‘1996’- The wombats.

Music video pitch.By Charlie, Abbi, Holly and Joni.

GENRE

“Independent music (often shortened to indie music or indie) is music produced independently from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing. The term indie is sometimes also used to describe a genre (such as indie rock and indie pop); as a genre term, "indie" may include music that is not independently produced, and most independent music artists do not fall into a single, defined musical style or genre, and usually create music that can be categorized into other genres”-Wikipedia

LYRICS

‘1996’ Music video synopsis

Set in 1996, the narrative follows the everyday life of two teenagers and their experience in a relationship with one and other. At the beginning things are great in the relationship, we see them venture into town, go home to make and eat cake all whilst flirting and enjoying each other’s company. However a flaw in the relationship resurfaces and causes a change in scenario as the couple are left stranded as to what to do with one and other, end it all or reunite? They choose to reunite and focus on all the good times/fun that’s been had in the relationship. In the performance aspect of the video, the wombats themselves sing and play the instruments used in the song. We only see the band in the studio and as they play images of the couple are shown via projector onto a screen behind the band. Their performances is synchronous with the narrative, and as the couple have their problems the band becomes distracted and looses interest in filming the song. As the couple reunite, the song comes to an end and the band

perform to the best of their ability.

SETTING/TIME PERIOD

“Culturally, the 1990s are characterized by the rise of multiculturalism

and alternative media, which continued into the 2000s. Movements such

as grunge, the rave scene and hip hop spread around the world to

young people during that decade, aided by then-new technology such

as cable television and the World Wide Web. During the decade, many

significant events occurred that have helped shape the world as it

stands today. The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the earth after it was

launched in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields

in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War;

The World Wide Web gains a public face during the start of decade and

as a result gains massive popularity worldwide; Boris Yeltsin and

followers stand on a tank in defiance to the August Coup, which leads to

the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991; Dolly the

sheep is the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell;

The funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales, who dies in 1997

from a car crash in Paris, and is mourned by millions; Hundreds of thousands are killed in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.”- Wikipedia

CHARACTERS

The couple:

Christopher & Ashley

The band:

Mathew (lead vocalist) Tord (bassist) Dan (drummer)

Christopher

Christopher is a 17 year old student. He lives at home with his mum in York. His interests include watching ‘The X-files’ on Tv and playing ‘Street Fighter’ on the PlayStation. He’s been in a relationship with Ashely for around 10 months now.

Ashley

Ashley is a 17 year old student. She lives with her mum and older brothers in Pocklington. She enjoys watching ‘Buffy the vampire slayer’ and her favourite food is homemade pizza rolls. She first met Christopher at lunchtime in their school’s canteen.

LOCATIONS

YORK

The historical, small town of York will provide as a great location to film in as there are many shops, business’ and cafés that will provide an attractive setting for the beginning of the narrative. Furthermore, it will cost virtually nothing to film in as we don’t have a large budget for the video. In reality many indie music videos are filmed in towns and side streets as they were seen as places were no-one had filmed music videos before as for example in popular genres they tend to film in luxurious locations e.g. On a boat in the mederterranian. Therefore, indie videos have the convention of subverting from that in order to make a statement of individuality. Furthermore it is stereotypically where the audience expect a teenage couple to be spending their free time.

POCKLINGTON

Ashley lives in Pocklington and so we will be filming at her house there where she’ll be baking with Christopher, and on a separate day we see the couple go to an ice cream parlour as this is something that teenagers are seen to do. Teens don’t tend to have much of a disposable income/any income as they’re likely to be in low paid jobs or won’t have a job at all and so rely on their parents for any pocket money. The music video aims to realistically represent teenagers and their daily life as this is consistently seen throughout indie videos as their music is an expression of their reality band their beliefs.

COSTUME

Both Chris and Ash are influenced by the grunge movement in the 90s therefore this will have a significant impact on their style. For Chris he’ll be dressed in distressed jeans, a slogan t-shirt and either a denim jacket, fleeced vintage coat or Jumper. The look is based off of the band ‘Nirvana’ as they were a 90s grunge band who influenced menswear significantly. The overall look aims to present Chris in an edgy and cool way as unlike the mainstream way of dressing (dressed up), dressing down appears to depict that Chris is relaxed and alternative.

Chris isn’t seen as of yet to be wearing any make up. Although, if in production we did feel that Chris’ character needed make-up, it’d just be to perfect his complexion with foundation. As well as Chris could potentially line his eyes with smudged, black liner as some alternative boys have been seen to do this as it is defiant and different from the mainstream.

Ashley’s costume will be a reflection of Chris’. Within alternative dress there isn’t much distinction between men's and women’s fashion. This could be because there isn’t too much of a strong belief in gender conformity within this subculture. We aim to replicate the outfit as seen by the picture of the model on the left. It’s virtually the same as Chris’ except she wears a choker and decides to include a cropped top. She’ll be wearing heavy eye make up as it will draw attention to her eyes and make her have a mysterious/dark appearance. The rest of her face will be kept minimal as she is still young and so doesn’t need a lot of make up. Furthermore it was seen as trendy (within the alternative subculture) to apply make up in this way at the time.

The couple

The band

The band will be simply dressed in white T-shirts with Jeans. They won’t be apart of the ‘1990s’ look of the video as they’re looking back into the past in their performance. As well as videos/footage of the couple will be projected onto the band as they perform, and so their clothing shouldn’t distract from this as the imagery will look more professional on plain clothes. They won’t be wearing any make-up as it isn’t part of their personal aesthetic as a band.

PROPS

The cake

The cake will be used as a prop to show the couple enjoying their time together. It is something that teenagers can afford to do because it takes little effort and money to purchase the ingredients.

The ice-cream

The ice cream from the ice cream parlour will acct as a prop to the couple as again it is something that teenagers are seen to be doing as it is cheap and affordable to do/purchase.

The instruments

The instruments are used as props to the band as obviously the band are expected to play them to formulate the music for the song. Even more so it adds top the imagery and overall appearance and authenticity of the band, telling the audience that they are a band and not just a group of young men.

THE MEANING OF THE SONG

The general interpreted meaning of the song would be that it aims to be reminiscent of the 90s. The band must have grown up through the 90s and are therefore nostalgic about their experiences of the time such as being with girls, making prank calls, watching TV and feeling carefree. Their present reality appears to be a downfall from the past as finally the lyrics read ‘I’m leaving…I’m not cut out for this modern life’. For those audience members who don’t know about the 90s, they get to understand it and if not it allows them to think back to previous happy memories within their lifetime, times that would equate to the feeling of the 90s. (Pictured: Stills from the original music video.)