Warpaint – “Billie Holiday”

By Liam Grieves and Hannah Godfrey

Background of the Song

The song “Billie Holiday” is a dream pop song written and performed by Warpaint; Jenny

Lee Lindberg, Emily Camille Kokal, Theresa Becker Wayman, Josh Klinghoffer and John

Frusciante. “Billie Holiday” was recorded for their EP “Exquisite Corpse”, which was

recorded in 2007, self-released in late 2008, and released by Manimal Vinyl in October

2009 to a high critical acclaim in the indie music world.

Our Music Video

The main concept for our video is the contrasting relationship between nature and commerce; the video is a surreal mix of sped up shots of

hectic industrial scenes (including a docking yard and an office), contrasted with calm, slow motion Romanticist shots of beaches, forests,

sunsets and wild life. We may also incorporate a character to represent these two themes and be included in the video, such as a man in a suit

representing the industrial world, and a girl in a floral dress to contrast and represent nature.

The overall style is surreal with provocative shots to engulf the audience. The colours will be mainly natural blues, greens and yellows

contrasted with strong greys and black. We’re trying to decide how to incorporate a lip-sync into the video, but really, we feel it is unnecessary

as the genre of the song tends to lean towards a surreal narrative based video rather than performance orientated. However, we will definitely be

using some shots to illustrate lyrics:

- “birds of a feather” – We will use shots of birds flying over the ocean, contrasting with them flying over industrial estates.

- “the cream of the crop” – This will be illustrated by shots of corn fields, but also shown by the intake of profit in an office.

- “I walk this line” – We will show two sets of feet; one in leather shoes walking through an office, another barefoot running on a beach.

- “as a matter of taste” – This lyric will be demonstrated by the two characters eating habits: fast food/fruit.

- “B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y” – This is repeated throughout the song and we’re deciding whether or not to use a lip-sync as a repeated

motif, or superimposed letters appearing as they are sung. Our fears are that the lip-sync may become boring after so many repetitions, and that

the letters may look tacky.

Our locations will be within our town, but possibly venturing to Newcastle (the nearest major city) to film some of the more robust city shots.

We will use locations such as beaches, dockyards, fields, forests, busy roads and possibly Steetley, a disused magnesite in our town. We will

also try to use a studio to film some basic shots with a projector. We are deciding whether or not to use a Super8 camera to give the grainy film

effects that we want, or just to use a grain filter while editing.