ymmij
07-11-2003, 07:00 PM
Now don't get too excited... This isn't about an old Adam Jones cut that I've dug up... I'm actually a budding young Australian film director (heh, I wish) and I've been given the media class project of creating a film clip for a song of my choice... I had a bizzare idea for a story when I was listening to Sweat, and I decided to work on it. It has now evolved as far as I think I'll let it... (I could have some great idea and want to reshoot the whole thing) and I'm about half way through the shooting process.
I know everyone here has some idea of what the song means to them at least... I don't want to piss any one off here, so I'll say right now that this story is NOT what I think the song is about and I didn't attempt at all to translate the song and it's lyrics in picture form... I just thought it was a really kick ass song, and the chorus was what gave me my main idea... It just clicked.
I thought some of you might be interested to read what I came up with... Sometimes I feel proud of it, at other times I just slap my strange face and say 'what was I thinking?' but see what you make of it. So far its been successful... Tell me if you want to know more, discuss it with me, even if you want to see the finished product... That could take as long as another term of school and I have no idea how to send it over the internet... Maybe putting on a disc would be a good start :P
Here's my story:
(---)
A boy is in his bed, trying to get to sleep. There is a candle on his bedside table. As he drifts off, we dissolve into a dark, swirling pattern, indicating his fuzzy vision, deep trance, etc. When the guitar comes in (after the bells?), the boy's eyes open and he's now sitting in the centre of a rotunda, in a creepy looking park. It is night time and he is waering white clothes. We see he has a tie around his neck that has patterns the same as the dark, swirling pattern we saw just before. We see flashes of places we haven't seen yet - an apartment building, a football field, a pond, an underground room, a tunnel, etc. He gets up and runs from the rotunda, off towards a road.
As the first verse starts, we follow him as he runs down the street. The verse is cut up by the lyrics, the stop-start of the words, eg. 'Sweating-breathing-staring-thinking-sinking-deeper...' The boy seems to be running from someone, but we are not shown who. The boy reaches an apartment building, he runs up the stairs and comes to the second from top floor, the last apartment. He runs to the door, tries to force it open but it is locked. We see hands on the inside of the apartment, undoing the menacing looking metal locks. Outside, the boy finally pushes his way in, we see darkness before him, before his white shape disappears into the apartment, the door slamming behind him.
In the chorus, we see unclear shots of the dark and dirty underground room, we see shots of black and white 'shapes' (people) approaching but we can't see their faces.
In the second verse, we see the pattern again, dissolving into the boy's eyes opening. When he wakes this time, he finds himself lying in the middle of a road. It is day time in this verse, and he's now wearing completely black clothes, still with the same tie. He jumps up immediately and runs off the side, down a steep hill. He's now in a park - but a different one. He runs across the grass, down a path and past a pond full of ducks. He runs through a dark tunnel and on the other side he finds himself on a football field. We go to a longer shot, to see the little black dot of him as he runs across the huge field. Everywhere he goes is completely deserted.
By the end of the verse, we see a door handle rattle, and the boy in black comes out from behind the door and looks around - he has appeared in the apartment building, out the door he opened at the end of the first verse - where he began from.
In this second chorus, those unclear shots we saw in the first chorus are back but clearer. When the shots in the first chorus were slow and long, these shots are more rapid, more matching the pace of the music. We see the boy in white, appearing in the places the boy in black appeared, and vice verca. Every time the boy leaves one shot, he appears somewhere completely different. These are all places he's been before, but in mixed up orders. Eg, he opens a door and he's in the rotunda park, he runs out of shot in the park and all of a sudden he's in the tunnel, he runs out of the tunnel and he's back in the apartment, from the apartment to the football field, to the road, etc.
One shot will be the white boy on the football field - but in this shot it is night time and the boy is running across the field in a different direction (from running away from the camera, to now running towards the camera). The lights flood over the dark park, bathing the grass in a spooky and unnaturally green glow. We see the very long shot of this, like in the verse, and we see the huge stretch of black ahead of him, the boy himself a white speck standing out in the darkness. This shot I hope will be particularly impressive... (I hope :P Haven't taken it yet!)
By the end of the chorus/bridge, when the music suddenly changes into the instrumental section of the song - we go to black, and in the booms of guitar, in between the cymbal tapping, we see the blurred shots of the underground room rapidly come into focus (a la 'Stinkfist' style). When the music of the quick instrumental section really comes in, we see the boy, now back in white, wake up for the third time... Now discovering he's in this dark, dirty, rundown and cobwebbed, spooky old room. He jumps up, runs straight to the door, which he finds is locked. In between shots we see of him running around the room, trying windows, the door again, looking for exits - we see even quicker flashes of the loactions we saw at the start of the film... Back then we saw them for the first time, this time we recognise them - the apartment building, football field, pond, tunnel, etc. In these shots in the underground room (which I want to manage to make look as frightening and disturbing as I can) the boy loses his sanity well and truly. He screams at the walls, claws at them, kicks them. By the end of the instrumental section, he's back at the door, trying to force it to open again, his knuckles turn white, his face is furious.
