NICKELBACK - Never Again
dickfilm #:
written 5/28/2002

FIRSTLY...
We cut a ripping performance piece from the existing Live In Edmonton footage utilizing hot pieces from other numbers in the show - in other words we condense the magic of the 70 minute piece into 3 rocking
minutes.

Because the lyrical content of the song is intense this is NOT an occasion where close-ups of bouncing babes in the front row are welcome. Consequently our cut of the live footage will focus on the band and will
only feature wide sweeping moments of the audience to place the band?s performance in a context.

When cut together the live footage is then treated so it feels more extreme, edgier and harder than the existing live cut. (The treatment we used for the long-form was meant to be more realistic and less artful - a
reflection of the live show as witnessed).

SECONDLY...
We stage a shoot in a tired, beaten up apartment which feels as if it might be in a typical project in New York or any other North American metropolitan city. The action takes place inside and involves three
spaces: staircase, the hallway and the apartment living room.

This shoot is executed guerrilla COPS style. A couple of digital handy cams, one digital stills cam, a hand held light that fits on top of the camera. No dollies, no tripods, no grips, no gaffers, no motorhomes, no
playback, no hair-stylists etc. The footage that comes from this small shoot is edgy, real, gritty, powerful.

We are witnesses at a crime scene just after a murder has taken place. We notice the emotions of the cops, the witnesses and the abused wife who has committed the crime - we see glimpses of the crime scene but the horror and the emotion is registered in the words of the song and in the reactions of the actors.

The action includes...A woman?s face screaming. 2 uniformed cops run up the stairs of the apartment building. The cops reach ground zero - 4 witnesses are staring into an open door and look anxiously at the
uniformed men as they arrive.

The men look inside the door and can tell instantly what the scenario is...most importantly we can?t. Cop One immediately starts pushing the onlookers back, Cop Two gets on the radio calling for back-up.

Cop One is takes notes from one of the witnesses (a woman neighbour, 30?s) who explains to the cop what happened: (?She must have done something wrong tonight...?) Cop One interview?s another one of the
witnesses: male, nerdy, glasses, also a witness. (?I hear her scream from down the hall, amazing she can even talk at all....?).

Sanchez, a young, earnest detective has arrived and is getting his first impressions. He discusses the scene with Cop One (?Seen it before but not like this...?) The young detective looks over Cop One?s shoulder at the crime scene, taking in what he can. With him we see for the first time, Deneice, a woman in shock, the perp., looking confused, shaking, sitting on a chair in a corner trying to figure what has happened.

Sanchez patiently interviews Deneice, her hair is a mess, her eyes are red with tears, her make-up has run, her blouse is ripped and she has scratches on her arm. (?she looks at you, she wants the truth...?). Deneice waves her arm behind her pointing at the body which we see for the first time now lying under a coroner?s sheet. Deneice breaks down and Sanchez gets to his feet and sighs - on nights like this he hates his job.

Crime Scene Photographer arrives and takes pictures of the crime scene and his flash illuminates the room but all we see are glimpses: a cold dead hand, a smashed vase and beer bottles, an upturned chair.
Mitchell, an unshaven, older weather-beaten detective has wearily climbed the stairs. The cops and Sanchez treat him with the deference automatically given to a superior.

The crime scene has now been cleared of everyone except Mitchell and Sanchez: an outline is all that remains of the body, the door is open but a crime scene tape blocks anyone from entering. As Mitchell tips the chair up the proper way, sits wearily down and lights a cigarette, Sanchez, putting rubber gloves on and taking a ball point pen from his pocket, explains how the crime went down: ?He?s drunk again...? (he points to the broken beer bottles), ?she grabs the gun, she?s had enough...? (he points to the weapon on the floor with his ball point pen), ?pulls the trigger fast as she can, never again...? (he points at the outline on the floor).

Mitchell nods at Sanchez, satisfied with the young detective?s analysis of the crime, and walks to the window. He takes a weary drag from his cigarette and coughs, his body shaking with years of wear and tear.?Been there before but not like this...?

Mitchell makes a statement to the press. In the tight doorway of the tenement he is blinded by the lights of the camera crews and microphones are thrust in his face. His face is pale and tired. (?Never before have I seen it this bad...?).

THEN...
The images from this story are distilled into perhaps 20 or thirty looks / moments which are just enough to endorse the lyrics of the story. Many of these images are abstract images of Deneice as she sits in the corner of the room waiting for some kind of judgment (never delivered). As these images are shot on tape they are treated in exactly the same way as the live footage from Edmonton - edgy, hard.

These moments are intercut with the live footage from Edmonton. Brief glimpses of information and emotion that complement the lyrical content of the song. But band performance reigns supreme.

THIRDLY
With the live performance / conceptual footage as our bed we then overlay this bed with graphics, letters, phrases and information in the way trailers are made for sports shows, news programs, ESPN, CNN, ABC, FOX, upcoming episodes of The Law or whatever.

