SLANDER & Said The Sky “Potions” – Music Video Review
Anirudh Singh
In Music Video Review Posted June 05, 2019
Everyone in the electronic music community is familiar with the names of SLANDER and Said the Sky, and they’ve both joined forces in “Potions”.
The music video for “Potions” is an artistic feast! Everything from the filter used, to the intentional blank frames, makes the video worth a watch. Have a look before reading ahead:
The Brightness
The first impression that the video leaves on you is a dim, bleak one. It’s as if the video robs you of all brightness in your life. I genuinely had to adjust my screen’s brightness, until I realised the bleak filter was intentional. And that realisation blew my mind!
The editors made such a clever use of the filters, differentiating between the grim present and the bright past.
Storyline
As the video proceeds, we are taken through the couple’s story from the perspective of our male protagonist. The memories in the video take us through how the couple met, up until the point of their breaking up, one fight at a time.
We also learn that in present, the protagonist is consuming some sort of “potions”, which apparently give him flashbacks of his better half. When hallucinating under the influence of these potions, he tries to run and reach his love but fails.
Frustrated, he prepares another potion and leaves it at the girl’s front door with the message “Meet me here”. This establishes that the only way for both of them to meet in the “dreams” is when they both take the potion.
The Hope
The mailing of the potion seems to give the story a hopeful turn, our heart tells us that this man will finally meet his lover. The amazing camera work in this section (2:55-3:00), starting from behind the character and then catching up with him, gives the scene an incredibly dramatic effect. However, to our disappointment, the protagonist still keeps running, taking potions on top of potions, but is unable to reach her.
Further, we also learn that place where the protagonist is running, is the same place the couple broke up. He is simply living in the memories of that dreadful day, trying to do everything he can to make it different. There are also short scenes of the girl walking away from him, just like the day they broke up.
After multiple attempts at reaching her, our character starts giving up. All the hope that the previous scenes built, is taken away in a matter of seconds.
Brief Closure
Just as we think all hope is lost, we are greeted with a brief scene of the girl joining him- the fated reunion that we’ve been waiting for all this time. The short nature of the scene makes it all the more powerful. It leaves a lot to imagination, and in an excellent way!
Dark frames
The dramatic effect of the final scene is multiplied ten times by the use of a blank black scene right after it. These intentional dark frames that hang on for a bit too long, are actually an essential part of the video.
This part leaves room for our imagination. For us viewers to collect our thoughts and relieve us of the tension we’ve been experiencing for the last minute. To feel happy. To get closure. It completes what the previous scene cut short.
Conclusion
I personally believe that “Potions” is an amazing track that deserved a lot more attention but got foreshadowed by the coinciding release of Madeon’s latest single “All My Friends” (another beautiful track). Potion hands down has one of the best music video I’ve seen in years!
Hi! My name is Anirudh Singh. Follow me on my Instagram to keep updated with more such stories.
