1. Treatment Sheet
Little Black Submarines – The Black Keys
CONCEPT
The themes that inspire this video will exemplify the lyrics of
the song, portraying the message coming across. ‘Little Black
Submarines’ consults negative issues such as illness and
relationships; the narrative is up for interpretation due to it not
being specific. After researching what ‘Little Black Submarines’
actually are, I discovered that Little Black Submarines are more
commonly known as Cancer cells. So in the case of the song, it
can be portrayed as fighting illness for people who know what
Little Black Submarines actually are. The idea for this song had
no trigger from the bands’ own experiences. As the official music
video for this song was just a performance of the band, our idea
was to create a video with meaning, to convey the narrative and
create an emotional response.
2. Performance & Narrative
The message that we want to get across in our music video is focused
on overcoming negative situations, to show that a lot of different
people can overcome bad situation, this supports the problems of
society, and giving solution to help people in need. The lyrics will be
delivered with true compassion, creating an emotional response
from the audience, making that connection between the characters
and the audience.
3. Camera & Editing
After creating a shot count for the video, it was discovered that the
majority of the shots were medium shots, giving us a guideline for the
type of shots for us to use. We will subvert certain conventions of the
genre through use of camera and editing, by using a variation of
different shot types, this will convey the narrative to the audience by
showing emotion more. A usual performance used in Alternative rock
videos is a performance of the band playing their instruments, we
will follow this convention. However for the acoustic parts of the
song we will follow the narrative through a variety of different paces
and shots.
4. Lighting
A lot of natural light will be used in the majority of shooting
locations; we will control this in editing also. The main reason to use
natural lighting is to comfort the audience, so they feel as if they can
relate more to the narrative and being able to create a bigger
emotional response.
In the performance scenes in the music video which will be shot
indoors in the studio available in the college. The lighting will be
quite dark and moody to represent the sadness of the performers.
5. Live Performance
In typical Alternative Rock music video, a stereotypical convention is
a live performance of the band. I want to utilize this in my music
video to show capability of following and subverting conventions.
This also fills in time and shows transition from the narrative to the
performance. The live performance will occur during the heavier
music as opposed to the acoustic parts.