Video treatment

My video will include a mix of both performance and narrative aspects. It will start off with a few establishing shots to set the scene and show the location, a wooded area. Then when the song’s vocals begin I will cut to shots of the singer and guitarist. From then on, the parts of the song with vocals will concentrate on the singer while guitar lead sections will be intercut with shots of the guitarist playing. They will both be clad in camouflaged army uniforms, with the singer wearing a balaclava and the guitarist wearing camouflage face-paint, though his face will rarely be shown. The video will have an army theme and will be based around the military, partly because the title and subject of the song and partly because I used to be part of an air cadet’s squadron and have various props and costume items available, as well of basic knowledge of how certain operations are run and techniques are performed. The song’s title (“Brothers in Arms”) as well as certain lyrics fit in with the military theme I plan to apply to my video. The shot that intrudes the performers will be a sped up shot of the speeded up, and then going back to normal speed when it reaches them.

The main narrative of my video starts with a soldier (the singer) being dragged away by two comrades (one of which will be the guitarist, one of which will be me). It then cuts back to the singer stalking through the woods before he was injured, perhaps including a sequence involving him crawling through a section of tall grass and him observing the surrounding terrain from a high point (depending on time constraints). There will be the occasional POV (point of view) shot both from his perspective, and from enemy combatants watching him from a distance. At one point he suddenly falls over, as if shot and grasps his leg in pain. He will then proceed to crawl behind a nearby log to protect himself from any future incoming fire.

The remainder of the narrative segments will involve him attempting to escape from unseen assailants, maybe including a few shots of him struggling to get up a steep embankment. The narrative will end with the soldier backed into a corner by an enemy and him standing over him as if preparing to kill him (using a low angle shot to make him look large and powerful compared to his fallen adversary). His face won’t be shown. Another soldier will appear behind him and will appear to grab him and/or slit his throat (though this obviously won’t be seen; only alluded to). The enemy soldier will drop to the ground and the two allies will then drag the wounded singer to safety, in a replay of the shot from earlier in the video. The closing shot of the video will be a reverse of the one that introduces the band, with them having stopped playing and the camera appearing to be speeding away from them.