American Hero
Music Video
For our college project, we had to work with another creative in the music industry and work with them to create a music video. I had total creative freedom, with inspiration from my talks with the artist. The narrative is written by me, and the video produced, shot and directed by me.
Concept
A recent film I had watched was La Haine, particularly loving the street style and realism the film incorporated through the use of handheld camera movement in an almost photojournalist style, and use of on-location scenery and brutalist architecture. My concept was to create a street-realist piece using handheld videography to capture the tension of the song.
I contacted Dead Animals, a punk-rock musician, when being struck my his track American Hero. It reminded me of the false sense of pride and nationalism most have about their country/home, even whilst openly contributing to making it a more negative society. Near me, Poole was often a place of talk, with its bus station being a home for runaways, drug addicts and criminals. Surrounding it are large multi-storeys that are often empty, and the town itself is surrounded by the peaceful countryside. Basing my narrative idea around Poole seemed ideal, using an interesting on-set location that has a lot of opportunity to film in whilst symbolising the songs themes. It would also give me a lot to work with, with regards to the visual ascetic.
Mood & Story Boards
I decided to base my idea on a criminal on the run from a relentless antagonist. The chase itself provided a lot of opportunity for more handheld camera movement, a unique editing style and more incorporation of the brutalist architecture of the multi storey.
I felt it was idea to develop the story and storyboards at the same time, as it would give more emphasis on the location, fitting the story around it. I was was interested in playing with story structure being influenced by many non-linear realist pieces such as Memento, Breathless and Pulp Fiction