The way the lettering and graphics appear is sharp, cool and almost disguises the potent information that it contains. The fonts are edgy, they stutter and shudder on screen, they fill textured boxes which move
around the frame. Unlike the Rage Against the machine videos where the information is LARGE, full screen, direct and in your face, lingering on screen for some time, the NICKELBACK version contains information in much smaller fonts and is cleverly cut up so that it will require frequent viewings for the viewer to absorb all the detail. In each case the information starts with a number.

For example: brief frames appear which say 4 MILLION overlaid over the existing footage. A few seconds later another caption reads: WOMEN A YEAR ARE ASSAULTED BY THEIR PARTNERS. A brief caption appears 37%...seconds later the follow up caption reads OF ALL WOMEN EXPERIENCE BATTERING. Similarly: 95%.............OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS ARE WOMEN. And: 93%............OF WOMEN WHO KILLED THEIR MATES HAD BEEN BATTERED BY THEM.

By breaking up the sentences and keeping the titles small we tantalize the viewer rather than knocking him over the head with the information, the viewer needs to work to find it. This video is the antithesis of Pop-Up Video. The slogans are delivered at a time which suits the lyrical content of the song and the visuals we create.

And as Chad sings Never Again the letters N-E-V-E-R-A-G-A-I-N fly one by one at the screen like bullets hurtling towards the viewer. It almost gives one whip-lash as you feel like you?re ducking from the letters.

© Nigel Dick 2002

A number of people have asked about this video - especially as it was never released. We already had performance footage from the Live At Home show, could we find a way to use this footage and mix it up with something conceptual? As the live show had been shot on tape I came up with this idea and was allowed to shoot it on a small budget. I thought it worked really well and loved the way it punched home a theme about domestic violence which the lyrics supported. Obviously the band and the label didn't agree. The conceptual footage was shelved and they went with a performance only version.

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NICKELBACK - Too Bad
dickfilm# 426
written 10/24/01

overview...Set in the soggy autumnal countryside of western Canada we intercut exciting performance footage of Nickelback with a concept that follows the lyrics of the song.

We will shoot the performance footage of Nickelback in a large, down to earth, gritty environment - the scale of the building reflects the power of the band's music the grit reflects the elemental rock n' roll vibe of the song. Letterbox matte.

intro & prelude...In a window with chintzy lace curtains we see a black and white photograph of a smiling man in workmans overalls standing slightly apart from an 11 year-old boy in a garden. The father holds a garden hose in one hand and we can see the truck they are washing in the background. We pull focus from the photograph through the window as an older version of the smiling man scrunches past outside. (If necessary we will extend the opening, chiming guitar chords over this scene).

first verse..."Fathers hands were lined with dirt"...A heavy logging truck hurtles down the road as it passes the man (Vincent, rough-hewn and early fifties, a Jason Robards type with callused hands) approaching his roadside mailbox. He opens the one letter inside and one word, in large red print, stands out on the letter: FORECLOSURE. Vincents eyes fill with tears and he screws the letter up into a ball. We notice that the colours of the film are muted and drained.

The logging truck continues down the road and passes a roadside truck stop on the edge of town where we find Irene, a late fortyish worn out Susan Sarandon type, taking off her apron as she leaves work for the day and locks up..."Mothers hands are serving meals." She climbs into a modest family-style Ford and drives away.

first chorus..."And all I hear about is how its so bad..." A tired white farmhouse sits next to a tumbling barn on a hill nestled in a clump of trees as we find Michael, Vincent and Irenes eleven year-old son, weathered but still boyish, in a heavy coat walking along the barely paved, rain-drenched road running up to the farm with his bag of books over his shoulder.

Irene's Ford comes up the lane and Michael jumps happily inside but as they arrive at the farmhouse his face drops. Vincent is throwing a gunny sack into the back of a rusted red pick-up truck. He gives them a lingering look full of the confusion and conflicting emotions that are racing through his mind. Michael studies his father's face and watches as he climbs in his truck and speeds away. Irene leaps out of her Ford and races after Vincent, waving her hands in the air, but he never looks back. She turns to look at Michael with tears in her eyes and watches as he rips the wrinkled FORECLOSURE letter from a rusty nail in the farmhouse door - a battered crucifix also hangs from the nail. He looks down the empty road after his Father: "It's too bad that we had no time..."

second verse and chorus... "You left without saying goodbye." Irene's Ford , loaded high with a roof-rack full of furniture and household items stops at the roadside mailbox where we first met Vincent. Michael climbs out of the car, removes some last letters from the box and glances at the FOR SALE sign at the farm gate. In a fit of rage he yanks the mailbox from its post and throws it in the ditch.

