Mascot

“Covet”

A treatment by Alex Hester, Doug Macaskill and Thomas Curtis on behalf of Gideon Records.

ContactEmail: gideonrecords1@gmail.comPhone: 01429 443366

Background

(The band from left to right: Joshua Ingledew, Lewis Kendal, Harlan Watson and Matthew Appleyard)

Mascot is hardcore/punk rock band formed in 2012 in England. The band consists of Lewis Kendal, Joshua Ingledew, Harlan Watson and Matthew Appleyard, who all use common instruments found in modern rocks bands (guitars, drums, bass and vocals).

In 2010, the band released their first EP ‘Songs About The Weather’ and, later in the year, signed to Gideon records. While signed to Gideon Records, they managed to release a second EP as well as two other albums.

Their second and most recent album, COMMENDATION, was recorded in late 2013 and released just before their hiatus. The album received great reviews. The band has recently announced that the hiatus has now ended and have released a new EP ready for early 2015.

Performance and Narrative

We want to have the performance of the band and a narrative that go from one another throughout the video. There will be links in theme throughout both of these to link them together in ways, as well as use of dark colours for the band and light colours for the narrative for a contrast between images.

The performance will consist of the band in a dark room, with lights behind the band to create a cool atmosphere, playing instruments commonly seen in this genre and wearing clothes that suit their appearance and style of music.

For the narrative we wanted to tell the story of a boy, visiting his ill grandmother in the hospital. The boy (played by lead singer, Lewis Kendal) will be shown walking through the streets and buying flowers from a shop. The audience will be lead to believe that the flowers are for a girlfriend, from various props used in the video such as a close up of a picture of the couple beside his bed, until the end of the video when he arrives at care home/hospital. The video will then reveal that he is actually visiting his ill grandmother (played by Emma Eglintine). The video will end with the boy sitting by his grandmother’s bed, as the camera slowly zooms out.

Lighting

We want to incorporate a dark theme, which goes with the slow, grungy sound. Therefore we want to put the band performing in a black room, which will be lit up using white bright lights to use as a contrast; just like how Kasabian uses bright colours to contrast with the black background in their music video, “Shoot The Runner”, which uses a technique called Rotoscoping. Another great music video that uses this idea is “Here We Go” by Lower Than Atlantis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXpdFqZt4Us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C0OEVWKZv0

Another featured idea is that the lights will slightly flash to the beat of the music. This idea came from Biffy Clyro’s video for “The Golden Rule”.

However, for the narrative we are thinking of using a light theme to contrast between the shots of narrative and performance.

Camera shots and angles

Common shots that we have in mind are planned because they may help create brand appeal for the band. The theorist Andrew Goodwin who believes shots that focus on key aspects of the band, such as the lead singer, should be used in order to create an identity for the band in the publics mind supports this.

This being said, the shots that feature the band performing will a mix of wide shots of the band and close ups of their instruments or of the singer, as well as several angles to keep the audience interested in the performance.

Our narrative shots will feature a much wider range of shots and camera angles, such as over the shoulder shots and high angled shots. This is so that the audience doesn’t get bored of watching the narrative and keeps their attention on the screen.

Locations

Bedroom – an idea that we have for the first narrative shot is a birds eye view of the main character waking up in his bed, the room giving the audience a bit of an idea of what his personality is like based on how clean his room is and what he has displayed on his walls etc

Hospital/Care Home – this idea will be used for the final shots of the narrative side of the video, in which the plot twist will be revealed. This setting will use shots such as wide shots and medium shots, as well as close ups, so that the audience can see the emotions in the characters faces as well as being able to distinguish the story behind video.

Studio- The studio, located at Hartlepool Sixth Form College, will be used for the band shots. This is because it has the appropriate resources that we need for our music video and it will be easy to achieve our dark theme with the use of their lighting/smoke machines.

Flower Shop – one of the locations we may use is a flower shop. This will be to extend the narrative and explain where the main character has gotten the flowers. This will also be used to further make the audience believe that the main character is visiting his girlfriend