Building the Concept

I had to build our concept in the midst of a pandemic: one that my own family had been a victim of not so long ago. Surrounded by such grief and loss in the world, it was hard to muster up my creativity. 

The way I actually came up with the concept was through a personal experience. I am a very vivid dreamer and I have around 3-4  dreams each night that I can remember when I wake up. Because of this I have a habit of writing down my dreams and have a great interest in the meaning and significance dreams hold in our life. I read more and more about the theories of Sigmund Freud and his belief that dreams represent a disguised fulfilment of a repressed wish. His theories state that dreams have two parts: a manifested content, which is the remembered dream after we wake, and a latent content, or the dream that we do not remember which is considered part of the unconscious. Both myself and my partner were intrigued by the idea of a dream being related to a repressed wish. And this is how the concept of our music video came about.

After we had chosen a central topic for our music video, we were constantly looking up films and music videos to gain inspiration and brainstorm ideas for a storyline. At first we were interested in creating a psychedelic video; with bright colours and experimental art. I had an idea that the main character would wake up and find himself stuck in a dream that he can't escape, and he would keep having weird experiences etc. 

While exploring this idea we watched a documentary on the video streaming platform Youtube with my partner about an experiment conducted in the 1950's where a researcher gives an artist LSD while asking a series of questions over the duration of the experience and asks the artist to paint his experience alongside. This footage accompanied the 'In Case of Emergency Break Glass' art gallery presentation and is intended as a companion video when viewing the work. http://troybaverstock.com/art/in-case...​

SOURCE: Department of Physiology, University of Southern California Medical School

here is the link to the youtube video: https://youtu.be/ydor_2TaoMg

We also watched the documentary 'Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics on the popular streaming site Netflix.

Furthermore we were inspired by Mgmt's music video directed by Mike Burakoff & Hallie Cooper-Novack. 

However, we moved on from this idea towards a darker theme, as due to the pandemic we had certain restrictions such as not being able to film with a larger cast. I then had an idea that revolved around a single lead character. 

The idea, which we expressed through a non linear narrative sequence, was of the protagonist experiencing a troubling dream that gives her a sign. In her dream, she awakens in the middle of nowhere; disoriented and distraught she searches for help and can be seen running around in dark woods; catching glimpses of the man who she thinks will save her. In the end it is revealed that this man, her lover, who she thinks her saviour, is her actual demon: the one that entraps her. For this I was inspired by the Czech film Valeries Week of Wonders in which a demon steals her mother’s earrings.

 I thought of showcasing the lover as a bad person through the same metaphor, that in her dream’s end she sees the man holding her earrings in his palm.