We cut to an elaborate shot (visual effects) outside Irene's Roadside Diner which shows the passage of time as if assisted by a dust devil of autumnal leaves that blows past: in front of our eyes, Irene's car ages eight years - the hubcaps disappear, the paintwork fades and becomes dented - meanwhile shrubbery climbs the diner, signs change and an awning appears or falls apart.

Inside we find Irene, now older and more weathered herself, busily pouring coffee and serving customers while she talks on the phone. She guiltily puts the phone down when she sees Michael now a strong young man, with the weight of the world on his shoulders and his father's crucifix round his neck: "You call and ask from time to time..."

"But you weren't there when I needed you the most." Vincent, now working at a lumber mill (or steel-works), hangs up the phone, wipes the sweat from his brow, and takes a break. He goes to the door and, as he lights a cigarette, watches a heavy logging truck entering the yard. He takes a big lung-full of smoke and sighs hard ("aphone) n empty diner. Michael, who has been mopping the floor, answers his Mother back, she slaps his face, he throws down the mop in a fit of rage. (We also shoot alternate version where his Mother throws down the mop).

Michael grabs his Mother's keys from the till and runs out of the Diner lugging a tattered old suitcase leaving Irene, sobbing and unable to catch her breath. She collapses onto a chair and drops her head to the table.

Outside Michael throws his case into the battered Ford and the car peels out onto the road.

solo...Intercut with Chad's wrenching solo we find the Ford hurtling down the road while inside Michael slams down harder on the gas pedal trying to release his fury. As he drives his view of the road starts to blur and in desperation he grips harder at the wheel, his foot presses yet harder on the gas. We push closer towards his eyeballs which seem to change colour in front of us as the capillaries twitch and pulse in the whites of his eyes (visual effects). It seems to Michael as if his father is everywhere, always wearing the overalls we saw in the photograph in the opening frame - sitting beside him in the car, in the reflection of the rear view mirror, hammering on the side window, laughing at him, shouting at him, grabbing him and finally running down the road towards the car.

Michael lunges at the wheel to avoid the image of his father running towards him and the car goes out of control and leaves the road. Seen entirely from Michael's point of view we watch as the car crashes through a fence and hurtles towards hedges and shrubbery. Amongst the cascade of debris (both real and enhanced with visual effects) that hurtles towards the screen in front of Michael, we see Michael's father laughing as he sprays water at the car windshield - the water and the debris comes as one as Michael's eyes open with fear and he braces himself for impact. On the double beat at the end of the solo a large piece of lumber, thrown up by the careening vehicle hurtles at the screen and shatters it into a thousand starred shapes.

We cut to an image of the crashed and finally stationary car lodged nose down in a field with its rear in the air and one wheel spinning.

third verse... We fade briefly to black and return to Chad's performance - it seems as if the blue and red lights of emergency vehicles are playing on his face as he sings: "Father's hands are lined with guilt for tearing us apart..."

The music suddenly stops as we cut to Vincent in the saw-mill (steel-works) pushing a sheet of wood through a circular saw (grinding the new weld on a large piece of steel). The harsh noise is a sudden jolt to the senses. A co-worker rushes up and yells into Vincent's ear over the noise of the saw / grinder that he has a phone call. Vincent picks up the swinging telephone in the corner of the mill and the look on his face tells us he's received bad news. He slams the phone down and jumps into his battered pick-up as the track kicks in once more.

"Made it out, still got clothing on our backs..." At the scene of Michael's crash lights flash as Michael's stretcher is pulled from the ditch. Michael's leg is in a splint and he is at rock bottom, closing his eyes and holding his head in one hand as he nods his head at his foolishness.

third chorus...A beat-up taxi pulls up outside the diner. Irene opens the passenger door and helps Michael out of the car, his leg in plaster. She pulls out crutches and his battered case and together they slowly make their way to the diner. Irene holds open the door and Michael hops inside and is frozen on the spot. Sitting at the counter, drinking coffee and with his gunny sack leant against a stool, is Vincent. The camera pushes in on Michael's face as Vincent, stubbing out a cigarette, turns round to face him. The lingering look - a conversation of unspoken words and thoughts between father and son - reminds us of the scene when Vincent left home.

Irene looks outside the diner where Vincent stands alone. For a second we are unsure what has taken place until we notice Michael hobbling into shot to join his father. They turn and walk away together: "Let's Walk, Let's talk." The image of the father and son next to each other, not too close, not too far, freezes and the colour drains away until the image becomes hauntingly similar to the opening frame of Vincent and his young son we saw at the start of the video.

We fade to black.

© Nigel Dick, 2001

This concept was requested by Ed Lammas from Birmingham, England who thought that the video was "stunning and wouldn't be the same if any of it was edited out." Thanks Ed - unfortunately the version you've been seeing in the UK does have stuff edited out which apparently MTV Europe refused to show!

