Ear to the Ground

The short film/music video "Ear to the Ground" is surreal journey about the search for understanding in a mysterious world. The film conjures twists on references to the Genesis story of man's discovery of forbidden knowledge.

The blind-fold clad "Blind Man" stumbles forward, hands stretched out in the air, groping to learn his place within the wilderness. New to the world, he moves in a herky-jerky manner as if he is just learning to walk, often stumbling as he approaches a promised apple that is ever so close, ever so far away. He is teased by teased "She Creature", an alluring but dangerous creature. Depicted by a slender dancer, The She Creature has serpentine movements and is covered in dirt as if lives in the ground beneath the Earth's crust. The Mystic, depicted by Adrienne Vanderocker in theatrical makeup, surveys the scene in a seemingly omniscient manner. The film employs numerous avant garde shooting and editing techniques that lend themselves to a tripped out interpretative experience of the music of Vanderocker. I felt like the song conjured feelings of autumn (real autumn, not L.A. autumn). I wanted the color palette to be brown and black.

The script began like this: "FADE UP on the BLIND MAN, eyes wrapped in gauze with two buttons where his eyes would be. He stretches his arms up in the air as if in a prayer to the universe (in slow motion as if he is in water). Enter the SHE CREATURE. She's a slender other-worldly figure with a serpentine-spider-like movement and she is covered in dirt as if she had emerged from the earth below. She writhes with a seductive confidence while conjuring a delicious deep red apple . The "Blind Man" wears a blind fold and walks forward with his hand stretched out in the air, groping to learn in the wilderness. New to the world, he moves in a herky-jerky manner as if he is just learning to walk, often stumbling as he approaches a promised apple that is ever close, ever so far away..."