Speculator- “Pure Ecstasy” Official Music Video from Samantha Cornwell on Vimeo.
Los Angeles’ Speculator, aka Nick Ray, continues to prove his true artistic range. Although I have come to associate his output with upbeat, celebratory rock — often centered around a well-selected sample– sometimes the darker side of his aesthetic makes itself quite vocal. The track “Pure Ecstasy” (a nod to the Austin, Texas band), is the most exquisite example of this that I can think of. When I was presented with the task of making a music video for it, I knew I had to produce something that did justice to its striking mood.
The lyrics to the song feature the words “my baby’s got a gun” over and over. This ominous phrase, along with the New Order-on-codeine vibe of the instrumentation, created an atmosphere of romance and danger. I hoped to bring out this feeling in the video, but I did not want to interpret the lyrics literally. When speaking with Nick about the piece, he revealed to me that for him the song brought to mind an image of a drive down the 110 freeway, shot on VHS. While I shoot the majority of my work on DV, I agreed that analog video technology would be the perfect compliment to the song. Recently I have been trying to avoid found footage in my work, so this meant procuring a camera. After some careful Craigslist sifting, I found a tube camera from 1985 being sold by a man in the city of Tujunga. From what I observed as we drove slowly through the hills, Tujunga is one of those San Fernando Valley cities that takes on an eerie, surreal vibe at night; you see few people out and about, and the ones you do see act as though they are all involved in some unsavory plot. That night drive through Tujunga gave me all the inspiration that I needed for the video.
What you are about to see is shot from the point of view of an urban outsider, perhaps Los Angeles’s equivalent of Travis Bickle. His main fascinations lie in the back-pages of the LA Weekly, although these explorations drive him further away from humanity. As trails of light melt across the screen, he drives further and further into the dark of the night…
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