Choosing Our Song...

As a group we agreed from the start we wanted to do rock for our genre but found it hard to find both songs that we liked and knew we could do a lot with that didn't already have music videos. We searched our iPods and the internet and created a shortlist of ideas.
Eventually we agreed on The Pretty Reckless, 'Zombie'

I'm not listening to you
I am wandering right through existence
With no purpose and no drive
'Cause in the end we're all alive, alive

Two thousand years I've been awake
Waiting for the day to shake

To all of you who've wronged me
I am, I am a zombie
Again, again you want me to fall on my head
I am, I am, I am a zombie
How low, how low, how low will you push me
To go, to go, to go, before I lay, lay down dead

Blow the smoke right off the tube
Kiss my gentle burning bruise
I'm lost in time
And to all the people left behind

You are walking dumb and blind, blind

And two thousand years I've been awake
Waiting for the day to shake

Dear all of you who've wronged me
I am, I am a zombie
Again, again you want me to fall on my head
I am, I am, I am a zombie
How low, how low, how low will you push me
To go, to go, to go, before I lay, lay down dead
Oh dead, Oh dead, Oh dead

To all of you who've wronged me
I am, I am a zombie
Again, again you want me to fall on my head

I am I am I am a zombie
How low, how low, how low will you push me
To go, to go, to go, before I lie down dead

This song has everything we are looking for in a song (very rock, a strong key theme, we like it, etc) but most of all we feel it has a lot of possibility. We feel it is an important factor that our band has a female lead as we are a group of girls and so would be able to create a much more believable performance and narrative by using a female actor in our work. Most of the bands we looked at in our shortlists were all male bands and so this one seemed like the most suitable option as we will find it easier to relate to this song.
We created an initial ideas spider diagram to record our fist thoughts of the band and song:

 We plan to analyse similar bands (and look at The Pretty Reckless' other songs, to get a better sense of their style to help of see how our singer should convincingly sing the song etc.) and similar songs as well as looking at zombie films to get a better idea of how we want to film our video. By using zombie films to inspire our camerawork and editing we will be able to create a level of tension and element of the surreal we would not otherwise be able to achieve.
So far we have a basic idea of our narrative, however, we must be careful to make our video unique and individual and unlike any other zombie inspired piece of media.


At first we had a lot of ideas. We debated using 'social zombies' - everyone looked the same and did the same things and only the protagonist (who was going to be our lead singer) stood out. However, we came to the conclusion that it would be too hard to make our audience understand what was going on.

We decided we would use 'actual zombies' - the stereotypical type of zombie (flesh-eating, demonic monsters) however, we felt like if it was done in the wrong way it would seem unconvincing and amateur.

We discussed mixing the two stereotypes together and have the lead singer (and protagonist) and the band as 'actual zombies' and everyone else as 'social zombies'. The 'social zombies' would want to be different and voluntarily be turned into 'actual zombies' but we thought this would be too complicated and difficult to get across in the space of the song.

Our final idea was to have the band as 'actual zombies' and everyone else normal except the protagonist. Throughout the video, she will have the same expression. It will be shown as her way of coping with being bullied, family arguments and everyday monotony. Eventually, she gets fed-up with everything and realize shes not actually coping and ends her own life. The protagonist would be seen as a 'social zombie' as she is just kind of drifting through her life, 'wandering through existence' which is explaining her situation and her feelings.

We thought our target audience (rock music fans) could relate to this because everyone has felt like they're an outsider at one point in their life. We also thought that it would be easier for women to relate to it more than other rock music videos as the song is sung by a woman and is shown from a woman's point of view which is unusual in this genre.