OPHELIA

So...I've REALLY been obsessing over this song for the past two months:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BELNiWGF0aM


And i'm hankerin on maybe doing a music video for it way way down the line. So i'm sort of sketching around and conceptualizing bits and pieces of it.

My take on this song is that its kind of Ophelia's (Hamlet) internal monologue about her relationship with hamlet. A lot of the lyrics coincide, and I feel its good to show something different from what the song is singing about. Trying to be more metaphorical.

The concept i'm toying with for now, is to show two sides of ophelia. The delicate crazed girl from the book, and her dark inner self. I don't want to show too much of "outside" ophelia - just enough for a slightly know-how audience to understand the hamlet references. I don't mind keeping this vague and "music video" like. I'm not really showing a story, trying to convey an emotion. The rest of the song will take place in Ophelia's inner void. I want to keep it as void like as possible. The floor however, is black water. So whenever she steps you will see dark blue rings suggesting as much.

I've also picked up on a sort of...procession or marching theme in the music. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's what I hear. Towards the end of Hamlet, Ophelia - completely messed up from the goings around of Denmark (?), "accidentally" drowns herself. I'm thinking that I want to heavily hint on a funeral procession in this video as well. Rows of people marching past ophelia as she sings on the floor. And yes, this entire thing is from her point of view and she is singing the entire time.

So...here are some early scribbles of storyboards:

For the starting sequence, we would see Florence/Ophelia being carried, and swinging back and forth with the steps of the thing/man carrying her as she sings.

She is lowered onto the surface...and at the right musical juncture she falls through the floor with a splash. I was debating wether or not to have her slowly floating down into the abyss for the next sequences, but I'm not sure about the transitions quite yet.

Playing around with line color, proportions. Not there yet. I'm happy with the overall effect, but much work needs to be done for the character. That and...why the hell is she smiling!?

Hurray for emoting! I hope this doesn't come off as angsty. That's the last thing I would want! I mean, as angsty as the song is, and as angsty as ophelia's situation would no doubt be...I want to convey elegance, inner strength, and defience for ophelia's inner monologue character. After all, isn't that how we percieve ourselves in indignant situations? I was trying for the whole "in motion" thing. I also wanted to treat her hair a little bit like alphonse mocha treats the decorative elements in his pieces. I don't want to show the lines where hairs overlap if I can help it. Would the hair be a bitch to animate? Yes. Will it be worth it?

Other ideas I am playing with, is to have the marching people do a very....not jerky..but...mechanical(?) kind of dance, and for a tango betwixt ophelia and hamlet.

We'll see how this developes. I'm really into this idea, and I don't want to be discouraged from it quite yet. I feel like part of being an artist is exploring your reactions to things, and to be confident about displaying them. I censor the things images in my head heavily (for such a chatterbox I know its kind of hard to tell...), and overanalyze them before I show people. I want to experiment a little...and put my heart out on my sleeve with this one. Push those boundries.