Sean Wainsteim, director: "You know that gutted feeling you get when a relationship ends?
It’s an onslaught of real, overwhelming emotions and memories. Memories that are often tied to places you still occupy. Living in that state can feel like both the deepest love and the most endless death.
Part killer band performance, part experimental narrative, the video for The Rural Alberta Advantage’s “Not Love or Death” explores ideas of time, memory and space through the lens of one girl reflecting on her first relationship. Taking place entirely in her bedroom, a roving camera drifts through moments of her past that begin to bleed together and eventually overlap. Good times mesh with bad in a indecipherable flurry as we struggle to grasp onto anything clear. All we can do is let it wash over us and try to observe and learn from what was.
This video was a massive technical challenge. The goal was to create a camera that moves independent of any set narrative but give glimpses of scenes as they unfold in one space. We designed and constructed a set with moving walls for our camera to explore. Moving walls allowed us access to closeups and wide shots from one single lens. At points we move entirely off the set, but it still feels like we’re within it. The flowing camera work was made possible with a repeatable motion control system. The final video is made up of over 100 layers of composited together. Thanks to the band and the actors for their amazing performances. Everyone really came together to make something special."
