Radiohead's most recent single, "Burn the Witch", is taken from A Moon Shaped Pool. It was released on 3 May 2016, with the album following up 5 days later, and its eventual LP and CD physical copies on 17 June.
This stop-motion animation video is shot in the style of the Trumptonshire trilogy (1960s era of children's English television programmes Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley).
Finished in exactly 2 weeks, the music video for "Burn the Witch" was directed by Chris Hopewell, who also directed the animated video for Radiohead's 2003 single "There, There" from "Hail to the Thief".
Like "Burn the Witch", "There, There" uses stop-motion animation but in an abstract modern form. It depicts a lone traveller exploring a tall forest, discovering a wide colony of forest animals seemingly enjoying village life until the seeker steals a glowing coat and walking boots from the tree top, later getting chased by crows and consequently transforming into a tree, forever a denizen of the sinister woods.
But- back to the main subject at hand...
A blue songbird appears at the beginning of "Burn the Witch", chirping on a tree branch.
The main plot of the music video involves an inspector arriving at a model village where the town mayor greets him. Exploring the buildings nearby, the inspector is bedazzled at the unsettling sights awaiting him, from a red cross being painted on a wooden door ("Red crosses on wooden doors"), to an armada of men with swords surrounding a woman tied to a tree, to what appears to be a cooked cow on a feasting table with its limbs and horns sticking out, bleeding on the floor.
Each reveal culminates in the unveiling of a wooden construct resembling a colossal figure, in a homage to the 1973 British mystery horror film The Wicker Man. The inspector is beckoned to climb up to the cavity opening in its stomach, where he is locked inside as a human sacrifice. The wicker man is set on fire; as the flames spread, the townspeople gather in a crowd and wave goodbye to the receding camera.
The same songbird from the intro appears again at the end, followed by a downwards shot of the inspector, who somehow survived the incineration of the wicker man. He scrubs his face with a white cloth and escapes into the shrubbery.
Looking at the footage shot for "Burn the Witch", I have decided to utilise the stop-motion animation technique in my music video for "Vodka and Cherryade". This is a practical approach to creativity, where I feel like I have shot more than enough footage for the music video, but not most of Lymington's actual performance of that particular song.
In the second half, after the two girls holding their beverages begin dancing, stop-motion elements will become prominent. A LEGO version of Lymington will replace their human performance, with particular focus on their guitars and the drummer "Sean".
This will ensure that I still stick to indie rock codes and conventions - in a UNIQUE and INNOVATIVE way, using frame-by-frame animation to simulate the band's performance in a "brick-built" (?) studio. Bright lighting will also be used for the wide performance shot.
Again, in this sense, an animated glass of "vodka" will appear as another prominent object in the music video, using water to create the illusion of said alcoholic drink as both are transparent, colourless liquids. A small collection of cherries will make their debut stop-motion appearance to further make literal the title of "Vodka and Cherryade". Each cherry will move around frame by frame and eventually form the shape of a heart at the end, indicating that the subjects' love for one another has blossomed completely.
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