Ispiration – Billy Liar (1963)

 I am going to include 3 fantasies during my music video, a different scenario for each verse. I have already decided how I am going to show to the audience that it is plainly a fantasy and not reality, however I want to investigate how other producers have filmed ’fantasies’.

Billy Liar 

William (Billy) Fisher is a young British clerk in a gloomy North Country undertaker’s office, he gets bombarded daily by the propaganda of the media that all things are for the asking. This transparently false doctrine, along with his hectic job and wild imagination, leads him on frequent flights to Ambrosia, a mythical kingdom where he is crowned king, general, lover or any idealized hero the real situation of the moment makes him desire. His commitment and post-adolescent immaturity have created situations which make Ambrosia all the more attractive. He’s succeeded in becoming engaged to two different girls, simultaneously, while in love with a third, Liz. However things take a downfall when he gets into trouble with his employer, having spent a rather large sum of postage money on his personal frivolities. And last, but not least, his dream of becoming a highly-paid, famous scriptwriter in London seems doomed to failure. The only person in his life capable of bringing him down to earth is Liz, and she’s having a difficult time of it. Finally, he gets his life sufficiently in order to leave for London with his true love. Billy still hasn’t come to grips with the real world by the end of the film. He leaves the train to buy from a vending machine and watches the train slowly pull out for London with Liz aboard. He returns to the more comfortable shelter of his parents home, Ambrosia and his imagination.

As shown in the clip above, Billy is handing his notice to an invisible Shadrack, which suggests his fantasy to the audience. I feel that this would be unclear if I was to use this technique in my music video as I am not using any dialogue, so it would appear that my male character is talking to himself. Instead, I shall include the girl which he is fantasising about but show her disappearing at the end of each verse. This will establish that she was never there in the first place when he comes back to reality.

Ispiration – Napoleon Dynamite

The general idea for my music video is focused on a geeky teenage boy, following his fantasies on how life could be better for him when with ‘the girl of his dream’. I now need inspirational material to help structure the narrative of my music video, and the characters starring.

 Napoleon Dynamite

The basic plot of this film is based around the main character; Napoleon Dynamite. A lovable, unpopular high school teenager who just wants to fit in. There’s Deb, the girl who keeps showing up on the front porch of his country home. There’s Kip, Napoleon’s geek brother who’s searching for love. Rico, Napoleon’s jock uncle who just seems to want to ruin Napoleon’s life. And then Pedro shows up, the new boy in town. He’s from Mexico, who stands out from the rest with his unnoticeable moustache. When Napoleon befriends Pedro, and Pedro decides to run for class president, Napoleon gets his chance to show his stuff and prove that he’s got nothing to prove.

 From watching this film, I realised that the narrative is not something I was to aspire from, but to focus more how the characters are constructed. Napoleon is more or less how I want my main ‘geeky’ character to be like (perhaps not so extreme). He stands out from all the rest with a ginger afro, trousers tucked into his socks and large glasses. However all Napoleon wants to prove, is that really he just wants to be normal – like all the rest.