SELECTION OF THE SONG
After browsing through lists of indie pop songs and listening to them very closely, paying attention to the lyrics and thinking how it will resonate with the audience, my teammates and i, after extensive discussion, decided that we'll be choosing the song 'Somebody Else' by the, now, very popular band 'The 1975'.
Album: I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It (Box Set)
Released: 2016
Genre: Indie/Pop
Released: 15 February 2016
Recorded: 2015
Length: 5:47
Label: Dirty Hit, Interscop, Polydor
Songwriter(s): Matthew Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald
Producer(s), George Daniel, Matthew Healy, Mike Crossey
ABOUT THE SONG
The music video for "Somebody Else" was directed by Tim Mattia and released on 7 July 2016. The video opens with an extended sequence resembling David Lynch's short film Rabbits. Lead singer Matty Healy walks into a living room in clown makeup, which was previously seen in the music video for "A Change of Heart", while another Matty sits on the couch in a collapsed position. Like in Rabbits, Healy's actions in the room seem randomly soundtracked by a studio laugh track, including whoops, hollers and applause. He removes his clown makeup, sits on the couch and speaks in an exceptionally distorted, unintelligible voice to the other Matty before leaving again.
As the song begins, the video shifts its tone by moving into colour footage. Healy tries to deal with heartbreak on a night alone, by crying, drinking, dancing and eventually having sex with a stripper in the backseat of an automobile. Towards the end, Healy seems to come to his senses and realises that not only is he hallucinating most of his interactions with others in these situations, but that some of the other people are copies of himself (in the case of the stripper, he finds himself alone in the backseat, stroking his own face and chest). The video was based on a story that Healy wrote
LYRICS AND MEANING
[Verse 1]
So I heard you found somebody else
And at first, I thought it was a lie
I took all my things that make sounds
The rest I can do without
Meaning
When the narrator first hears of his ex-partner, he experienced the first of the five stages of grief: denial. His immediate instinct was to defend the girl he loved, therefore instantly believing she was just as incapable as him of moving on.
However, the narrator eventually moved onto the fifth stage of grief: acceptance. He realizes that there is no longer any love left in the now terminal relationship, and attempts to move on.
Matty is removing his instruments—things that made sound—from her house/apartment during their separation, but left the rest of his belongings (e.g., clothes) because they aren’t as important to him as his music.
He could also be referring to more sentimental things, like his voice, or his beating heart. On The 1975’s track “The Sound,” he sings about an important thing that makes sounds:
Well I know when you’re around
’Cause I know the sound
I know the sound, of your heart
There’s also a sense of Matty going into a reclusive state where he rejects technology/social media to clear his mind. It’s an idea that makes this song more raw than one like “Love Me" in which he critiques our Western culture through satirically placing importance on fame and the material. There’s no satire here: Matty isn’t into fame as much as it may seem. Music is his therapeutic “truth” and serves as a tool he can turn to to work through his darker moments.
[Chorus]
I don't want your body
But I hate to think about you with somebody else
Our love has gone cold
You're intertwining your soul with somebody else
I'm looking through you
While you're looking through your phone
And then leaving with somebody else
No, I don't want your body
But I'm picturing your body with somebody else (Else, else...)
Meaning
Matty admits his inability to stop picturing the girl with her new lover, though he no longer desires her in a sexual manner, still affects him.
This is most likely due to the state of their relationship, which has deteriorated past a point of saving. Although neither Matty nor the girl are quite ready to fully pull away from the relationship, the lyrics suggest he’s already had the realization, or “Change of Heart,” that his partner’s mistakes are unforgivable and their relationship needs to end.
[Post-Chorus]
I don't want your body, I don't want your body
I don't want your body, I don't want your body
I don't want your body, I don't want your body
I don't want your body, I don't want your body
Meaning
This song is about the feelings Marty is going through when he learns that his ex has gotten into a new relationship. He is hurt because he felt their connection so strongly, he still does, but the other person has already gotten over it and she is intertwining her soul with someone else. This leaves him feeling alone.
[Bridge]
Get someone you love?
Get someone you need?
