Artist: Hope Slide
An inconspicuous night turns into a fight for survival when a home invasion goes terribly wrong. It explores the nuances of anxiety and responsibility as a couple feigns for control over a rapidly escalating situation.
Directors Vision
Calvin (Hope Slide) came to me last summer asking if I was interested in making a music video for his new album, ANXiOUS OXiDE. He sent me the entire track list and told me I had total creative control, and could make any video, for any song I wanted. It was huge to get that kind of freedom for a music video, so I took it to heart.
I’ve always felt that the best music videos don’t just accompany the song, but put it in a new context and enrich your understanding of it. Binocular Trick stood out to me immediately as something that had a really specific, yet nuanced feeling I could draw on. A kind of anxiety trip – an expression of losing control in an escalating situation. So I ran with that and developed this ‘home invasion gone wrong’ narrative.
The shoot was about as scrappy as they come – I dragged all my friends together to crew and act, some cheap effects and props. It was all shot in and around my house (I had to convince our landlord to let us use his front door!).
We’re all in our final term of film school at the moment, so we edited the project whenever we needed a break from editing our thesis film. We missed the official release of the album, but luckily this release is coinciding with another song from the album being nominated for CBC’s Searchlight contest – so if you like the video take a minute to vote! (Link at bottom)
Hope Slide has a new record set to release this summer too, so follow him on Instagram to stay tuned for more. You can stream Hope Slide wherever you get your music, Spotify, Tidal, Apple music, etc
Added to The Sound of Shorts playlist on Spotify