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SAVAGE GARDEN - I Want You
dickfilm #343
Written 2/7/97

We find ourselves in a future-tech, industrial location with hi-tech styled furnishings and fittings. At one end hangs a large white screen and in the foreground, in silhouette, we can see strange apparatus.

As the tinny intro starts we see a small mechanical toy appear on the screen, it's shape is vaguely human, robot-like. It moves towards us on it's own.

With flash cuts we notice two figures arriving in the area of the apparatus: Darren and Daniel. They move both in slow motion and at sped-up tempos. With help from Daniel, Darren is connected up to the apparatus.

Darren stands with his face jammed in one of those devices an optician uses so that you can't move your head. A small device pans light up and down his face like a laser scanning the image which will be projected onto the huge screen. We pan away again and see a guitar bolted between two huge poles. Daniel plays the guitar but can walk away from it at any time which he frequently does to play parts on a collection of keyboards and other technical devices we can see behind him. A huge wonderfully engineered sound trumpet has been placed with its small end close to the guitar and the big end pointed at the screen. At the end of the guitar trumpet we see the cone of a huge loudspeaker wobbling with the rhythms of the track.

We cut to the big screen. A flicker and then Darren's face appears. He seems very pale and his skin appears to have stretched tight so that he has no sides to his face or any ears. As a result all we can see is his mouth, nose and eyes. He starts to sing. The movements of his face seem animated / stuttering as he sings. As Darren sings, typewritten images of words from the song, like Orwell's blipverts, are cut into his performance: face, eyes, mind, magenta feeling, tight, again, arms, human, evolve, higher, closer, get 2U, find out, want, you, person, deep, commitment, interaction, talking, breathe in, want you, need you, don't, crystal, shelter, cola etc.

Whenever Daniel plays a big chord on the guitar the screen shows a host of Daniels in silhouette crashing the chord. These images are intercut with Darren's singing features. When we hear the "oh-oh's" we see the screen cut into sections with both Daniel and Darren singing these backing vocals.

Meanwhile in a different location we find, sitting at a chair and looking at a small TV screen, the sylph-like figure of a girl. She has a pale complexion and wears a simple work-suit / tech overalls. She is a Girl Mechanic and her Television is not functioning properly, she fiddles with the controls, turns handles attached to the side of the TV, messes with the H - style antenna. She is trying to tune into the images we see on the large screen in front of Darren and Daniel.

In the choruses Darren pulls himself free from the head constraint and leaps over to a small 6? x 6? white screen behind him where he moves and throws shapes while he sings. It seems as if this is some visual transponder because now we see the silhouette of his body movements relayed and projected onto the big screen.

By the third verse things have really loosened up. Darren and Daniel have become free of the constraints of their machinery and are rocking out - we will also shoot Darren with a mic. It seems as if the head constraint, the small screen and the mic are just part of the arsenal of methods that the band members can exploit to get up on the big screen. It seems as if the set is some vast video studio where you get to perform in front of yourself.

By now the Girl Mechanic is frantic. She is banging the top of the TV in time to the music and images of the band flicker in and out on the TV screen.

In the bridge section everything goes wild: strobes illuminate the faces of the band members, the Girl Mechanic disappears from her room and suddenly appears on the large screen in front of the band members in wildly coloured clothes, her make up is extreme and her demeanour exaggerated and full of attitude.

The track slows down and we hear the ethereal, echoey voice of the girl in the music. The camera pushes in on Darren and Daniel as their hair is buffeted by an enormous wind, they look up at the screen and see the Girl Mechanic mouthing the chant holding a microphone in her hand. She has become the voice inside the screen looking down at Darren and Daniel. We also see her face inside the screen of her own TV.

Just as suddenly we are back in the final choruses and the Girl Mechanic re-appears in her own room in her original outfit, she wonders if she really was beamed up into the large screen. She wanders back towards her TV set, now working perfectly and sits down in front of the screen with a smile on her face.

As the track dies away we look back at the large screen (and the Girl Mechanic's TV) and see that there are now two wind-up robot creatures walking away from frame on the big screen, perhaps they are even holding hands.

The End.

© Nigel Dick 1997.

