Jake Jones G324: December 2013

The beginning of the storyboard centres on the lead singer and the band (the band begin playing their instruments through the intro, mid-shot of the band) as the camera cross-cuts between the two other separate narratives consisting of a woman in one and a man in the other. The woman is shown to be sleeping with a dishevelled look (birds-eye mid-shot), and the camera cross-cuts to the man, who is in a hospital corridor on a gurney (the orderlies push the gurney through the hall, the man is clearly upset and in pain, shot from a dolly effect) as the pre-lyric sequence plays through. The hospital is a metaphor for the mans 'pain' of living a bad life.

As the song actually begins (cross-cut to the band) the lead singer is shown in front of the microphone (lead singer begins singing from a mid-shot) and starts the song. As he is singing, the narratives switch to a phone falling off the hook in the same room as the sleeping woman, who is woken by it (camera cross-cuts to the woman jolting awake and has a confused facial expression) and gets up to look (camera cross-cuts to the woman walking drearily to the hanging phone, from a side-shot). The phone dropping off the hook and needing to be replaced is a metaphor for the woman's uneventful life and she yearns for a 'replacement' in life. The woman replaces the phone after listening to the other end of the line, where the lead singer is singing. Upon hearing the music from the phone (close-up of the woman's eyes widening and immediately starts smiling, pulling a sticker with the image of an upturned smile from her face, cross-cutted into a mid-shot), she puts the phone on the hook, which this time doesn't fall off. With the odd look of a smile but with a frown, the woman leaves her room and sets off down a road to an undisclosed location (a dolly shot follows the woman walking out with a frown and smiling, but remaining in an excited state). The lead singer is then shown singing for a few seconds (mid-shot, side-shot of the singer performing).

This then switches to the mans narrative (from a side shot). After hearing the singing, the man gets off of the gurney (brief side shot of the man suddenly getting up, smiles and jumps off the gurney, with a brief panning shot as he walks). The narrative switches back to the woman for a few seconds to show her frown disappearing (shown from 4 different shots. Mid-shot of her face, high angle of her hands feeling her eyebrows, extreme close-up of the fingers peeling off the stickers, then a high angle of the woman with a happy face), allowing her face to express a smile. The narrative cross-cuts to the band (mid-shot), then returns to the woman (she becomes excited and sticks her arms up in the air, high angle).
Turning back to the mans narrative, he is walking through the hospital corridors (dolly shot follows him), notices a set of signs with 'sadness','devotion' and 'dancer' on them (he stops and stares for a second, from a mid-shot, then carries on walking), implying that he leaves his human emotions behind and heads for a better alternative. (Showing elated expressions from a long shot) The man walks out of the hospital and begins towards an undisclosed location. Cross-cuts to the lead singer (close up, shown from the side, the singer wraps his fingers around the microphone), then to one of the other band members (playing whatever instrument they have, shown from a mid-shot).
Returning to the woman's narrative, where she stops outside a forest (the woman runs towards the forest, then stands still just outside, shown from a long shot), which then cross-cuts to a long-shot of the man, who has also entered the forest, from a different entrance (the man walks slowly, the camera follows him as though he is following the camera, sustained long-shot to establish the forest and the man looking around). The story then shows an unused gurney and then a hanging telephone/unused mobile etc to symbolise the abandonment of the average human life (?) (quick cross-cuts to the gurney and the phone).
The man and the woman are then shown as they are about to enter (split-screen of both people to show that they're not actually next to each other, shown from a mid-shot) a large clearing (long shot of both people entering the clearing from a distance apart), as the narrative quickly changes to show empty streets (from a long-shot for both frames, to emphasise the emptiness) where no people are. (an establishing shot of) The clearing shows the band performing in the background and a large crowd of people who run towards the man and the woman (from a side shot run by a dolly or panning shot), who are shown (from a side shot) noticing each other for the first time. The singer is shown performing (mid-shot) again, with (a cross-cut mid-shot of) the man and the woman throwing their arms in the air and expressing excitement and an elated mood. We once again see the band performing (from a long shot) to imply that the video/song is almost over. The band (from a sustained long shot, no cross-cutting) performs until the end of the video, where just before the very end, the man, the woman and the crowd are shown all together (in either an establishing or a long shot). The video ends.