Description:

‘Figment’ by the Alpaca Brothers

In making the music video for "Figment" by the Alpaca Brothers, I wanted to visually bring their song's message about self-delusion to life. Their lyrics talk about believing things about yourself that might not be true, and I wanted to show how this feeling can make you feel disconnected from reality. The song repeats the phrase 'I am a figment of my own imagination', which I interpreted as being trapped within one's own thoughts, imagining falsehoods about oneself. To convey this theme, I used natural distortion through water and glass and manual distortion with analog drawings layered onto the original video, creating a visual narrative that mirrors the song's intensity. The video progresses in intensity, matching the crescendo of the music, achieved through spotlights, shadow casting, contrast manipulation during filming, and quick cuts. To achieve the desired distortion effects, I selected and distorted specific frames, and used techniques such as tracing outlines and creasing printouts, which were then sequenced using DragonFrame software and a multi-plane camera setup, adding a gritty texture to the frames. Working with the Alpaca Brothers was an incredible experience, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to create a video for such a cool band.