Fuck that, get money
I can't give you my soul, 'cause we're never alone
Get someone you love?
Get someone you need?
Fuck that, get money
I can't give you my soul, 'cause we're never alone
Get someone you love?
Get someone you need?
Fuck that, get money
I can't give you my soul, 'cause we're never alone
Get someone you love?
Get someone you need?
Fuck that, get money
I can't give you my soul, 'cause we're never alone
Meaning
While many a song has defended the idea of having someone to love and need, Matty says the lines “get someone love? Get someone you need?” in a mocking tone. Then he says “Fuck that, get money.” After betrayed and hurt by the one he loved, he rejects love in favor of money, which he has revered in the past. It is difficult to discern whether this reflects his own worldview or the one forced upon him by society, in which all relationships are predicated upon capital.
Matty seems to point toward the latter in the last two lines of the bridge, highlighting another aspect of 21st century living: the inescapable digital culture, which he has meditated on before. The chorus corroborates this reading:
I’m looking through you
While you’re looking through your phone
While Matty appears to blame the world he and his girlfriend live in for the near-impossibility of intimacy, he may simply be making reference to the eponymous “somebody else” when he says “we’re never alone.” Either way, his outlook remains unbearably bleak.
Furthermore, how these vocals are produced on the bridge may reference a sort of internal voice. The affected, slightly deepened and quiet voice pushes for the listener, and possibly Matty, to find someone they care for, someone they need to live. It urges an emotional connection. Meanwhile, Matty’s clear vocals, almost mocking and dismissive, shrug that sentiment off in favor of economic gain. Whether this is a message Matty believes, or one he’s projecting to his listeners to move them to further analyze the society’s emotional detachment and feverish hunger for money, is up to interpretation.
[Chorus]
I don't want your body (I don't want your body)
But I hate to think about you with somebody else
(I don't want your body)
Our love has gone cold
You're intertwining your soul with somebody else
(I don't want your body)
I'm looking through you
While you're looking through your phone
And then leaving with somebody else
(I don't want your body)
No, I don't want your body (I don't want your body)
But I'm picturing your body with somebody else
(I don't want your body)
Item Subtitle
Matty admits his inability to stop picturing the girl with her new lover, though he no longer desires her in a sexual manner, still affects him.
This is most likely due to the state of their relationship, which has deteriorated past a point of saving. Although neither Matty nor the girl are quite ready to fully pull away from the relationship, the lyrics suggest he’s already had the realization, or “Change of Heart,” that his partner’s mistakes are unforgivable and their relationship needs to end.
A riff on The Beatles' “I’m Looking Through You”, another song about lovers growing apart. While Matty’s wondering what’s happened to her and their relationship, she’s disinterestedly looking at her phone. He’s expressed his distaste for phones in social situations before, as the overuse of them serves to distance people and is also just annoying:
And then you took a picture of your salad
And put it on the Internet
Her preoccupation with her phone illustrates the difference between her priorities and Matty’s. However, phones take on an even more sinister purpose here: she’s making plans with that eponymous “somebody else,” with whom she proceeds to leave.
PERMISSION
MOOD BOARD
MISE EN SCENE
PROPS
Sofa
Cigarettes
Alcohol Bottles
Powder (shown as cocaine)
Fake Money
Candles
Smoke Bombs
Mic
Lighter
Spray Paint
Toy Gun
Makeup And Hair
The hair and makeup will be kept simple throughout the video however after the character gets beaten up, the makeup will help the audience to understand the condition of the character.
Setting Background and lighting
Graveyard
Abandoned Building
Dark Alleyway
Inside a car
Main Road
Abandoned Church
Dark room (with projector)
Performance Stage
Lighting
Lowkey lighting will be maintained throughout the video in order to convey a message of sadness and heartbreak.
TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT
Canon 80D
Tripod
Projector
Stage Lights
Camera Stabiliser
HP envy 13 Laptop
BUDGETING
RECORD LABEL
We chose Unversal Music Group as our record label. Universal Music Group is an American global music corporation that is majority owned by the French media conglomerate Vivendi, with Chinese tech company Tencent owning a minority stake. UMG's global corporate headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California