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SEETHER w. AMY LEE - Broken
dickfilm #451
written 2/5/04

Overview...In a stark wasteland Seether and Amy Lee come together to perform the song. The dark and foreboding sky behind, and the burnt and charred pieces in frame creates an eerie world in which it seems Seether and Amy are the only human beings left alive. Thus their performance seems particularly heartfelt and poignant. Video is shot with stark, elemental photography - almost black and white with just suggestions of cold blues and greens. Details...Video opens with the camera panning across a vast and empty landscape almost lunar in its bleakness. In the distance an enormous, blinding white light explodes, a terrifying rumble can be heard, and the frame shakes as the foreground is filled with spinning debris of weeds, branches, paper, and a battered child's toy. Frame briefly goes to black and then, as we hear the opening bars of music, we focus on the aftermath of whatever the fuck that was. As the camera pans again we discover Amy and the band walking towards us from five different directions. Black clouds of smoke drift through frame and smouldering tree trunks and debris litters the foreground. A ragged scarecrow shape hangs forlornly against the harsh landscape. It appears some invisible voice or signal has called Seether and Amy to this one desolate spot which features a battered building and a huge, bedraggled tree. In silhouette against the sky and the clouds of dark smoke we see the band play. Somewhere behind them the wreckage of an old windmill twists in the harsh breeze. A high angle from the rooftop of the battered building shows us the band in stark contrast against the burnt floor of the ground. In foreground a blasted, broken wind-vane shivers as the breeze changes direction. Close ups of the band are low and heroic. They are intent on playing their instruments and looking out across the landscape and the burning wastes. It is as if their music is a call to any other survivors to come and seek refuge here. Against the starkness of the sky the black smoke continues to burn. We see Amy and Shaun performing in a number of situations - both with the band, and as single shots and as doubles. Shaun sings as he dips his fingers into an oily pool of water as if testing its potability. We see his reflection in the oily blackness and his fingers dip into the reflection and disturb the image - eventually Amy joins him over his shoulder as she sings with him. Amy moves over and sits in a battered rocking chair. As she sings she fiddles with a forlornly battered, one armed doll that she has picked from the ground and has placed in her lap. Shaun sits on a beaten up chair under a huge tree on which ripped and tattered fabric blows in the breeze. In the distance a horse chews the grass forlornly and moves away from camera. Water drips from an old outside tap. Amy sings while she lets the elemental waters dribble over her fingers as if this is the only succour left in this pale and lifeless land. Amy and Shaun sing together staring at a burnt out truck. As we climb over them we see its shadow is painted on the ground from the extraordinary blast that brought them all together. Amy sleeps in foreground on a rough bed made from timber and straw. In the background, slightly out of focus, Shaun sings. Close-ups show Amy's lips moving as she sings her parts. It is as if this is a dream for her ? for Shaun he seems to protect her as she dreams. Against a battered wall of the building an old confessional rests. Amy and Shaun take it in turns to sit inside the confessional and listen while the other sings their parts through the ragged wooden grating. It seems that the grating provides the emotional distance required to share their inner-most feelings in this exposed and hard place. Finally the five musicians climb to a low rise, close to the tree, and look over the vast wastes to see what their future might hold. The camera pulls away and we see their figures in silhouette as the dark clouds of smoke swirl around us and they are finally lost from view - and we fade to black  © Nigel Dick - 2004 The location where we shot the clip required virtually no dressing. It had been a small community in the desert consisting of trailers and disused vehicles and apparently had been a meth lab. Return to top of page

 

 

BRITNEY SPEARS - Baby One More Time
dickfilmf #371
written 7/29/98

Britney sits at her desk in her high school class. Her foot bangs against the side of her desk in slow motion, bang, bang, bang, bang. Another girl beside Britney, one of the other dancers, blows gum, equally bored. We notice that Britney and all the other students are wearing school uniforms. The teacher stands by his / her blackboard tossing his chalk up and down. The camera watches the lump of chalk tumble up into the air and then back down again. The end of class bell rings and simultaneously...

The music starts.

All the kids jump from their desks and race into the school corridor.

For the first verse and chorus Britney and pals do their performance / dance routine in the wide corridor outside the class-room. It becomes obvious that Britney is the focus of the team of dancers - she has lots of attitude, is flirtatious and provocative, and is met with respect by every other kid in the school.

In the corridor we observe moments with Britney and the other kids against their lockers. Door slamming is done in time with the music, a whole row of doors being closed simultaneously. We see portrait moments and beautifully lit close-up moments of Britney singing the song in front of the lockers.

As Britney performs another bunch of kids come down the corridor from the other direction lead by a handsome guy. They stop and watch as Britney does her routine. Britney flirts with the guy.

At the end of the first chorus, in one movement, every-one pulls brightly coloured clothes from their lockers. The array of clothes fills the screen. We track with everyone's feet and find that they have moved to the parking lot outside the school where other kids are hanging out and a sort of impromptu after school party is taking place. We now see that everyone is no longer wearing their school uniforms. The clothing takes its leads from Britney who wears a brief tank top, sneakers and Adidas-style training pants. Again Britney and her pals continue their routine. This time Britney is flirting with another handsome guy who watches. Kids watch from their brightly coloured Jeeps / Land Rovers parked in the lot. Two guys with BMX bikes take off and spin in mid air in front of Britney while she sings.

We see portrait moments of Britney lounging in a cool open topped 4x in the lot and shoot a beautiful close up as she sings, the polished metal of the vehicle acting as a wonderful backdrop.

