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Stalker
’Stalker’ (the second single from ‘Unsound Methods’) was directed by Alex Coburn for Activate Films and is obviously a track whose very title conjures up an immediate and definite image. The mood of the song is clearly defined from the opening sequence and Alan was adamnt that the film should reflect its unsettling atmosphere without degenerating into the macabre – a successful end result would exploit the uncomfortable elements of the track whilst perhaps throwing some new light on its narrative.
Featuring close-up body shots of guest collaborator, Douglas McCarthy and Connie Chiu (a Chinese Albino with violet eyes), Coburn’s original treatment included the following:
“A man watches a strange woman in a hotel room. The character will play parts as if there was a big plot that hasn’t been reveated to us. Possibly a man, who has picked up a woman, had an affair and she now no longer wants to know – his obsessive desire takes over. There could even be a suggestion that he has, or wants, to kill her or himself. All the shots will tell us something about the story but not enough to know how it ends.”
“Edgy, dark, noir-ish with muted flat neon colours picking up on the style of the previous video (‘Drifting’)” and the artwork for the singles and album. Fast-paced and dynamic, blurred and scratchy; Semi fish-eye lens will create impression of a peep-hole slightly distorting the image. Addition of a mask over the lens will create the black circular frame – this will give a threatening POV type style.”
The first part of filming for ‘Stalker’ involved a hectic trip to New York to capture the aura and ambience of the city. The interior hotel scenes were filmed in London at the derelict Clarendon Court Hotel on the Edgware Road – a building infested with roaches and rats that had been used by the local council to house some of its more undesirable residents until it was condemned as ‘unfit for human habitation’.
Douglas McCarthy:
“When Alan originally asked me to write the lyrics for
‘Stalker’, I had a decision to make – whether to be the victim or
the perpetrator. Even though I recognised that the track shouldn’t be
a one sided power trip, I decided it would be much more fun to be the
prepetrator when it came to filming the promo, I actually found it
enjoyable assuming a role like this and apart from the fact that my
fingernails were too clean and had to be ‘blackened’ by the make-up
artist, I slipped into character without too much effort.”
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