La Fonte [Music Video Reflection]

There are few things I enjoy more than getting to tell a story with intense, visceral emotion at it's core.
When Nicolas Miquelon of the doom metal band Norilsk approached me about shooting a music video for "La Fonte", a track on their upcoming album 'Antipole' I immediately felt a level of apprehension I hadn't been accustom to. I had been given the opportunity several times to create visual media for the band, and always been met with the freedom to explore narrative and visuals as I felt suited the music and while I knew this situation would be no different in form, this time I was in different form.

I had taken a few years to step back and restructure my life and focuses. My health and motivations had been under massive upheaval and where once I was fueled by ambition and drive, I had found myself in quietude and doubt.

I no longer knew why I created art.

Years of workaholism, misaligned motivations, and the ever increasing discontent with the state of the attention economy and content creation grind had left me jaded, lacking in ambition, and absolutely burnt out physically and creatively.

I no longer wanted to just create.

Then, a moment came in our conversations about the potential directions of the music videos. Nicolas and I had discussed the idea of having two music videos shot, and having them tell a single story, connecting the narratives together. He presented two general inspirations:
The track "D'ombre et de glace (l'asphyxie)" would be very cool to have shot underwater,
and
The track "La Fonte" would tell a story of isolation and restlessness inspired by Nicolas's reading of Leo Tolstoy's "Family Happiness."

I had never read Tolstoy. Aside from a couple notable political philosopher's in the area during the late 1800's (Kropotkin, Bakunin, Makhno of note) I had never delved into the world of fiction, let alone depressive Russian fiction at that. So I found an audiobook version of the novel and spent the three hour run time in the dark of my photo lab digitizing film and being absolutely enraptured by the direct, introspective, and immersive writings of this powerful author. I spent the next several hours reflecting on the themes and mood, I thought about how to capture the essence of those lonely, endless Winter days described within the novel. The isolation, the boredom, the loneliness.

The yearning to escape.

The bitter acceptance that one cannot always do so.

and suddenly, something happened. I saw a scene. I saw dark muted tones, dusty furniture, empty rooms, a single lit candle, and the face of someone who was torn between desperate longing and quiet acceptance. I saw Mashechka watching the road, waiting for any sign of new life and energy. I saw that candle flicker and that anxiety grow.

I saw La Fonte.

No doubt this all seems very over-dramatic for reflections about filming a 5:15 music video, but in the moments that built this video, I was living that apprehension, that longing for Spring, that anxious flickering flame, that uncertainty. I wanted to know why I wanted to create art, I wanted to have a reason to create. I wanted to escape the feelings of uncertainty and refuse the acceptance that I had fallen into "content creation" and could no longer feel art.

This project, these video's became rediscovering why I create.
For this I will always be thankful.

Now that the overly personal and poorly formatted preamble is out of the way, allow me to tell you about the filming of "La Fonte"

My main goal with both videos was as it always is, to create a visual metaphor to capture and express the atmospheric and immersive energy of the artist I am collaborating with. I wanted to ensure my visual representation and narrative through line expressed the abysmal and heavy weight of the human experience that Norilsk has always brought out of me when listening to their music. Their emphasis on historical lyrical reference and the driving, perpetual drudge of the most challenging mentalities of the human experience has always made listening to their music a powerful experience. I wanted to make sure that the videos I produced offered an oppressive atmosphere that complimented their oppressive sound.
My secondary goal with both videos was to create something at a level of visual production that surpassed any of my previous work. This was a goal I feel I met thanks to a combination of an upgrade to my camera gear (relinquishing my Lumix GH-4 into the wild and welcoming a Fujifilm XT-4 in its stead) and a very fortunate connection to incredibly passionate artists and community across Saskatchewan.
(and of course my guiding mourningbird who keeps a semblance of order to my attention deficit meanderings. She does not edit this blog, clearly)
Firstly, I had been fortunate enough to connect with the Indian Head Museum in Indian Head, Saskatchewan through connecting in the community over the last several years. The incredible work they do to not only curate and express the local history of the area, but bring it to life within the old fire hall they retrofit into life-size diorama is nothing short of powerful. The first moment I walked into their 1900s style kitchen complete with cast iron stove and wooden refrigerator, I knew I needed to find an excuse to explore this space in a visual project. They were delightful enough to fully support my ambitions and soon I had the space booked for filming.
The next vital aspect for this production was an actress. At the time I was really only looking for someone who could express some simple, morose expressions. I try to keep my productions simple and limited for sake of budgets and time constraints, so I had intended to have a single actress and use composite videography to have her stalked by a ghostly visage of herself. Simple tripod and stitching in post that I had done many many times. I had been wanting to work with Sarah Fiset for a long time (better known in bendy clown form as The Lion Girl) and this seemed an ideal opportunity to make an excuse to work together. It also didn't hurt that she has few visible tattoos or piercings and her hair was a normal color. The perfect casting for our turn of the century heroine.
Little did any of us know that she would offer a range of expression and emotion that none of us, herself included, thought available.
"Could you try just like, starting neutral and getting increasingly upset?"
Within moments she had tears, a desperate expression, and a rage I was not prepared to see escape the eyes of this, may I remind you, literal clown girl. I was blown away and basically rewrote the narrative focus of the video in that moment focus more heavily on her emotional state rather than the ominous ghostly expression of her angst. With a few ideas suggested by mourningbird about mannerisms and visual ticks of anxiety, we found ourselves with a whole new story. What an incredible and unexpected find.
Filming took place over three sessions. One day in the Museum, one day in the pool of a nearby farm, kindly donated to our project, and one day doing a couple pickups to work around some weather limitations for a scene that needed to be rewritten. Editing was fairly straight forward and took probably around 20-30 hours.
Overall, a pretty smooth production for attempting to film underwater and in a building old enough to turn its water off during Winter months, while the yearly -30C Saskatchewan weather was in full effect.