In the bridge section we find Britney alone for a moment, vulnerable and approachable, as she sings ?Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know....? She seems to be sitting alone on the bleachers in the school gym / basketball court.

The camera pulls wider and we find the rest of her friends lounging on the bleachers talking and hanging. Britney watches while one couple kiss. "I must confess that my loneliness is killing me now..."

We shoot portrait and close-up moments under or around the bleachers with the angles of the seats and the shadows they throw creating an eye-catching perspective for the camera.

Britney turns and is joined by the rest of her team as they continue their routine on the basketball court. This time they are performing for the school basketball team who have been practising on the court. The focus of Britney's attention this time is one of the basketball players - another handsome hunk. It is obvious that Britney could date any of these guys she just needs to make her choice.

We get as many kids as we can afford and Britney, her team, the basketball players in costume and some extras all join in the routine for the last chorus of the song - the grand finale. It?s a big shot with scope and size.

The music stops and Britney sings the final line into camera.

At the end of the court the door swings open and the teacher appears again. Noticing Britney and the dancers she doesn't like what she sees and reaches over and flips off the lights. The court goes dark...

THE END.

© Nigel Dick 1998

The first time I'd attempted a treatment for this song I'd written something truly awful (an idea someone had suggested I'd should use sometime). Britney got on the phone and said, "Can't we do something where I'm in a schoolroom dreaming about boys?" Um...yeah. OK. And by the way it was her idea to wear the school uniforms...

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BRITNEY SPEARS - Oops I Did It Again
dickfilm #396
written 3/15/00

PRE-AMBLE...
This video will be very different for Britney. Janet Jackson meets Metropolis meets Fellini meets Capricorn One, meets surreal! It will have a simple story-line running through it (Britney meets gorgeous space-adventurer on surface of Mars and dances her butt off) and the end result will feel warm, light-hearted, energetic. And it will feature dance, dance, dance. It will be CRAZY X2!

SET-UP...
The camera pans past loads of technicians in a dark concrete control room, steam and wires can be seen everywhere. We happen upon a young controller sitting at a wild looking console - tubes with seeping liquid criss-cross the console area, lights flash and gleam. The controller peers into a hemispherical monitor screen (think half a goldfish bowl) (GAG #1) and listens to John the Astronaut talking to him from a far-off planet. The controller is eating a donut and drinking coffee from a paper take out mug.

 

Controller Earth to Mars Lander. Report status please. John The Astronaut Mars Lander here. Gravity device status effective, Oxygen status 98%. Planet seems to be covered with red dust. Kind of like a day at the beach here...no sun of course, not many babes either.

We see scanner footage of John the Astronaut?s feet kicking through dust as he walks across the planet's surface. (The scanner is a small video camera attached to his helmet, a white snowy line wipes continuously across the screen as the signal comes in.) (GAG#2).

 

Controller Any sign of habitation? John The Astronaut Nope. Not so much as a...woah there horsey. What the...

We cut to a view of John The Astronaut?s foot which has disturbed something in the red dust... We cut full frame to the planet as John The Astronaut?s hand pulls a cracked tile from the dust which has an image of Britney fused into it.

 

Controller Cute. What is it? John The Astronaut Oh it?s cute allright...(to himself) It couldn?t be...

The planet's surface suddenly starts to shake. (GAG #3) The camera hurtles up to John The Astronaut's face as he reacts to the Mars-shake. Back on Earth the controllers screen starts to crack up - the signal starts cutting out.
 

Controller Mars Lander what?s happening up there? Can you hear me? John The Astronaut (voice cutting in and out of static) ....amazing...city...can?t believe...buildings... incredible...

We cut to John The Astronaut's face as the shaking continues. We hear a distant laugh - a distorted, processed version of Britney giggling.

The quake comes to a stop. John The Astronaut's voice is full of wonderment.
 

John The Astronaut (voice cutting in and out of static) ....wow!...

 

The camera moves around him and hurtles back over his shoulder (GAG #4) ...we find that the quake has revealed a huge plaza on Mars - and John The Astronaut is just a speck in the middle of it!

THE MUSIC STARTS...
...everything is built in tones of red and carved out of the living Mars rock. John The Astronaut is dwarfed by the location. The architecture of this place is just incredible.

The distinctive Max Martin keyboard figure heightens the drama. We hear Britney's subtle moan underneath and cut to where we sense her peeking through a thick red-tinged lace curtain watching John The Astronaut alone below her in the Plaza.

John The Astronaut looks around - he knows something is up. Chains unfurl from the ceiling, ladders descend slowly from the ceiling.

