When Sonic approached me for this project I knew it would be a special one. Played in the dark emphasizing vulnerability. Drowned in color to create vivid emotions. Siren is meant to feel like a scary but captivating nightmare. It should evoke feelings of fear, curiosity, and beauty. Are you hypnotized? Is she casting a spell? Are you sinking in her emotions? These are all questions I kept on my mind while editing.
This entire process was very homegrown. No budget, no grandiose studio with phenomenal lighting, no thousand-dollar cameras just me and my small collective, We Amplify. Besides the opening shot (which I hung out of a car to get), everything was shot in my mother’s living room. I shot on a SONY a6 with a Zhiyun gimbal but in full transparency, after a while, I preferred being handheld to follow Sonic’s movements better.
SIREN
“ I wrote Siren about my anxiety, how it sneaks up and chokes me tightly without a warning in the wee hours of the night. Sleep is supposed to be peaceful, a time for our bodies and minds to rest and recharge but boy does it come when I'm most vulnerable, in a deep slumber. So, often I question if it's real. Of course, it is. It's light and dark, it's fear and doubt. Essentially it's me in a constant battle with myself and it's taken a lot for me to accept that. So I run and run and run and eventually the anxiety outruns me, then we dance and do it all over again in repetition.”
-sonic
Role: Art Director, Videographer, Editor
All editing was done in Final Cut Pro.