At the end of the instrumental, the guitar suddenly stops... Before coming back in again, and THEN going into the chorus. After its first stop, in the silence we see a shot from the outside of this room, and the door flies open, banging against the side. From here we can see inside - and from here we see that the room is empty, the boy has vanished yet again. This is where the second guitar part comes in, and then at the start of the last chorus, we see the boy in white opening a door... He appears, emerging on the other side of the door, and a long shot reveals to us that he has reappeared in the same apartment building he's been in at many points so far in the film. From here he runs up the next set of stairs he sees. We watch him run up and then we go back to the door... From the door emerges the same boy - but in black clothes. The boy in black chases the boy in white. From here the camera turns to the stairs going down below that floor, up these stairs comes another boy in white. Below him another boy in black. They follow up the stairs. Out of the apartment door comes another boy in white, then behind him another in black, white, black, white, black, all running after the others, it seems endless, an infinite stream.
In the bridge we go to the top floor, where the first two boys already are. The very first boy in white finds himself cornered with no where left to go. The last floor of this building is small and claustrophobic, there is nothing but a narrow corridor and one door to one apartment... We see a shot of the boy in black approaching - this is the same shot we saw in the first chorus, but it is now clear what the black 'shape' is, and from the dark expression on his face, this boy means harm towards the boy in white.
(Ending?)
After this the boy wakes up in bed, startled, the candle by his bed suddenly goes out and we are left in darkness.
(---)
That's my story... I'd really appreciate it if any one's interested to discuss it, ask any questions you might have, even tell me if I've done a good or bad job as far as working with the song...
And by the way, with the (Ending?) I had two ideas... One was, the two boy touch for the first time and something amazing happens, eg. a light appears and they disappear, (very Lateralus-like.... Parabola video ending style... Of course without all the special effects) or they could fight... The boy in black might strangle the boy in white for example.
I'm not quite sure about the ending, it would be cool if you guys had suggestions, from what I've read you have great imaginations!
As well, both boys are the same actor, as they're meant to be almost a split of the one character, as I supposed you've figured out... Both of those boys will be played by me, and if you're wondering, no special effects are involved, just some tricky camera work and editing tricks.
Thanks for your time and please tell me what you think!!
I know everyone here has some idea of what the song means to them at least... I don't want to piss any one off here, so I'll say right now that this story is NOT what I think the song is about and I didn't attempt at all to translate the song and it's lyrics in picture form... I just thought it was a really kick ass song, and the chorus was what gave me my main idea... It just clicked.
I thought some of you might be interested to read what I came up with... Sometimes I feel proud of it, at other times I just slap my strange face and say 'what was I thinking?' but see what you make of it. So far its been successful... Tell me if you want to know more, discuss it with me, even if you want to see the finished product... That could take as long as another term of school and I have no idea how to send it over the internet... Maybe putting on a disc would be a good start :P
Here's my story:
(---)
A boy is in his bed, trying to get to sleep. There is a candle on his bedside table. As he drifts off, we dissolve into a dark, swirling pattern, indicating his fuzzy vision, deep trance, etc. When the guitar comes in (after the bells?), the boy's eyes open and he's now sitting in the centre of a rotunda, in a creepy looking park. It is night time and he is waering white clothes. We see he has a tie around his neck that has patterns the same as the dark, swirling pattern we saw just before. We see flashes of places we haven't seen yet - an apartment building, a football field, a pond, an underground room, a tunnel, etc. He gets up and runs from the rotunda, off towards a road.
As the first verse starts, we follow him as he runs down the street. The verse is cut up by the lyrics, the stop-start of the words, eg. 'Sweating-breathing-staring-thinking-sinking-deeper...' The boy seems to be running from someone, but we are not shown who. The boy reaches an apartment building, he runs up the stairs and comes to the second from top floor, the last apartment. He runs to the door, tries to force it open but it is locked. We see hands on the inside of the apartment, undoing the menacing looking metal locks. Outside, the boy finally pushes his way in, we see darkness before him, before his white shape disappears into the apartment, the door slamming behind him.
In the chorus, we see unclear shots of the dark and dirty underground room, we see shots of black and white 'shapes' (people) approaching but we can't see their faces.
