I worked together on a muisc video with my good friend Merit, known as solo artist LIJO. It was the second episode of her ‘My Inner Parts’ two-part. The image of you, living up to expectations, trying to fit in (or not) are important themes. We captured that in different settings. We chose to use an urban setting for the side of her that doesn’t care what she’s supposed to do. She claims her space.
The forest setting is a bit more abstract. It's the wild natural world where she wanders around as a girl who tries to capture a silvery ball that keeps getting away. This is meant to visualize the attempt to live up to unrealistic expectations (the silver ball that can't be caught), whether they are from yourself or from the outside world. |I liked the the opposition of wild nature that we are and these solid shimmering ideals we set for ourselves. They make us blind to the all the beauty that surrounds us.
The third scene, we filmed in our basement and is a bit more trippy. The idea was that LIJO wanted to be pushed and pulled from many sides by anonymous hands, as a visual translation of the force these expectations have and how hard and uncaring we can be in them to ourselves and others.
Then the mannequins - to us, they represented the blind followers who just emotionlessly sing along with the crowd.
In the end of the video, the pink-haired girl gets to the ball but decides to turn away from it again to find her own way. Be that girl.