Sample Treatment: "Mcfly"
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Sample Treatment: "McFly" McFly is an English pop-rock band that was formed in 2004 by Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd, and Dougie Poynter. Fletcher and Jones serve as the band’s lead vocalists and guitarists, with Fletcher also serving as pianist and lead songwriter. Poynter provides backing vocals and plays the bass guitar, while Judd serves as the drummer for the band. Fletcher founded the band after not making the cut for the band Busted, for which he remained a songwriter until their dissolution. After recruiting the other three members of the band, he chose the name McFly after the character Marty McFly in the Back to the Future films. Other documentaries have been made to show the band going about their day-to-day lives and how they have risen to fame. The purpose of this film is to delve more deeply into what the success means for the band and why it is important for them to reach more people than ever before. The band members, close friends, touring members, and managers are all asked throughout the film in short interview segments to explain why international success is important for the band’s music. The four band members, as a group, are asked especially to expand upon why their music is important for the whole world to hear. Some of McFly’s greatest hits including “Room on the 3rd Floor,” “Stargirl,” “All About You,” and “Please, Please” play throughout the film to introduce new audiences to the band. This film is intended for American audiences, and runs for 60 minutes. The band’s interviews, performances, and behind- the-scenes footage do all the necessary narration as they quest to conquer America. The scope of the film is not to give the entire back-story of each member and all the details of their rise to fame. Instead, it targets the band after fame has already been found in the United Kingdom, but the search for fame in America still lingers. The film opens with McFly’s debut single “Five Colours in Her Hair” playing with a black screen. The word “McFly” appears on screen in red, white, and blue coloring. Clips of the band performing for a British audience begin. The clips are taken from the 2011 concert at Wembley Stadium in London. The crowd is loud and the stadium is full. The song they are performing is the touching “The Heart Never Lies.” The band members are shown sweating and playing hard to put on the best show for the audience. The lights are dimmed. Close-ups of audience members who are also sweating, dancing, feeling, and singing along to every word demonstrate their devotion. The opening does not show the entire performance of the song, but enough to make clear the intensity of the performer-fan bond. The focus then switches to interviews and observational clips of behind-the-scenes type footage. The interviews focus mainly on what the success of the band means to the members. The band describes how hard it is to really become successful and what their definition of success is. Also interviewed are close friends and touring band mates who offer their own opinions about McFly’s success. They are asked to define if success is the number of fans or the passion and devotion of the fans they have. The band members also explain that they enjoy performing their music for others, especially younger musicians, to provide encouragement that might be lacking elsewhere. They want to inspire people to follow their dreams, and they feel they do this through music. This is a major driving force behind seeking recognition outside of the United Kingdom. Interview segments are intercut by daily observation of the band members as they tour around the United Kingdom. Segments of the band performing on stage and audience reactions are included throughout the film. It is necessary to show the devotion of not only British fans, but also fans around the world. For this reason, there is also included a behind-the-scenes segment of McFly’s recent visit to 1 the United States. It shows the band members as they prepare to embark on their American journey. Informal interviews with the members are directed towards their feelings about American fans and what they expected the reception to be like. Tom Fletcher even expresses his desire through Twitter to give some American fans what they have wanted for many years: a live McFly performance. He is asked to expand upon this point. Initially, they had exposure to American fans when they appeared on the soundtrack for the film Just My Luck in 2006. They even appeared in the film. Why then have they just now (6 years later) had their first concerts in America? The band is interviewed during their two concerts in Los Angeles and two in New York City. The members are asked in more casual interviews backstage how they feel about finally performing in America and what the fan reaction has been like after all these years. The film then begins to zero in on the differences in success for the band in the UK and in America. The band discusses the process of forming themselves as opposed to being formed by businessmen. They have been genuinely interested in the music and joy of it from the beginning. They also discuss why they should not be considered a “boy band” since they operate more as a band that just happens to be all guys. They do not have choreographed dance moves like bands such as Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, from America. Manager Matt Fletcher (“Fletch” and no relation to Tom) from Prestige Management speculates that this could be a major reason they have struggled to find success in the U.S. The sound is also not the same as young pop music like that of international successes One Direction and The Wanted, both much newer English bands formed by managers. McFly’s songs are not written by middle-aged men sitting in an office trying to turn a profit. The band discusses that even though they were teenagers when they started, they did not subscribe to the teenybopper way of performance, and their fans have grown up with them. The band members and management are then asked to evaluate the differences between English and American musical preferences. While all the aforementioned English pop-rock bands have found great success in the United Kingdom (McFly included), McFly remains one of the few who have yet to have hit singles in America. An important question in the interviews is whether or not this stems from McFly forming themselves instead of being formed by businessmen. Another issue discussed, however, is that the Beatles found great success worldwide and were formed on their own. This leads to further analysis on the decades that separate the Beatles from McFly. The members are asked to speculate why, even with the Internet, international success can be harder today than in the 1960s. Questions probe them for their thoughts on whether or not there is more competition for success today. While the teenaged girl fan base remains the standard for all-male young bands, the members of McFly are asked to explain why bands such as One Direction and now The Wanted appeal to American girls, and why there might just not be room for McFly at the moment. The film closes with a scene that mirrors the first, except that it takes place at one of McFly’s recent concerts in Los Angeles at The Roxy Theater. The lights are out. They are performing their new song “Love is Easy.” The band is shown putting on the show as if it were their last, and the audience is getting into the performance just as much as the British audience at the beginning. The difference, however, is the clear reduction in audience size. The fans are just as rabid as they are in the England, but there are much fewer fans overall. McFly puts on the show of a lifetime every time, but the need for more fans in America is still there. Just before the concert is shown, there is a final interview with all four band members together. They are asked whether or not it is even important to have as much success in America as others have had. They are further asked how many people they wish to touch with their music. The viewers of the film are then left to evaluate the band, and decide whether or not to become a fan to support a group that cares so much for their craft. 2 .