which color, effluvia, which month

November 2019 - January 2020

An unrealized music video.

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This is the script for a music video of neotenomie's which color, which month and effluvia (hunting theme), both from the soundtrack to Porpentine's with those we love alive. I clumsily put the two songs together in Audacity and drew up a script to follow the audio.

The action follows Caromine alone in a dark wood, fleeing, clutching some huge tome to their chest. They throw the book down and draw their dagger, dripping blood on the pages. Light glows from under the book. They grab the book and start running again. The book glows brighter, and suddenly Caromine slams into Grale's tall torso. Caromine looks around to see they've arrived inside a circle of 11 people standing in a clearing. They are all cloaked, holding tools and artifacts. Caromine takes their place in the circle, and the ritual begins. Imagery, color, and light swell until the circle vanishes to safety, leaving an empty clearing.

I wanted an opptunity to really utilize the skills I'd cultivated in school on a fun music video project that also expressed some of the aesthetics I'm attached to and shaped by that I haven't had the chance to express elsewhere in my video work. Obviously influenced by Porpentine and neotenomie, but also hugely by Never Angeline North's Sea-Witch. I wanted to portray the kind of expansive trans communal care that could still include the scary and the monstrous.

This project proved too ambitious for the class I conceived it in. Too many people, and it was the middle of winter, so filming outside in the woods would've likely been awful. For the assignment requirement I instead submitted the proof-of-concept for LOGOS I'd been working on. But, I still wanted to realize the video, so I reworked the script a bit with the concerns in mind, and did a night of test-shooting with Scout (who had agreed to play Caromine). The images included are from that test footage.

I did some pre-production work over the winter break, but by the time the spring semester started I realized it was not a strategic use of my time + energy to finish it. I hoped to do it after the semester ended, but then COVID happened and changed everything, so I suppose it'll stay as it is.

Originally conceived as a final for Kyle Howerton's Digital Media Field Production, then pursued independently, then made impossible due to COVID.

Get in contact if you're interested in reading the script, it's got some lovely vivid imagery and expands on post-production effects that aren't covered here.