A huge woosh of air, cued with the sound effect in the track, nearly knocks John The Astronaut off his feet. (GAG #4A) The track kicks in big time and John The Astronaut looks up to see four buff male figures that have suddenly appeared high up in the structure. The four figures pump handles of some large and indescribable machine which puffs out red steam and seems to provide the plaza with energy. As they pump an incredible cage descends from the ceiling which contains the intoxicating shape of beautiful young woman with her back turned to us in an amazing red jump suit. (GAG# 5) The whole image is set off by a shock of blond hair. As the cage reaches the ground the figure turns - It's Britney.

What an entrance!

"I think I did it again / I made you believe we're more than just friends..." Britney leaps out in front of John the Astronaut...Suddenly the whole set comes to life. There are Martian dancers appearing from everywhere sliding down the chains, and flying down on ropes to join Britney in front of John The Astronaut. But Britney is front and centre.

Britney looks amazing as she dances and sings with her full team. Behind her the hunks continue to pump on their levers. Britney continues to sing and dance with people doing flips behind her, as the camera pans pulls back from Britney we see there are dancers dancing away in foreground.

Britney approaches John The Astronaut and, in a Matrix-style move, flies over him , grabs a chain hanging down from the ceiling and attaches a hook at the end of the chain to the back of John The Astronaut's suit. High above her the four hunks pull on ropes and John flies up into the ceiling. (GAG #6)

We cut and find Britney spread out on a surreal, Mars-style sun bed. The camera descends from high as she looks up and sings for John the Astronaut hanging forlornly above. (GAG #7). Around the sun-bed the other dancers are spread out like writhing tendrils of the sun - it is a gorgeous visual image.

Britney leaps off the sun bed, runs and starts a flip like the one she did in Baby One More Time. As she spins we cut to a shot of Britney spinning and flying shot against blue screen before she lands in the middle of the plaza. (GAG # 8). (We drop Mars plaza landscape in behind her in the blue screen).

As Britney lands John The Astronaut has been lowered down once again. Britney rips his helmet off and we see he is a gorgeous young man. For a second his head expands to double size (video effect) before contracting and as he panics and gasps for air he suddenly realizes he can breathe and there's nothing to worry about. (GAG #9). Britney smiles at John and John takes her hand and smiles back. We see an angle on Britney and John The Astronaut which shows the earth and moon high over their shoulders (video post effect).

We cut back to Mission Control as the music slows down. The controller leans in to a microphone on his table into which he speaks:
 

Controller All aboard!

 

From the controller's POV we see the dialogue take place between Britney and John The Astronaut as John places a gift in Britney's hand.
 

John The Astronaut Britney, before you go there's something I want you to have.

Britney looks down at the gift in her hand.

Britney Oh, it's beautiful. But wait a minute isn't this? John The Astronaut Yeah, yes it is! Britney But I thought the old lady dropped it into the ocean in the end? John The Astronaut Well baby I went down and got it for ya! Britney Aw you shouldn?t have!

 

John The Astronaut walks away leaving Britney and her dancers in the Mars Plaza. As the music kicks in she starts to dance again. Now we are in a full blown dance spectacle. The guys heaving on their levers above, Britney and the dancers in the plaza beneath, people breathing fire.

Finally Britney steps back into her cage. She looks wistfully into the sky and sees a streak of fire traveling across the sky as John the Astronaut leaves Mars orbit. She clutches at the gift in her hand and looks skywards... "I'm not that innocent."

Her cage lifts skywards surrounded by steam. (GAG #10).

The End.

© Nigel Dick, 2000

A note from your sponsor...Before writing this concept I had a word with Britney. She said, "I want a video with a cute spaceman set on Mars but with no rocket ships." I replied, "But isn't the dialogue in the m middle something to do with 'Titanic'?" Britney replied, "Don't worry, you'll make it work." The GAG#'s refer to the visual effects we had planned in pre-production. Each GAG had it's own set of storyboards and notes as to how we would execute the effect.

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STAIND - For You
dickfilm #429
written 10/27/01

