One Viewing Isn’t Enough
The music video for Medscool’s song Fishbowl is odd, erotic, evocative, and aesthetic; it’s what a music video should be, and it’s having its world premiere at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival‘s Music Video Showcase on April 25.
Art, including music, is an expression of emotion through a medium with the purpose of putting said emotion into the consumer; that is exactly what this video does. Unlike live concert footage or a cheesy studio video, this video aims to provide visual accompaniment, thereby furthering our immersion into the emotional world of the song. Written by Maria Donjacour and directed by Jonah Moshammer, it succeeds with class.
Starting with the eerie sound of dripping water, a sonic addition for the video, a rising note fades in, building a palpable tension, perhaps evoking the anxiety and unsettling feelings that were the driving force behind the creation of the song. But we are immediately sent into a world of deep red and provocative dancing by beautiful women with the opening line “Been thinking ‘bout her.”
This is juxtaposed with Donjacour’s position behind dripping water and a cold, dark backdrop. Complementing the chorus line “I’m stuck outside your fishbowl,” this visual literally places her outside the romantic warmth of the red space the dancers inhabit.
This video has to be watched multiple times to be seen fully.”
The song continues to twirl through its progression with images of Donjacour coming in and out of the red, seductive space. Paired with lyrics about a “tornado-scape” and a shown world that makes her own feel “emptier” while she’s “caught in the rapids,” the combination makes for a clearly tumultuous feeling.
Exploring the themes of curated identities in the modern age of social media, these dichotomous images help bring out the sentiment of the song. You can visually sense the rift felt by Donjacour as she simultaneously is drawn into and excluded from the red space.
Then we are introduced to a pastel yellow world where Donjacour finds her freedom in interpretive dance and release. However, this new yellow space still has to visually fight with that of the dark, cold, and red erotic spaces, showing her internal conflict. Combined with the bridge of the song, we get a dreamy sequence where she contemplates the fictional world of social media curation; asking questions like “How do you have the time to curate your mind for all its worth?”
Eventually she is seemingly able to briefly free herself from that “chokehold,” but as the song sizzles away we are left again with that first image of Donjacour. The sound of dripping water can be heard, bringing it full circle.
This video has to be watched multiple times to be seen fully. There are so many quick cuts,
complex shots, overlays, split screens and thematic layers that one viewing isn’t enough.
Ironically, it does exactly what the lyrics say: It creates a “fantasy so strong it seems so real.”
The screening of Fishbowl (World Premiere, 5 minutes, USA, rated PG, in English) as part of the Music Video Showcase at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival April 23-28 is sponsored by Music Roadtrip, also supported by KCPR.