Pressed 2 Death

2019 – MUSIC VIDEO FOR “ILLUMINATI HOTTIES”

MADE WITH: Illustrator, After Effects, and a sketchbook.

BRIEF: Illuminati Hotties are a Los Angeles band who, in the song Pressed To Death, use sharply contrasting musical sections to create a fragmented and high energy narrative about a frustrated relationship. The three main goals for this animated music video were: (1) to get people to pay attention to the lyrics and musical elements of the song by visualizing them in a way that adds to the music rather than distracts from it, (2) to highlight the emotions of the song’s narrator, and (3) to feel like a roller coaster ride.

I made the color palette by finding a brighter version of the red used in the band’s (You’re Better) Than Ever music video and then creating a triadic palette in relation to this red. I wanted the color palette to be bright and playful to match the “tenderpunk” tone of the band’s music. The song’s lyrics are very playful and conversational, so I used a handwritten look for all of the type.

The main character of the song is a twenty-something millennial tenderpunk, represented as a “pyramid person” to play off the word Illuminati within the band’s name. She is sassy and emotional. Throughout the song, she flip-flops between sadness and angry frustration. These emotions are visualized by switching between a black/white/blue and a black/white/red/yellow color scheme. Motion also changes to match these conflicting emotions and scenes rapidly change in tandem with these elements.  In the verses I used a guitar cable as a visual motif to lead the viewer past changing lyrics/images to highlight how the guitar drives this song. The choruses and post-choruses take place on a two different versions of a street (one slow-moving and blue, one fast-moving and bright). The drum break takes place in a dark area which operates as a counterpoint to the post-chorus street setting.