The Malthusian Trap | Pleasure Room (song.1) Music Video

'Pleasure Room (song.1)' is a mixed found/donated footage and miniDV capture music video project. Due to the constraints on the creative industries and while under lockdown measures during the Covid-19 epidemic, it was impossible to arrange shoots, hire equipment and get out into the world freely to capture footage. The solution I suggested was to ask the band's audience to donate or shoot footage of their experiences while living under lockdown. I created a short shoutout video, where the frontman of the band, Damon, asks the audience to send in footage. The video is attached below. We had an amazing response and were sent footage from around the world.

The band requested a music video that reflected isolation, distance and current events - but also promoted key messages of unity, community and togetherness centred on dancing, rave culture and energy. Using the footage donated by the bands audience, I juxtaposed footage of protests and police officers to reflect current events. I used repetative cuts to build montages, to reflect the repeatative nature of the song.

The song is a dance/rave song with very little lyrical content. Taking inspiration from classic music videos by The Prodigy, I gathered the band members and asked them to dance, and express themselves asking them to be upbeat, extravgant and outrageous.

To capture the idea of isolation and distance, I used a mixutre of frame sizes to give the sense of distance. Using letterboxing and masking, I trapped the frames inside negative space, then animated movement to the framing offering a further reinforcement of being trapped inside a box.