Brisbane-based electronic-pop upstart Keelan Mak had a pretty solid vision in mind when ideating his new video clip for Flicker, a bittersweet track about a loveless relationship (with a touch of macabre grave-digging).
With a retro film styling throughout the clip, Keelan was inspired by a Charlie Kaufman film called Synecdoche, New York and the striking metaphor of two people living in a burning house but ignoring the flames.
Inspired by the idea, Keelan set about creating Flicker and today he's broken down some of his favourite scenes for us, giving us a bit of insight into its concept and back-story.
I wanted to have this grave digging scene throughout the whole video as a way to remind you that this video was more of a murder plot as opposed to a love story. Fun fact: In this scene I totally threw dirt all over my head and down my shirt by accident, this is my genuine reaction. Luckily enough they didn't get me smiling in the shot.
We shot this in my lounge room. The original concept for this video was to have a couple living inside a burning house. Going about their day as if nothing was going on. It was meant to symbolise the ignorance they shared for the lack of love between them. We didn’t end up going that concept but I still loved the idea of this house acting like a bubble where they felt trapped, so we used this scene to carry out that idea.
My main goal with this scene was not having it feel too dark. I wanted us in that grave to symbolise an amicable agreement that the relationship was over.
Fun Fact #2: We showed up to the farm about a week before shoot to dig the whole. The ground was so hard that not even a tractor drill could dig it up. We ended up getting a tree stump grinder and sticking it into the ground to rip it up.
Towards the end of the video you start to see where everything is leading towards. It hints at murder throughout but the ending is more wholesome rather than gruesome. The idea behind the drone shots was to act as somewhat of a separation. Giving such negative space to create some separation between you and the story.
Right from the beginning of planning we knew we wanted this scene. The idea of the red suit with the burning umbrella was such a hero shot in my mind. I felt like some kind of sinister Hilary Clinton.
This scene and the dinner scene act as the two main points where you see me attempt to poison her. We were going for a bit of Wes Anderson vibe with this look. The whole yard was on a bit of a slope so we tried really hard to stay upright so it didn’t look weird when we rotated it in post.
