MARNIE - LOST MAPS
[OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
Featuring NATALI McLEARY | Written, Produced & Directed by TIM COURTNEY | Director of Photography STEVE CARDNO
1st Assistant Camera & Focus Puller SEFA UCBAS | Steady Cam Operator SEAN CORBETT | Drone Operator BARRY CROSBIE
Makeup Artist JENNA CLAYTON | Editor & Colourist TIM COURTNEY
With thanks to the Glasgow Barrowlands Market community | Lomo Glasgow | Loch Long Hotel, Arrochar.
“Get Lost In The Synthscapes of Marnie’s Lost Maps”
Interview excerpt from Playboy with Helen Marnie, by Gil Macias
Published, March 30, 2017 here.
I want to talk about this new video for “Lost Maps.” You only show up for one scene. Who came up with the concept for the video?
I explained to the director [Tim Courtney] what the song was influenced and inspired by, initially. And then he decided to take it in that direction and use it as the theme for the video. I didn’t mind not being in the video. It was deliberate. It just felt like, “Do I need to be the protagonist in the video?” For me, I’d rather have the story told by other people, but I would have a little cameo.
"I don’t like being so specific. It’s hard, because then it becomes a thing. If I tell you what it was inspired by, thene people can’t make up their own minds..."
- Helen Marnie
In your one scene, you appear to have a green arrow, pointing upward, painted on your face. Is there any significance to the makeup?
It’s just silly, really. That was my idea. Just to refer to geography and maps. I was like, “Can we have a bit of color?” Because it’s quite dark. In that tiny scene I am in, I just wanted there to be a little bit of light relief. And it does refer to the “Lost Maps,” so that’s why it’s there.
You mentioned you told the director what the song was influenced by. Care to elaborate?
I don’t like being so specific. It’s hard, because then it becomes a thing. If I tell you what it was inspired by, then people can’t make up their own minds and they won’t see anything else in it. Do you want me to tell you what it’s inspired by?
Well, I wouldn’t mind hearing a little bit, but I do agree that it’s nice to let viewers interpret it their own away.
When I wrote the lyrics, they were influenced by the refugee crisis, when the boats were up on the shores and that image of the child who drowned, so that is the essence of the song. That’s the angle that the director took, but we wanted to be a bit more ambiguous, so you don’t really know where she’s come from, or what her situation is, but she’s trying to get somewhere that’s really important to her. So there is a story, a beginning and an end, but you’re not sure what the situation is.