This video is intended to reveal more of Offspring than we've ever seen in a video before. However, much of the video will involve ghostly images, dissolves, moving light sources and obscured views. Despite all this the video will retain a sense of beauty and the camera moves will be gracefully executed. The video is shot in rich, deep colors: blues, greens, browns and edited full screen.

As the drum intro starts the first images are obscured and small in screen. In the frame in the middle of the screen we sense fuzzy images of discarded instruments lying in pies, abandoned and broken furniture, hands, pars of faces. During this intro we will notice that some of the images are framed in a small moving matte in the screen. We do this by shooting through a hole cut in a sheet of black card about two inches in diameter and held by hand in front of the camera. This is especially intriguing on close up inserts on instruments or faces. The use of the small matte or darkened areas along the edge of frame will re-occur frequently throughout the clip.

We will never be completely clear as to the nature of the band's location. It is simply a large space; occasionally we will get the sense that there is a brown wall in the background or a deep green door or a rusting pillar off to one side. It is not clean or clinical like a film stage but we do not see enough to establish whether this is a house, a garage, a warehouse or whatever.

We notice that the film footage is unclean: gloomy processing marks and scratches are all over the film. Tail ends and processing information hurtles through the frame: AOfspring roll 5" (sic). Some shots seem as if the magazine of film was accidentally opened and light has crept in to over-expose the edge of the film. This will continue throughout the entire video. (We will shoot a test of some ideas before the video for everyone's perusal).

One by one the band members pick up their instruments or arrive in the space. We capture a vague moment in the shadows as each band member starts to play. Noodles picks up a guitar from the pile on the floor. Greg plugs in, Ron settles onto his drum stool and picks up the beat and so on.

Dexter performs the song in a number of set ups. He sings to a mic that hangs down from the ceiling as if in a boxing ring. He sings as a lone light bulb swings past in front of his face. He sings behind a window of frosted glass in a door, his body a vague shape but the features of his face becoming sharper as he leans closer to the glass.

For all of the band we shall employ some unusual angles to soot them as they perform. Perhaps the camera is very close to them and slightly above the face looking down upon them, or slightly over the shoulder. Close ups of hand playing instruments are seen from behind as well as in front. We see the band silhouetted against the glow of a light on a distant wall. Their features are indistinguishable as they move, all we see are their movements as the images slip in and out of focus.

During the verses we feel a certain introverted sense from the way the band performs. The camera comes in close to them and wanders around them, we somehow feel sucked into what it is that they are doing. Sometimes the camera wanders away inadvertantly capturing an out of focus image beyond.

During the verses we also contribute to the atmosphere of the performance by keeping the lighting low. Occasional washes of light sweep by everyone and maybe some bright flashes occur on some of those deep tom beats. But, despite the size of the location, it feels intimate and personal.

In the choruses the energy of the performance picks right up and the camera moves around faster but still stumbles off into areas away from the band. For some key musical moments the camera will start close on a band member and then hurtle away so that his figure becomes smaller and smaller enhancing the feeling of alone-ness in the video. All the guys will be shot individually. We will not get to see all four of them in frame at the same time.

We also shoot individual portrait moments of the band members. Perhaps they are sitting relaxing with a guitar, reading a book, staring at the camera, looking out of a window, ignoring us. We see brief glimpses of their hands, shoes, ears etc. The video becomes a pictorial jigsaw puzzle of beautifully photographed images of the band.

We shoot some still life images of inanimate objects which we cut sparingly in with the other footage: a rusty tap dripping, a half eaten plate of food, a dead flower in a musty vase, a discarded guitar with a broken string, a snare drum with a broken skin, one shoe on it's own on the floor, a broken light bulb, the hanging mic Dexter's been using, with the rippled cable it hung from in a pile on the floor.

There's no linear story, but virtually every piece of footage contains the band members whether in performance or in portraiture. This is a video about photography, imagery, feeling.

By Nigel Dick, from Columbia Video Promotion