Moodorgan: Remember the Truth (11.11.11 mix)

directed by P.G. Johnson (http://vimeo.com/pgjohnson):

"With a bunch of neglected material sitting on the hard drives (some new footage from live shows, a number of new HD shots of downtown LA, plus some unused greenscreen footage of varying quality and format), as well as a recently-completed remix of the track, I decided to revisit this piece and flesh out some ideas that never made it into the first go-around.
I imagined two environments - both speculative versions of a future Los Angeles - in which to place characters played by Peter (a.k.a. Pierre Ordinaire), the bandleader and lead singer: there's an '80s cyberpunk aesthetic (yes, it's very much inspired by a certain Los Angeles, 2019 - and if you have an eye for details you'll notice some of the same locations - both real and CG - like the Bradbury Building and the 2nd Street tunnel) for the 'ground-level' (the verses), and there's also (for the chorus) the 'Tower of the Automaton Alchemist' (this should also look somewhat familiar to anyone who knows downtown), with a sort of Art Nouveau, Deco, and steampunk vibe - from here, high above the city, aloof and unfazed by the chaos around him, the Alchemist monitors the goings-on below through crystal viewscreens (a parallel to the ubiquitous video screens in the streets, below) ...
Verse, chorus (minor key vs. major key): stimulus overload vs. clarity, illusion vs. knowledge, ignorance vs. enlightenment, slavery vs. freedom, 'below' vs. 'above' - these are some of the themes suggested by the song that I've attempted to visually represent.
The third role for Peter is his actual role as bandleader and singer: I suppose I imagined the live shots as being in a dark, smoke-filled, unlicensed rock club hidden in the basement of the Bradbury or some other such fictional underground venue of a future-noir LA - though this idea isn't really explicitly presented (actually, the footage was indeed from live goth/industrial/electro club shows in LA, so it's not too far from the truth).
... oh yeah, and in keeping with old-school Los Angeles tradition, there are clues, messages hidden in the architecture ..."
---
The track is a revised mix of Remember the Truth (completed and mastered on November 11, 2011).
The live band is Peter, Scott Milton (drums), and Timothy Robert Smith (bass). Live lighting tech is C. Reed Powell (with M. Hawke).
Directed by P. G. Johnson
Live footage from Phonogram (Squalor Victoria) shot by Dan Statler.
Greenscreen footage shot at Big Art Labs.
And plenty of guerrilla DSLR (with vintage Nikkors) in downtown LA.
Live performance footage from Batcave LA, Bordello, Silver Factory Studios, Hollywood Rehearsal Studios, and the Moodorgan laboratory (the old one, down by the river) shot by Sherry Czerwein (Black Betty Productions), Jason Loya, Phil Miller, with additional footage by P. Johnson. Thanks to Brian Dickens for help with the Batcave shoot.
VFX, motion graphics, post: P. G. Johnson

moodorgan.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• moodorgan
• cyberpunk
• Los Angeles
• Blade Runner
• gothic
• industrial
• EBM
• electro
• Electronic Body Music
• Dark