In the second verse, we see the pattern again, dissolving into the boy's eyes opening. When he wakes this time, he finds himself lying in the middle of a road. It is day time in this verse, and he's now wearing completely black clothes, still with the same tie. He jumps up immediately and runs off the side, down a steep hill. He's now in a park - but a different one. He runs across the grass, down a path and past a pond full of ducks. He runs through a dark tunnel and on the other side he finds himself on a football field. We go to a longer shot, to see the little black dot of him as he runs across the huge field. Everywhere he goes is completely deserted.
By the end of the verse, we see a door handle rattle, and the boy in black comes out from behind the door and looks around - he has appeared in the apartment building, out the door he opened at the end of the first verse - where he began from.
In this second chorus, those unclear shots we saw in the first chorus are back but clearer. When the shots in the first chorus were slow and long, these shots are more rapid, more matching the pace of the music. We see the boy in white, appearing in the places the boy in black appeared, and vice verca. Every time the boy leaves one shot, he appears somewhere completely different. These are all places he's been before, but in mixed up orders. Eg, he opens a door and he's in the rotunda park, he runs out of shot in the park and all of a sudden he's in the tunnel, he runs out of the tunnel and he's back in the apartment, from the apartment to the football field, to the road, etc.
One shot will be the white boy on the football field - but in this shot it is night time and the boy is running across the field in a different direction (from running away from the camera, to now running towards the camera). The lights flood over the dark park, bathing the grass in a spooky and unnaturally green glow. We see the very long shot of this, like in the verse, and we see the huge stretch of black ahead of him, the boy himself a white speck standing out in the darkness. This shot I hope will be particularly impressive... (I hope :P Haven't taken it yet!)
By the end of the chorus/bridge, when the music suddenly changes into the instrumental section of the song - we go to black, and in the booms of guitar, in between the cymbal tapping, we see the blurred shots of the underground room rapidly come into focus (a la 'Stinkfist' style). When the music of the quick instrumental section really comes in, we see the boy, now back in white, wake up for the third time... Now discovering he's in this dark, dirty, rundown and cobwebbed, spooky old room. He jumps up, runs straight to the door, which he finds is locked. In between shots we see of him running around the room, trying windows, the door again, looking for exits - we see even quicker flashes of the loactions we saw at the start of the film... Back then we saw them for the first time, this time we recognise them - the apartment building, football field, pond, tunnel, etc. In these shots in the underground room (which I want to manage to make look as frightening and disturbing as I can) the boy loses his sanity well and truly. He screams at the walls, claws at them, kicks them. By the end of the instrumental section, he's back at the door, trying to force it to open again, his knuckles turn white, his face is furious.
At the end of the instrumental, the guitar suddenly stops... Before coming back in again, and THEN going into the chorus. After its first stop, in the silence we see a shot from the outside of this room, and the door flies open, banging against the side. From here we can see inside - and from here we see that the room is empty, the boy has vanished yet again. This is where the second guitar part comes in, and then at the start of the last chorus, we see the boy in white opening a door... He appears, emerging on the other side of the door, and a long shot reveals to us that he has reappeared in the same apartment building he's been in at many points so far in the film. From here he runs up the next set of stairs he sees. We watch him run up and then we go back to the door... From the door emerges the same boy - but in black clothes. The boy in black chases the boy in white. From here the camera turns to the stairs going down below that floor, up these stairs comes another boy in white. Below him another boy in black. They follow up the stairs. Out of the apartment door comes another boy in white, then behind him another in black, white, black, white, black, all running after the others, it seems endless, an infinite stream.
In the bridge we go to the top floor, where the first two boys already are. The very first boy in white finds himself cornered with no where left to go. The last floor of this building is small and claustrophobic, there is nothing but a narrow corridor and one door to one apartment... We see a shot of the boy in black approaching - this is the same shot we saw in the first chorus, but it is now clear what the black 'shape' is, and from the dark expression on his face, this boy means harm towards the boy in white.
(Ending?)
After this the boy wakes up in bed, startled, the candle by his bed suddenly goes out and we are left in darkness.
(---)
That's my story... I'd really appreciate it if any one's interested to discuss it, ask any questions you might have, even tell me if I've done a good or bad job as far as working with the song...
And by the way, with the (Ending?) I had two ideas... One was, the two boy touch for the first time and something amazing happens, eg. a light appears and they disappear, (very Lateralus-like.... Parabola video ending style... Of course without all the special effects) or they could fight... The boy in black might strangle the boy in white for example.
I'm not quite sure about the ending, it would be cool if you guys had suggestions, from what I've read you have great imaginations!
As well, both boys are the same actor, as they're meant to be almost a split of the one character, as I supposed you've figured out... Both of those boys will be played by me, and if you're wondering, no special effects are involved, just some tricky camera work and editing tricks.
Thanks for your time and please tell me what you think!!