We begin our video by introducing the band and song name through a close up of an ipod screen playing the song. The camera then pans upwards to show a girl reading through a picture book. We use this to introduce the main character video as well as setting up the beginning of the plot.
The frame cuts to a shot of the book with the words "Once upon a time...", the typical introduction to a fairy tale and used to present the idea of fantasy to the audience.
We then use a fade to white transition to show a sudden change in pace and time, the scene now showing shots of the princess in front of her castle. The vibrant colours of her surroundings and props contrast with the previous scene, presenting the bright world of dreams and imagination in comparison to the dark clothing and scenery of "reality".
A range of shots are used to showcase the surroundings within the scene, and edited to change quickly in order to match the relatively upbeat pace of the song.
The next shot establishes the use of bricks, drawn as a literal translation from the title of the song "brick by boring brick", with the use of medium shots of a large coloured brick. Bright colours are used and 'cartoon' flowers are scattered around it to accentuate the idea of make-believe and how the world is separate from reality.
The frame cuts to a close up of the princess with a polaroid camera, who then takes a pictures of the bricks, followed by a shot of her dropping the photo on the ground. This is to set up for the plot progression of our video, and to involve the scrapbook contents on which the girl bases these imaginary events.
Shots of her feet are used as a literal represenation of the lyrics "keep your feet on the ground", the frames of two shots divided by a fade to white transition to separate the "reality" of muddy shoes and then the "fantasy" world with clean shoes and bright flowers. A tilt shot of the princess framed against the sky is used in conjunction with the lyrics "when your head's in the clouds" to present the idea of royality and importance that the princess possesses.
The following static shots shows the princess entering the frame to collect another coloured brick, with more carton flowers and even dancing butterflies in the background used to emphasise the fantasy atmosphere. The use of butterflies are a reference not only to the connotations of happiness and fairy tales that they carry, but also to the band Paramore as a butterfly is featured on their album "brand new eyes" from which this single is taken from.
The camera returns back to the scene of the girl in "reality" looking through the picture book as at the beginning to re-establish the storyline.
We introduce the use of the stop-motion technique of a brick wall building up and down, edited in time the the music.
The story returns to the princess as she places her collection of bricks beneath her castle. We introduce the new character of a pince as he enters the frame and presents her with a golden brick, only to exit once again. This establishes a relationship between the two characters for the audience to follow and relate to.
We once again incorporate the use of stop-motion to coincide with the lyrics "the clock struck 12", an important line to focus on within our tale as it is an instantly recognisable theme for fairy tales with specific reference to the famous Cinderella. Close up shots of the princess holding a clock striking 12 are presented, once again edited in order to match the beat of the song.
The translation of the lyrics "build your home brick by boring brick" shows a shot of the princess placing the golden brick on top of her collection, presenting the idea of how the prince has helped her complete her collection and fulfill this fantasy search or quest.
For another lyrics reference to fairy tales with "the wolf's gonna blow it down" we involve a quick shot of a dog investigating the wall of bricks to add humour to the story.
The plot begins to show the break down of this fantasy world for the princess as we present a long shot of the prince taking the golden brick away from the princess as she sits with her dismantled "wall". The shot changes to show the sadness on the princess' face as the prince walks out of shot and she is left with a pile of bricks. This portrays the change of our plot and interpretation of the song representing the inability to live life in a way that is not real.
We further present the break-down of the girl's fairy tale as we show shots of her hanging up her camera and tearing down the paper castle. A close up of this castle as she leaves it amongst the weeds on the floor is used to represent the damage in belief for this fantasy existance and how it has affected the character. We track the princess as she walks down to the water and places her crown in the stream and watches as it sinks and floats away. We zoom into a close up of the wind blurring over the crown in the water as a representation of the disintegration of this imaginary world.
The camera then pans up a pile of the discarded bricks to show a folorn shot of the princess beneath a tree, now without a crown or her palace, effectively de-throned. We then see the prince enter the frame once again, he too without a crown, and present her with some photographs. we use and over-the-shoulder shot to show the princess looking through these photos as they depict the story of the plot so far far. A long shot is then used showing the prince lifting the princess up to her feet.
The story line of the prince and princess ends with them walking hand in hand in the distance. We show the princess smiling at the camera before they begin, which initially was intended to be edited out but we felt helps engage the audience with the character's emotions. As they walk, the princess drops the photograph's on the floor, effectively letting go of her fairy tale as she ends up happily ever after with her real prince, rather than one with a crown. The camera pans down and zooms in on the photograph of the two walking hand-in-hand, a typical presentation of the end of a story.
The song draws to a close, and we use stop-motion once again to show the scrapbook flicking through the photos, effectively showing the audience a recap the story in picture form, and as they place themselves into the picture book that the girl is seen reading.
Fade to white is used once again to show the sudden change in location and time, as we return to the scene of the girl sitting on the bench with the picture book. A long shot is used as she closes the book and walks away.
We finish the video with the song, on a shot of the page declaring "The End", a reference to the traditional end of fairy tales and an effective way to also the end of our story.
