Alex Maxwell : Folk

The Want Comes In Waves is a small, self-contained, intimate but ultimately sad piece that focused on one character at the brink, reflecting on his past before being afflicted with a degenerative eye condition that has rendered him blind. He knocks about his home day-to-day, listening to the sounds of the world outside, from his own memory and of the girl who was once a big part of his life. With her gone, he has found his life become increasingly empty and is desperately trying to revisit the familiar sights and sounds when granted with the power of sight.

The narrative being depicted here complemented the song and offered a deeper experience with plenty of visual references. It required a level of dynamism in the cinematography to get across the sense of the man within this environment; a dark and deeply sepia toned environment characterized by the amount of light invaded by a large amount of light (a high contrast ratio) and slow moving camera movements that helped portray the delicate and intricate way he savors the sounds over the sights he experiences now. An environment that was desaturated clashed with the over-saturated memories of his past, very much seen through rose-tinted spectacles; the focus on the light of that life as opposed to the dark of that time.

The WANT is in the simple things that we take for granted, that in nature and in everyday living, relationships, opportunities and dreams. The beauty is seen, however limited, in the little things and the general feeling of the video is that it’s insulated and deeply personal but fundamentally a real and emotional story.