In using his music it was important that we did some background research into the artist himself so as to better reflect him in our work, and maintain the connection between the artist and their music, as well as maintaining the appeal for his fans. As the founder and organiser of the band Lemon Demon, Neil Cicierega has actually created different successful content before, gaining attention online with other projects such as Potter Puppet Pals. This side of comedic weirdness and experience with online success is seen translated into his music as Lemon Demon too, with other songs featured around quirky or unconventional themes (The Man in Stripes and Glasses, a song about Where’s Wally, and As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It, a song speaking directly to the listener as Neil takes the position of their father). This nature can also be seen is his twitter posts, often consisting of jokes, and (ironically) horrendously designed website. This all accumulates into an image of a man who knows exactly how to appeal to his niche but dedicated audience residing on the internet with memes, jokes and plenty of weird.
To better prepare for the shoot we also compiled a mood board of the visual mise-en-scene ideas we had for the star and video as a whole. Here we’ve listed some adjectives and ideas for conveying the character and vibes of the video, alongside some images to better visualise it. For our star we want to portray him as a dishevelled, self-secluded, obsessive conspiracy theorist, staying in his basement amongst scattered notes and theories, including distinct conspiracy theory icons such as a pin board with red strings, tin foil hat and erratic calculations and scribbles. Along with this, to better narrow down and make the visuals more coherent we have chosen to go with a retro style (using old mechanical keyboards and equipment) and red/blue/black colour scheme (these colours are typically associated with 3D glasses, another nod to typical conspiracy theorist ideas, as these glasses are said to allow you to “see things more clearly”).
