“Speaker” (2016) Music Video Case Study
SPEAKER was my second outing with UNIVERSAL THEE since their previous release ARANIS NATIS and the impetus to go "bigger" and "better" was as strong as it was for a follow-up working again with the same band. It was a much more involved piece of production in comparison to some other videos I was involved with, and you can read all about it here.
A direct quote on its release from the band; "Warning; our new video contains spewing, violence, a ded rabbit, a priest, boxism, psychotic dancers, a toilet and unrequited advances. Just another day in the life for a Universal Thee (official) video."
I loved the openness of expression working with these guys again, certainly when I come up with wild, implausible and seemingly impossible concepts. The originality of the idea came directly from influences from some of my favourite music videos; "Da Funk" and even "Coffee and TV". The daunting aspect of proposing an idea like this was the dependence on humanizing the masked characters using a variety of pre-made faces and the creation of the makes themselves but in getting the green-light gave me the opportunity to prove that I could see a more production-heavy project through and, on the most part, it succeeded.
I wanted a fun, jumpy, cute and semi-realistic music video that would be as entertaining as it possibly could be and you can invest in a character's journey limited to what little emotions that character has, given they already hold a level of appeal. The story was nothing original, a simple date-goes-wrong which sees his night go even worse, stumbling upon a gig being performed by the band and suffering from the night of heavy drinking, to fall for a girl who understood him, that shows him there is nice things still out there. I wanted it to be riddled with comedy, which became a natural progression of the story regardless, without being overly ridiculous which meant that casting the film properly was a necessity; a chance to work with Annabel Logan and Robin Hellier once again. In the comedy however, there is a genuine examination of what I feel about the city, the drinking lifestyle, romance and the fear of loneliness, aspects that have interested me in more than just my music video work but in my writing and personal life. The main piece of direction I had given Robin through the course of the shooting of the video, was that his character, although looking abnormal was to be as normal within the real world as possible. His personality traits were of the extreme and recognizable but he had to fit in to a real world, a surreal world (as what is normal?) but a very real world, in the sense of how I see the world around me.
SPEAKER is one of those rare gems for me; a project I don't get the chance to work on often and certainly not something every band would go for, which makes me incredibly appreciative and gracious that I was given the opportunity. Now, after displaying a different level of production and style that I would love to be accustomed with in the medium of music video and film, I hope this becomes the lasting trend of my work in the time following.
Full Production Process
Now, this is a more involved Storyboard to Screen post. As, I had mentioned in my original blog post for SPEAKER, the level of production was far higher seeing as I was involved in the creation of the masks, from conception to construction. I'll go through each of the steps and ending on the actual practical application when it came to the shooting.
From the initial concept which, with every video I make comes in the form of a treatment which is a breakdown of the overall idea which is 'signed off' on before proceeding any further. The concept had gone through one change; originally the story revolved around a man with a speaker for a head who annoys his neighbors and find solace within the gig venue where the band play. The issue with that originally was in the sculpture of the mask; more difficult than what I was used to. The obvious love story element that was added to the changed concept, defined the more practical but colorful character designs (see below). The designs themselves were simplistic to ensure the emotions were easily readable.
Including the original storyboards that went along with the treatment, I had made up designs and construction notes for the sculpting. Just to note, I have had previous experience in Art and Design where I specialized in sculpture.
Each character had the sense of being socially awkward and 'of the time', taking inspiration from people, friends and people of my life past and present; no playing to stereotypes or signs of the 'indie' scene or present social media fueled fashion trends that enrage me. I took the character design from what I have seen and experienced from people I have met and still know.
Other than the guy's he important aspect of the box girl character was that she was lacking in clearly visual sexuality; completely covered, ordinary and discreet. As is the case with many of the female characters I write I tend to steer away from overtly sexualized designs. With the concepts signed off the and cast equally happy with the designs and costume, before compiling the materials and finalizing the design for construction, I had made some construction notes (see below).
The heads would be made from a simple pre-made box structure, covered with the desired colored card to give the box a clean and sleek all-round look. The front panel would be open and where the faces would be attached to. The side panels of the non-visible structure of the mask, were lined with velcro and the entire mask was sealed all-around with super glue and gaffer tape. The additional element was the hair on the box girl mask that was fed through a hole in the top and tied off in the inside of the box.
The faces were created by manually creating each element and glueing the printed elements on the separate sheets of card, one card for each face needed. Overall, there was 12 faces created altogether, each with the opposite of the velcro taped and glued to the back at points which would cover where the folds in each face would be. The folds on the faces were to ensure that the inside velcro wasn't seen from a profile. The connection is not perfect, certainly on the male mask, but only noticeable from direct CU or ECU which would never have been an issue.
The finished masks, each with individual sets of interchangeable faces were complete and ready for the shooting. The box guy faces equalled (9) and for the box girl (3). (see below)
During the shooting process, I would be continually changing but thinking ahead to each upcoming shot what face would follow in the taking of the scene. It was difficult, seeing as each reset would take time to fix, but seeing as the storyboards were always on-hand, they were the definitive guide for this video's completion. The changes happened so often that the actors themselves knew what was needed and the level to which was 'camera-worthy'. Over the course of the 2 days shooting, including one extra small evening filming some pick-up's, the masks held up over the shooting period and filmed incredibly well.
As a story of the production, any further views on the final video can be found in the original blog post. Below you will find the video and just below that, the original set of storyboards.
