For my coursework, I have decided to do the Depeche Mode song, Rush. After I chose the song, I did some primary research by asking different people for help with ideas. The current idea I have is that the video tells the story of the protagonist (lead singer) battling drugs, since the title of the video relates to the term Drug rush.
From the feedback I got, I was told to expand on the narrative by making it show how drugs can destroy a relationship and with that, I came up with the idea of the protagonist having a split personality because by doing that, not only will I make the plot deeper, but it would also give the main protagonist a three dimensional personality and characteristics.
Next, I was told that the song had a sexual tension to it. This was due to the opening lyrics of the song and the rhythm of it. From this comment, I could somehow implement that element within the video without being too explict. On the other hand though with this idea, I wish to create something which almost reaches the borders of controversy, but it is has relevance to what is happening and has symbolic meaning as well.
After that, I was told to make the video abstract in order to add to the video's dark tone. In order to make the video abstract, I was told to make the video black and white because it would help represent the "mature" themes of the video and it symbolises the ongoing conflict between light and darkness. I was also told to use strobe lighting, since it would also add to the abstract feel of the video.
However, by using strobe lighting, I could risk causing seizures in photosentive epilepsy. A prime example comes from the Pokemon anime series, based off the popular video game franchise in which during one episode, a huge explosion with red and blue strobe flashing lights could be seen and because of that, nearly 685 children were sent to hospital. This won't be the case with my video (of course), but I must be careful when implementing this technique.
Here is the clip (WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS FLASHING IMAGES, DON'T WATCH IF YOU HAVE PHOTO SENSITIVE EPILEPSY):
In conclusion, I feel that I got many useful comments from my colleagues, on how to make the video and what techniques. I will talk about the final pitch for the song in a future post, but for the time being, here is the song:
You'll find that singer Dave Gahan's solo work, especially first album with the single 'dirty sticky floors', is very explicit on his past problems with drugs. There's a curious aspect to Depeche Mode: Martin Gore, not a drug user, writes the lyrics sang by ex-junkie Gahan; Gore's lyrics are typically about relationships but sung by Gahan the polysemy is drawn out and seedier readings come to the fore
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