Treatment - Multiple Location Version

We find our three band members separate but undeniably connected. All three show signs of madness, entrapment and imprisonment. The frontman is bound by his wrists and ankles with course thick rope, and is writhing on the ground in the middle of a vast derelict industrial yard. He’s lost, alone and in the middle of nowhere. Our guitarist is in a similarly desperate state. He is bound in a full body strait jacket and is writhing and struggling to break free and is trapped in the mind-bending corridors of a vast maze. The drummer, the final cog of the threesome, is chained and trapped in a dark decrepit industrial building, perhaps a factory. He’s alone and locked into position, shackled by the wrists and ankles and pulling desperately at them to break free. Each band member has their own experience in their own location, but they all ultimately are trying to break free and escape. Progressively, they break free of their constraints – be it chains, strait jacket or ropes – as the song goes verse-by-verse.

The electro/punk style of the song, combined with the lyrics of confinement, all need to be portrayed in the song. To start with, all the actors will be wearing make up, consisting of bright colours, and placed around eyes and lips. This is too accentuate the expressive parts of the face, in order to allow the actors to produce a sort of "crazy" persona. An interesting motif would centre on their make-up. The make-up and hair would start off as scruffy and messed, but would progressively improve and end in a slick punk style. This would add a contradiction to the deranged imagery as the band slowly ‘improve’. Hair is also important. It would be ideal to have actors with semi-long hair already, so they can be styled "punk". This includes Mohawks, and other gel-heavy looks. Wardrobe is probably most important and requires the most attention to detail. Research of modern "punk" (or indie as it could be known nowadays) shows us that stripes of 2 colours, one of which should be black, skin tight jeans, and lavish accessories such as belts and piercing should be the main focus. The colours are to be accentuated in the post production part. Rotoscoping can be used to highlight single colours, leaving the rest gray scale. This could be important in keeping a "punk" feel to the video. Camera wise, it is important to keep the pace of the song in mind. Longer shots should be used a little as possible, as the song is relatively fast paced in places, and extremely hectic in others. Camera shake is also important as is really helps to give that crazy, rebellious, insane feeling that is important is this project.

Interspersed throughout the video will be performance shots of the band playing their instruments, with some simple special effects added, such as making one or all of them disappear and reappear mid-shot. Each chorus shows the band in their full band getup in a large garage-like cell – their performance area. Our frontman, a guitarist and drummer are packed into the tight claustrophobic room and let rip in the confined space, thrashing their instruments and showing the manic signs of prolonged incarceration. Their instruments appear and disappear, the lighting dims and brightens, and the colour red flashes on and off – all in time with the music.

Inter-cut with shots of the band performing, we see the band members as they run through their own locations. We follow them hand-held and over the shoulder. They look behind them to make sure no one is following and run at break-neck speed. By the start of the third verse, all three band members stubble upon each other at the frontman’s location – this would be achieved with clever cross-cutting and cutting to action. They finally make their break for freedom as a group, and it is at this point when their full slick punk style manifests itself. The shaky camera movements work with the ear-shattering screeching. Inserts of the band members faces in CU show them getting progressively more insane, crazed and desperate. The faces shake and vibrate violently as they laugh hysterically. The final chorus shows cut-aways of all the scenes in the video, including the band members in their own locations playing their own instruments as if in relative normality. The closing seconds of the video sees the band running together into the distance, apparently because they’ve discovered a way out of the industrial yard. Instead, the last we see of them is the band vaulting over a ridge and descending out of sight.