Initial Idea: 3

INTIAL IDEA 3

SONG: 'Rolling in the Deep' - Adele

The concept of the video has a strong narrative element where the singer acts as the storyteller for the central two characters. The video depicts the faltering relationship of a young, working class British couple as they struggle to make it in the world. The male figure is perpetually involved in varying degrees of crime and violence while the female struggles to make ends meat. The video cuts back and forth between the artist who passionately sings the song and the couple at different stages in their lives. In terms of the narrative structure, the first scene is the end and the ending scene is in actual fact the beginning of the story and is what acts as a trigger for everything that occurs chronologically during the video. The video starts with a shot of the male protagonist having his mug shots taken after being admitted to prison. Before doing this he removes a rabbit mask from his face that he had used to attempt to rob a local store. As well as being visually striking, the mask also symbolises how people in his socio-economic station are at the bottom of the 'food chain' and are lacking in support from the government. While often cutting to the performance of the singer, we then see various scenes of the couple including first happiness and joy at the news of a new child, which then turns to alcoholism on the part of the man. This then results in pub violence which escalates into arguments and furthermore domestic violence. We then go to a shot of the male figure in the shower washing off the blood from his recent brawl and contemplating the direction of his life. This is a well used and effective shot that is often seen in films such as Goal. After this we see him then actively try to rob the shop the next day and run away before being caught by a bystander on the street. The video finishes with a shot of the woman sitting at the bottom of her house's stairs crying while holding at the telephone. After putting it down, she stands to walk up the stairs and consequently reveals the bump on her belly and communicating to the audience the cause and implications of the story. 

Goal

The lyrics of the song have poignant relevance to the tragic yet current nature of the narrative with lines such as "We could have had it all"/"The scars of your love"/"You had my heart inside of your head". While actually being the songwriters personal anecdote, the song may also make political points about the lack of support for young British, working class people who try to build families while struggling to find work in the current climate. Stylistically, the camerawork would reflect the song with large portions of the video being filmed handheld to help achieve dramatic intensity. However, extreme contrast would be created when filming the artist with the shots being far much more carefully constructed with an array of closeups and wides as she sings. I would also be interested in using a track for when the melody of the song reaches its peak. The contrast would also be extended to costume with the artist wearing refined, polished attire where as the couple where casual, urban clothes to reflect their status and also reinforce how the artist and the characters are very much two separate entities.

Similarities between this idea and Jake Bugg's 'Two Fingers' could be drawn due to the domestic theme featured. However, there is a key difference in that Jake Bugg is actively integrated as a character in the narrative of this video. In our video the artist is firmly a spectator/narrator of the story and would only appear in the same shot as the characters as a stylistic element.

A strong image can be created with this song of the artist being honest and heartfelt in her approach to commercial music, which is noticeably rare in todays industry. This speaks volumes as to the singers integrity and obvious talent which perhaps means she obtains the likeable trait of 'Success against the odds', one of the factors that Dyer believes can aid a performer in being successful. To reinforce this attribute, the person we would cast to lip-sinc the song would not have an archetypal perfect, 'pop star' image in order to further emphasise her originality as an artist.