Now that "Flag" is out in the world, I thought I'd share a few words about the making of the video.
As I am sure you can imagine, being separated by an ocean makes putting the members of Ditch The MuuMuu in our videos a bit... complicated! So, illustrating song themes and finding appropriate video is quite an amorphous process, especially on a budget of zero dollars and zero UK pounds. Not that we couldn't shoot our shiny, happy faces separately - we'll possibly do that at some point - but, to date, that hasn't been in the cards.
First, the video producer (generally me) needs to figure out the visual story. Even though I am part of the process of creating the song narrative, that doesn't mean that I necessarily visualize all the nuances that a listener/viewer might bring to the experience! Do we opt for a literal interpretation, a more general approach, or go for something completely "disformative"? [Apparently disformative is not a word - but if it was a word, it would be akin to "random"]
Then there is the challenge of finding footage. To be transparent, we do hold a license to use material from the stock footage source Artgrid.io - and there are other open source video catalogs available on line. On occasion, we will also license specific shots from fee-based copyright holders. Having spent my professional life in public media, (and with Tim being a professional actor/performer) DTM understand and respect copyright laws! So, within the bounds of what we can shoot ourselves (example: much of the video in "Down"), and what we can find/license, what are the options?
With "Flag", I was able to find a ton of compelling visual images. That was fairly easy. But what is the story?
The lyrics encompass both "good" and "bad". We hear about folks who want to fight for equality and truth, and those who want to deny human rights, climate change, science and [fill in the blank]... The editing process thus becomes a huge jigsaw puzzle - but one without an overarching guide visual. With a physical jigsaw puzzle, there is only one way to fit the pieces together; it has been reverse engineered from a completed image.
Here's a concrete example of how things may not be as clear as they seem. Last week Tim provided some insight in his inaugural blog entry when he wrote: ”America!” Calico sing. “ Its starting to sag” Eric bemoans.
When I read those words, a lightening bolt struck me. I was referring to a generic flag starting to sag. Tim seems to have inferred that I may have meant that America was starting to sag! America might well be sagging - but that was decidedly not what was in my head when I added that vocal... In fact, Calico added the "America" line - originally intended to be sung to the melody of The Star Spangled Banner (the whole phrase didn't really fit - but I kept the isolated "America" in the track as an added layer of "complexity").
So... how does one create a music video for a song like "Flag"? The answer: very carefully!
One last disclosure - the video for "Flag" is actually shorter than the single we released and does not contain the aforementioned America/Flag/Sag lyric. If you've only seen the video, the Flag/Sag paragraphs will make no sense to you at all. So go listen to the single, close your eyes, and visualize for yourself.
Eric
February 11, 2022