Storyboard Concepts: Three Narrative Storylines

Here are the three storyboards you may have seen in this week's Vlog.

In the video I gave a brief working progress update on how the work was going and ended it with giving you a quick run down of the different narratives and ideas behind the story and shots.

But now is the chance to have a closer, more in-depth look behind the ideas and reasoning for the three boards:

Here is the first story board I drew. This idea was based on a cool narrative idea we came up with, that was inspired by the idea of Cops and Robbers, and how a Police officer's 'War' against crime is an eternal one and spans across the ages. This is being delivered by the criminal who is telling us of this endless strife. As we cut through the ages the criminal continues to perform to the camera, the lyrics in this context again suggest that  it's an almost foolish attempt for coppers to try and put a stop to them as throughout all the years crime has and will always fester. And from the protagonist's point of view this is a funny and joyful thought which is hinted by the playful, fast flow of the music. I think of it like he's teasing the world while he boasts. He's utterly carefree and is loving the chase. I thought that taking mini story arcs from five different times could best express the longevity of the 'game' as the Hoosiers say- "There's nothing we can do but play Cops and Robbers". I feel like it's an unique, memorable and engaging plot for the Pop music audience who are use to more simplistic plots.

I felt like it was important to try and make the second storyboard as different as possible to the first one. So in contrast to 'the endless game of Cops and robbers' I thought it might be nice to explore the game from a more optimistic point of view. Instead of it being sung by the criminal about how the policemen will never be able to catch him; this time we see a story where he has been caught, and has to face the consequences. It would be a duet, sung by both Policeman and Criminal. It is a much simpler narrative which will require less locations, props and costumes and it is a more traditional narrative- possibly more in keeping with what Pop music viewers would expect.

For my last storyboard I thought hard about trying to make this one different but still using traditional conventions that the audience would relate to and find engaging. So after quickly brainstorming a few classic plots I came to this decision. Here we see the life of a hard working policemen who's given the illusion that he's appreciated but when it comes down to it, it's only ceremonial and not genuine. He performs the song to himself and the audience as he realises that all this hard work still ends up with him in an awful studio apartment with no money at all. This idea is easily conveyed and would capture the attention of he audience as we grow sympathy for the underappreciated, hard working deserving cop. But then we see whilst singing to us, he spots two criminals getting away and keeping the undeserved wealth for their crimes. Our protagonist sees this occurring but doesn't call the police. Instead we see him deliberate the injustice of his lawful behaviour going unrewarded while crime appears to pay. We cut a week later and see him take a turn to the dark side, a recognisable story idea that the audience again will be familiar with.