An Interview with Bad Bad Man Director Lynn Birdwell
An interview with Bad Bad Man music video Director Lynn Birdwell, written and interviewed by Lou Congelio of ACME Fish
(Houston, TX) In Runaway Sun’s new music video, Bad Bad Man, Director Lynn Birdwell of Rivet explores the dark side that lives within every soul.
“It’s a story about a man and how he responds to the tragic murder of his wife,” explained Birdwell.
The haunting, prophetic lyrics, written by Runaway Sun lead singer, Andrew Karnavas, take us on an ominous journey of death and self confession.
“He’s a man in crisis, overwhelmed by grief and anger, who seeks revenge and eventually gets what he is after,” Birdwell added.
The video is a compilation of monochromatic performance footage and stark, black & white paper animation gently interspersed with the softly lit, color imagery of a Day of the Dead ofrenda.
We follow the animated “bad bad man” throughout the video as he relentlessly pursues and disperses his wife’s killers.
“We chose to render the storyline in animation to accentuate the intense rage and sorrow that our bad man is feeling,” said Birdwell. “Also, the animation, created by Houston animator, Brandon Ray, gave us a different, surreal texture to weave into our video tapestry.”
“The altar scenes are all very subtle,” Birdwell added. “The ofrenda is a collection of photos, a necklace and remembrances of the slain woman’s marriage lit by candles that illuminate their love and desire.”
Midway through the story, the music abruptly shifts to a lighter, more sensitive tone as the husband confesses, “My hat wasn’t always this black. It was white like my wife’s wedding dress,” helping us to realize the enormity of his transformation.
“I’d love for people to get lost in the mystery of the storyteller’s situation; the depth of feeling and insufferable loss that comes with losing the person you’ve become one with in marriage.” Birdwell explained.
In the final scenes, our animated characters come into the real world of the ofrenda as a fire burns in front of the woman’s photo. She sees herself avenged as the bad bad man looks on with the fathomless eyes of someone who has seen more than a person should ever see.
Whether he really killed these men or whether he has dreamed the executions in a continual walking nightmare of grief, we don’t know. All we do know is she is never, ever coming back. And neither is he.
Catch the World Premiere of Bad Bad Man at Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company on March 28.
i can’t wait to see the reaction of everyone when they view this video at the premier. There are so many layers to this production and lyrics that viwers will take away something new every time they view it. Many subtleties!
Spoiler alert:
Watch for the necklace.