Baitercell & Schumacher “Lock & Load”

2004-baitercell-and-schumacher-lock-and-loadThe “Lock & Load” video takes inspiration from the song title and sets it in a world of guns, though of the video game variety. It’s set in an uncanny city intersection, with crude computer animation – just the sort of thing that would feature in a video game of the era.

Vocalist Bex plays the protagonist of the game and it’s a pretty simple game. Just her shooting people. There are lots of sound effects, mostly gunfire, and they threaten to dominate the video at the expense of the song. But then, as the song is a chaotic drum ‘n’ bass extravaganza, the gunfire does at least fit the mood.

Like the recent video for Tourist’s song “Do You Feel the Cold?”, this video was also the recipient of a $1500 grant from Positively Wellington Business to make the video in Wellington. So what do you do when the video is set in a fictitious, computer-generated world?

Well, all the building look Wellington-ish, the sort of Victorian style you see down the Courtenay Place end of town. And the buildings are decked out with the brands of local businesses – as well as obvious brands like Hell pizza, Red Bull and urban clothing retailer Spacesuit, there’s also the vegetarian cafe Pranah. Well, video game assassins can’t survive just on pizza and energy drinks.

The video feels a little bit messy, like they’ve created this video game world, but all there is to do with it is shoot the bad guys. Whereas real video games, well, they tend to be bit more sophisticated.

Best bit: the assassin shoots up a video shop. Not seen – the owner takes the insurance payout and retires before the home video market crashes.

Director: Ed Davis

Next… a cure for loneliness.

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