overview...Ever had that feeling that Mom & Dad don't know who the f*ck you are? Ever been in the car with them and feel like you could scream because they are suffocating you with their silence? If so this treatment is dedicated to you. We shoot the band in an intense performance situation. This footage will be intercut with a concept involving a teen and his parents. Every time we see the teen he is a screaming, frustrated youth driven to distraction by his parents. Whenever his parents look at him they only see a quiet, normally resentful teen listening to his Discman. The cuts of the band and conceptual footage are brief, disjointed and shocking and marry perfectly with the unsettling tone and beats of the song. music starts...in the driveway of a house in a slightly run down neighbourhood. We find Steven, 17 matted hair, double T-shirt etc. sitting forlornly in the back of a tired ?77 Buick Le Sabre wagon. He's slumped in the back seat so that only part of his face is visible from the outside - though he's wearing his headphones he's about to endure a fate more painful and torturous than the star performer of a Taliban hit squad could devise: a journey in the car with Mom and Dad. A jolt and the car is on it's way. With views reminiscent of the Sopranos title sequence we see Mom, Dad & Steven driving through their urban hinterland: a never ending succession of gas stations, mini-malls, breakers yards etc. Dad is overweight and scratches the bald patch underneath the plastic see-through mesh of his well worn International Harvester cap. Mom flips through the National Enquirer as she flicks the cigarette ash from her brown K-Mart slacks. Whenever they glance into the back seat Steven nods his head gently as he stares out of the window and fiddles with the controls on his Discman.   first verse and chorus... "To my mother, to my father..." With a sudden jump-cut (editorial combined post-effect) Steven is a possessed, caged animal in the back seat of the car. He's yelling the lyrics to the backs of Mom and Dad's heads. "It's your son, it's your daughter...Are my screams loud enough for you to hear me?" Steven could not be more aggressive in his manner or his questioning... But when Mom looks casually over her shoulder all she sees is Steven leaning against the window looking outside while the music plays. The teen Mom and Dad see is a Ritalin/Prozac child. The teen we see is the frustrated kid in all of us - misunderstood, unheard, ignored. We intercut with furious footage of the band. Aaron grips his mic stand  so hard it seems the steel will melt, Mike and Johnny flail at their guitars and Jon pounds his kit. We notice water damaged corkboard behind them, musty carpet at their feet. It seems that the cool afternoon glow of an autumn sun is falling on them through a large dusty window. The energy of the camera moves reflects the furious rage bottled up in the music. "I sit here locked inside my head..." In the back seat of the wagon Steven is grabbing at the cheap plastic ceiling of the car interior trying express his rage. Mom and Dad are oblivious. "The silence gets us nowhere..." Dad looks at Steven in the rear view all he sees is part of a resentful figure pressed into the corner. A furtive close-up reveals Steven's gritted teeth: "gets us nowhere way too fast..." We continue to intercut band and concept footage throughout the video. second verse & chorus...Dad has pulled off the road and parked at a fast food joint/ truck stop / gas station location. Steven sits quietly at the table while Mom looks absently out of the window. Dad is in line waiting for a tray of burgers and sodas. Steven, still wearing the headphones, stares intently at Mom and sings through gritted teeth: "the silence is what kills me, I need someone to help me." At a table nearby another teen, Shelby, looks over and sees Steven yelling at his Mom: "but you don't know how to listen..." Shelby's parents look up to see what she is staring at. All they can see is a morose Steven slumped in a chair with a Discman facing his Mom who stares out of the window. Shelby's parents return to their burgers and fries. Shelby identifies instantly with what is going down: "but you don't know how to listen...and let me make my decisions." Dad returns with lunch and sits next to Mom. Other kids in the diner see Steven screaming the chorus at his Mom and Dad. Other parents see only another family bent under the strain of paying the rent and trying to keep up with the demands of increasingly alienated teens. "The silence gets us nowhere..." bridge...the music descends instantly to Mike's chugging guitar figure. Steven leans in towards his oblivious parents: "All your insults..."  Throughout the diner all the other Stevens and Shelbys have picked up the vibe. Each one leans into remonstrate at their oblivious parents their anger finding a channel at last: "and your curses make me feel like I'm not a person..." Slam! On the band's crunching chords the teens throughout the diner slam on the tables. Fries, sodas, burgers leap in the air. Parents pay no attention as every kid in the room rises to their feet and points to their parents: "You made me do something, because I'm fucked up, because you are..." It's outrageous - the Midwych Cuckoos are wreaking their revenge... third chorus...all the kids are sitting again but still yelling out at their parents: "I sit here locked inside my head..." From the parents' point of view the diner is filled with Ritalin kids, though closer examination shows Steven and Shelby exchanging a conspiratorial glance. fourth chorus...Dad is paying the check, Mom is leaving the diner and outside Steven has wandered over to a vacated car showroom on one side of the parking lot. He looks in through the window and sees Staind performing...Aaron looks at him and his breath clouds the glass for a moment: "this silence gets us nowhere, gets us nowhere way too fast..." Over his shoulder the Le Sabre pulls into frame and dad honks his horn. Mom and Dad's POV shows Steven peering in through the empty windows of the car showroom with tired FOR RENT posters stuck to the glass. (There is NO BAND INSIDE - they have been, of course, entirely a figment of Steven's imagination). Over the final bars we watch Steven slouch his way back to the car and his further imprisonment. He slams the door on the final guitar crunch. We focus on Steven's face partly hidden as he slumps back in the seat and is driven back to the freeway by Mom and Dad.   © Nigel Dick 2001   I was shooting a Backstreet Boys video when Staind's manager Gail, also looking after BSB, asked me if I could come up with a treatment for this track by first thing the following morning. It took me 45 minutes to come up with the idea and type it out. It's also one of my favourite all time videos. There's a lesson in there somewhere. Return to top of page