner of our frame to show that our camera would remain stationary after having trailed our subject to the door frame.
- In Scene 4- Part 2, we used a line to divide up the frame, not because we were using a split-screening effect, but rather because we intended to convey the action match we want to have occur as clearly as possible.
- In Scene 4- Part 3, another line is used to divide up the storyboard frame. It is once again not indicative of a split-screening effect, but rather an action match, being used to show our subject stepping out from their car into the parking lot and then into the diner.
- In Scene 8- Part 2, a line is used once again to split up the frame for the purpose of showing that a quick cutaway is occurring.
- In Scene 5- Part 1, the straws are colored blue and green to represent the subject and his girlfriend, respectively.
- Regarding the shoes being worn by the subject, we have not yet decided if they should be sneakers, as they are a common piece of casual wear, or slides with socks, which could be representative of the fact that the subject is not focused on their outwards appearance, but is instead completely absorbed in their own internal turmoil. With that being said, we chose to draw sneakers in the storyboard; however, the decision has not been finalized.
- As for makeup, we may apply some to our subject's face to accentuate their eye bags and make them seem exhausted from everything going on in their life.
- Despite not being colored in, the subject's hooded sweatshirt will likely be dark blue to reflect their current depressive state.
- We would like for the colors in our video to be very muted, perhaps even having a blue-tinted haze over some, if not all of the scenes, to achieve the same effect as the color of his hooded sweatshirt intends to. We also intend to have our lighting remain neutral to show that our subject is very disinterested in his life and surroundings, finding everything to be quite boring in his withdrawn state.
- As previously mentioned, not everything has been finalized being that our storyboard only serves to provide us with a general idea of how our music video will be filmed, which means that some changes may be made during the editing phase of this project, but we will try our best to stick to what we have planned.
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