This was a wonderful experience, from beginning to end.

Norilsk is always an artists dream to collaborate with both for the intentions they set and the freedom they provide within those intentions. There are few bands I've ever worked with or toured with or performed with that share the focus and intention that they do.
(Buy their music, also all of their merch is quality gildan soft. Very comfy.)
Sarah Fiset is an incredible talent who is slowly expanding her artistry and reach across Canada and will be a household name in any household that is involved in the cool niche art scenes that you wish you didn't work so early in the mornings so you could be a part of. Support her.
The Indian Head Museum is a bastion of local history and a pillar of the community and if you can donate to them or check out their digital archive, you should. In a world of AI slop and poorly hallucinated google searched, the effort to catalogue and offer the past to the present has never been more important.
Karen and Dennis rule for lending me their pool on the most beautiful sunny day so I could make depressing, desperate visuals happen.
mourningbird and I are always appreciative of opportunities to create. To be trusted with someones art, and to be gifted with the privilege of collaborating, and to help us feed all of our many, many cats.

Most importantly, I am given the opportunity to collaborate and create with all of these incredible people and places. I am able to let the candle flicker. I am allotted the space to thrive.

I know why I create.

- E

From Nicolas Miquelon:
"This collaboration is a good illustration of the creative process for a music video. Every artist gets its inspiration somewhat differently. For me, as a lyricist, I like building layers of storytelling and weaving complementary references for Norilsk songs. For the Antipole album, I wanted to write something beyond the theme of snow and cold; I wanted to write about something that would reflect a new chapter, or the passage 'out', while retaining the recognizable aesthetic of our 'Winter doom'.
Working on this concept, Spring, and the idea of carrying a heavy burden pass a tough period, became the story I wanted to write about. I also had this idea about the homonym 'fonte,' in French, which means both the thaw and cast iron, and would be a perfect vehicle for the lyrics. However, it's when I read Family Happiness, by Tolstoy, that the atmosphere and tone of the lyrics came together.
There is something about this 19th Century realistic litterature that mixes morale, state of mind, and the isolation of a country home, that brushed a fitting portrait of what I wanted to write about. Norilsk has been working with Erik for a number of years, on videos such as 'Noirceur intérieure', 'La voie des morts', and 'Weepers of the Land'. I think this ongoing collaboration contributed over time to better understanding each other's artistic universe, and developing an aesthetic to Norilsk music videos that would represent both of our artistic languages.
Erik's ability to capture intricate dark topics and to depict introspection, his creative ideas and director techniques, his network of performers, as well as Kristin's ideas for costumes and locations, have offered a fantastic partnership and opportunity to express Norilsk's atmospheric music. When we first spoke about a music video for 'La fonte,' it was in parallel with developing the concept for 'D'ombre et de glace' companion music video. I remember we spoke about the inspiration and the meaning behind the song 'La fonte' in great details, and we kept talking until images started taking shape. A video director may have a different artistic spark or interpretation on a song than its lyricist, and for that reason I found it important to give Erik room to bring in his ideas and creativity. To my greatest surprise, Erik told me sometimes after our conversation that he went ahead and read the entire Family Happiness story, and that he now wanted to see if he could depict this historical setting as well the feeling of the song into a music video. .
..And I was mindblown when I saw the footage of the video.
To this day, this is by far the closest our artistic collaboration have been, both in terms of visual references and storytelling. Erik and Kristin have found the perfect setup in the Indian Head Museum, and Sarah Fiset's multifaceted performance.

Please support all of these artists and institutions involved in this production:
https://norilskdoom.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/the.lion.girl/
https://www.instagram.com/indianheadmuseum/
https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/