Pretend
Pretend was a music video I made in collaboration with my musician friend who performs under the name Jessicab. Her song Pretend released in June 2021 and before the release, we filmed a music video to follow the single a few weeks later.
In this project I have done the filming, costuming, props, location, editing, direction and admin/scheduling.
I began by analysing the lyrics with jessicab as well has coming up with an aesthetic to aim for. We created a mood board of the types of images we wanted. These included, green nature, an old house, water, running black eye makeup, and a flowing white dress. Jessicab wanted a dull colour tone to the video to match her album theme too.
Cast
Emma Avent
Crew
jessicab
Music + Lyrics
Florence Semple
Hair + Makeup
Lyrics
Run off your feet with your back to the world
You lack sincerity, you're stone cold
Please don't ask me
Is the boundary worth breaking
Am I worth saving and
Shut your eyes
And pretend
Shut the door, I know what you are
Is it a question of what is too far?
Please don't ask me
Is the boundary worth breaking
Am I worth saving and
Shut your eyes
And pretend
Please don't ask me
Is the boundary worth breaking
Am I worth saving and
(Do you mind?)
Shut your eyes
And pretend
(I don't mind)
(Do you mind?)
(I don't mind)
(Do you mind?)
The music video is about disassociation but I have tried to portray this in a more poetic way. The girl lays in the bath tub, and sinks in as she dissociates from reality. She thinks about being in a green garden all alone. She can touch everything she wants and feel it on her skin. But something enters her mind. Is it a person or a thought? It is chasing her, trying to hunt her down. She shuts her eyes and pretends she's somewhere else. Disassociating again. She imagines herself in an old house. She is exploring the space, the walls. But it creeps up on her again. She can't get it out of her mind and it's getting closer causing her to scream in her real body. She doesn't realise how much it is effecting her physical person until her body wakes her up from her thoughts and she gasps for air. She almost drowned, but was that her plan?
We managed to film this whole video in one day which meant I could begin editing right away. Flo, the hair and makeup artist, took lost of behind the scenes videos and pictures to use as promotional material but she also compiled them into a behind the scenes video to jessicab's followers too.
Once we had sorted out the story and themes, I created a sketchy story board to send to jessicab for her to look over. Once she had approved it we started looking for our model/actor and someone to do hair and makeup.