Treatment

The Wombats – ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’ Jasmine Blackborow This video will be a vibrant and fantastical coming-of-age story, filled with juxtapositional imagery, retro visuals and colourful celebrations, all underpinned by an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ style surrealism. I want to make a narrative driven video, however a party/performance sequence would dominate the last 2/3 of the film. The narrative follows a young boy who has outgrown childhood. At the start he seems bored, stifled and unsettled, however, after following some simple advice (‘let’s dance to Joy Division!’) he is left at the close of the video filled with the hope, the confusions and the celebrations that his teenage years will bring.

“I’m back in Liverpool and everything seems the same, but I worked something out last night that changed this little boy’s brain, a small piece of advice that took 22 years” A Joy Division cassette is put into a tape player. It rests on a pillow, propped up next to a young boy in bed. Shot in black and white, the location is a child’s room, the mise-en-scene is early 80’s retro. By the 1st chorus the boy has had a realisation. There is an ECU of his eyes opening wide, followed by a rushed and choppy sequence as the boy dances to Joy Division. He completely rocks out and trashes his room.

“…take a taxi to the darker side of town, that’s where we’ll be, and we will wait for you and lead you through the dance floor” The boy is now standing in a duskily lit street, with his two friends/band mates on either side. A long arc shot semi-circles around them as they stand totally still. A bright yellow rope appears which the boys follow, the rope serves to lead the boys likesense a yellow-brick road; bright lightirony, inout theofdreary black and white As the boys open the door they are hit with an overwhelming of and discovery. It’sa like stepping the wardrobe and into surroundings. Narnia. The “We’ll ask for Joy Division celebrate the They run down dark up winding to catch video on the other side of the door is now saturated in colour. The side street is alleyways, filled with people, and concrete everyonestairwells, is dancing,trying rocking out, up with everything isboys, going wrong but we’re so happy” The video and endshappy. with the finally making this the metaphorical from childhood tobe teenage years. The boy the and transition chase rope. The shots close up and pacey to follows give a sense celebrating Theboy crowd are older than between 16the and 25,his and are allwill dressed in wild costumes with funny hats,of urgency, yellow rope once more,camera this time crowd. Heintrusive, divesand into the crowd, dancing around, climbing onto their zooming shouldersinto andfaces. crowdI to suggest they are the looking for something. glasses, facepaints…The at into this the point is very weaving in between crowd, tilting up bodies, “Let the love us apart I the found a cure for aallfaces, broken heart” surfing. the Thecrowd rope leads the boy to a huge bucket/box of confetti, which he then throws over dancing, the crowd (by banging, sitting onposing, someones’s envisage members shouting andtear singing directly into camera, pulling funny head clapping, shoulders) and they continue to dance together amongst the colourful chaos. laughing...