For my A2 coursework I will be making a music video to the song Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé. The music video will follow themes of self-image and the pressures put on teenagers (in particular females) to conform to societies perfect image.

The original music video directed by Melina Matsoukas follows similar themes, however focuses on the physical pain faced by females to become perfect such as taking pills, starving themselves, even surgery. I aim to contrast this by focusing on the emotional side of the ‘pretty hurts’ idea and show how the pressures to be perfect affect women mentally.

Verse 1The first verse of my music video will follow the protagonist through a montage of images documenting how she experiences the pressures of image. Some of the shots I plan to include are; The protagonist looking into their mirrorApplying/taking off makeupScrolling through social mediaWatching a catwalk showA weight loss brochure being delivered.

The purpose of these shots is to be able to display to the audience some of the ways that teenagers can experience the pressures of the perfect image and also begin the narrative of how our protagonist in particular deals with this. In our modern society, the pressure to conform and look a society is becoming more and more powerful and I think it is important to show this alongside the song, especially for an audience bracket such as the 35+ who may not understand this as much as the younger generation. More and more songs are raising awareness of this issue such as who says by Selena Gomez, Try by Colbie Collait and Stay Beautiful by Taylor Swift.Similar images will also be used in the second verse in the same format as the first.

ChorusA line in the chorus ‘Perfection is a disease of a nation’ is what inspired my idea for the chorus of the music video. Self-image and confidence issues can affect anyone and is experienced by a wide variety of people, arguably everyone and this is what I want to capture in my music video. While the verses and bridge feature my protagonist, the chorus will display a range of still images of people from all around the world and of all ages holding up signs saying ‘too ……’ with the gap being a word that describes a flaw they feel about themselves, or have been told by someone else. For example ‘too fat’ ‘too tall’ ‘too shy’ etc…The concept for this was inspired by the 2016 remake video for the song ‘Where is the love’ by The Black Eyed Peas. This video was made to raise awareness of the Black Lives Matter campaign and the way it was constructed represented peoples emotions and was hard-hitting. This is what I hope to replicate with my video.

Because, the shots for this period of the video will be still images, I will be using the scribble effect on Adobe After Effects to create movement. This is effect used in Justin Bieber’s ‘What Do you Mean’ music video, where the director edited drawings over the shots to add more movement and a modern twist.

BridgeIn the bridge, the song begins to speeds up and so does the narrative. In this section of the music video I plan to have various shots of our protagonist running, hopefully through a forest area. These shots will be contrasted with flickers of previous images from the verses and the still images from the chorus. This creates the metaphor that the protagonist cant get away from the pressures of society and infers to the audience that our protagonist is facing mental turmoil as a result of this and ultimately leads up toward the conclusion of the video.

EndingThe finale of the video will be a match on action. First I plan to show the protagonist now sitting at the base of a tree leaning against it, almost as a sigh of a defeat, and as she closes her eyes it will cut to her now in her bedroom, sitting in the same position now leaning back toward her bed. The match on action comes from her closing her eyes in one position and opening them in another. I hope to edit this to look as seamless as possible. This is where the narrative will end but should hopefully convey to the audience how this problem is occuring day in and day out with no signs of change.