For our music video our chosen song is ‘Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked’ by Cage The Elephant. As prior mentioned to accompany our music video we must also design and create a digi-pak including album artwork. In a previous post we have mentioned preliminary ideas for both our music video and the front cover of our album art. As the title of the song includes the word ‘wicked’ we wish to convey our protagonist as ‘wicked’, meaning corrupt or evil. We aim to show this through a variety of ways in our music video, however after planning and research we came upon the idea to incorporate the 7 deadly sins within our music video and possibly our album art design. To clearly establish to the audience the idea of our protagonist being ‘wicked’.
The research into the 7 deadly sins was done through a variety of sources, two of our main sources are linked below:
http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/beliefs/the_seven_deadly_sins.htm
http://www.deadlysins.com/sins/
These websites have allowed us to research into the sins whilst considering original religious views and interpretations of these sins. As well as definitions so that as a group we could have a clear interpretation of what each sin means to us, allowing us to further our ideas of how we would physically represent these sins in our final piece.
An image showing visual interpretations of the 7 deadly sins
Our research into these 7 deadly sins has left us with a list of the common names for these sins and their meanings. We hope to take these ideas and incorporate them into our video to add a further level of disjuncture to the semi-narrative music video.
The 7 deadly sins are as listed below:
- Wrath
Wrath, which is more commonly known as anger or rage can be described as an uncontrollable feeling of hatred or “out-of-control anger… fuelled by hate”. Wrath is also known to create destructive tendencies and can be linked to other sins such as envy and greed therefore to represent this image physically the protagonist will have to show anger purely through expression and body language.
- Greed
Greed which is also known as “avarice, cupidity or covetousness”, is most commonly linked to lust and gluttony, it has also been referred to in our research as “a sin of excess”. This means that the sin is seen, by the church, as a sin of desire towards the pursuit of material possessions. Additionally the sin is also known to show a desire for taking things from people, especially the poor, therefore for have had ideas of showing the protagonist stealing money, taking this idea from the lyrics “money don’t grow on trees”.
- Sloth
Sloth is often known as laziness, primarily spiritual, for example this could be a lack of spiritual maturity. However this sin is more commonly known as physical laziness. Additionally spiritual laziness is also considered as “a rejection of God’s grace …Failing to develop spiritually is key to becoming guilty of sloth”.
- Pride
Pride is most known as the chief sin, in other words it is seen as the main sin from which others are generated, “the sin that occurred in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer’s sin”. More commonly pride is known as Vanity and is considered most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is defined as a desire to be more important than others. Pride can also been seen through failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of ones self. For this sin we would therefore consider having this image as the central piece to album art designs if this was to be included in our work.
- Lust
Lust or lechery can be seen as, in the most basic terms: an intense desire. Lust however is most commonly known as an excessive sexual want and “craving for the pleasures of the body” as well “an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body”. Although it has also been seen as a desire for money and power rather than simply physical desire.
- Envy
Similar to greed and lust, Envy is defined by an insatiable desire. Envy is also often described as being similar to jealousy due to the “awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another” however envy differs as it is “joined with a desire to possess the same advantage”. This sin has also been seen as an excess of jealousy, over a range of issues such as materialism and sexual desire.
- Gluttony
Gluttony, derived from the Latin “gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow”, is more commonly known as an over indulgence or stress on lacking the future provisions. Gluttony has also been shown as an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires, in addition to taking from those who need things, especially the hungry. Similar in many ways to greed and lust.
A sign post illustrating the 7 deadly sins
We wish to represent these sins in a stereotypical way so that the audience may understand and recognise them during the video and possibly if they appear on our album artwork. To do this we had the idea of showing the protagonist in 7 different poses to illustrate each of the sins clearly within our final piece.
Another image showing representations of the 7 deadly sins with different colours representing each sin.
Our research into the seven deadly sins also included taking inspiration from the film Seven (seen as Se7en in the title sequence). This film is a 1995 American psychological thriller film written by Andrew Kevin Walker, which was directed by David Fincher that stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. This film involves a serial killer killing due to the seven deadly sins, although we do not wish for our protagonist to become as extreme as the character within the film, we have considered showing the ‘wicked’ characterisation of our protagonist through our representations of the seven deadly sins.
A movie poster from the film Seven, showing the 7 deadly sins
We aim to create multiple images of our protagonist committing each sin to include within panels of our album artwork and possibly as stills within our music video. The idea of including the 7 deadly sins gives our group further ideas to enhance our creative decisions towards our final piece.
To conclude, from this research into the 7 deadly sins we have enhanced the ideas for both our music video and possible ideas for our album artwork. Thus meaning we can add an extra layer of content and therefore interest for the audience into our music video if we pursue this idea that has been inspired from both online research and ideas taken from other media texts.
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