New James Bond music video: Skin
Title: Skin (download here)
Fandom: Casino Royale (2006 James Bond movie)
Music: Skin Is, My by Andrew Bird
Stats: DivX (55.4MB) and WMV (29.6MB), 3:40
Double-0 status confirmed; it's a pity MI6 doesn't supply the skin to go along with it.
It's Not Easy Bein' Green Bond. Additional notes under the cut, and if it's of interest to anyone, I've written up a separate commentary on how the spot color effect at the end of the vid was achieved in After Effects.
I didn't see Casino Royale until well after it was released. And it's interesting, because most of what I heard/read about this new Bond incarnation was how brutal and cold and ruthless he was. I actually think his defining characteristic (at least in this movie) is recklessness. He goes from a state of emotionally detached body-count-stacking-uppage to completely losing his heart and being willing to quit the whole spy gig to float around the world for the love of Vesper. If that's not utter recklessness, then I don't know what is.
That's really what appealed to me about Casino Royale. I've seen other Bond movies and sure, many have been fun, but none really made a lasting impression on me. Perhaps because Bond himself was too flippant, too suave, too polished, too far removed from anything ever impressing itself upon him. Hooray for origin stories and the opportunity to get a look at what shapes a character when they're still all fresh and malleable!
So, hmmm...I talked more about the movie than the vid, but it's all part of the same :) I guess the summary here is that there's a journey to becoming that "Bond, James Bond" of legend, and it's filled with pain -- physical and emotional. Armor is built and stripped and built again. It's a bloody process. And Bond + Vesper = dooooooomed true love that pushes all my buttons, goodnight.
Lyrics:
my skin is
white as parchment
drier than a downtown office building
where the air is tight
there's time spent
resting on her bones
waiting for the telephone to ring
ba-ring ba-ring ba-ring
ba-ring ba-ring ba-ring...
bo-ring bo-ring bo-ring
bo-ring bo-ring bo-ring...
my skin is
cold as her toes on the bathroom floor
run back to bed and slam the door
oh what a lovely sound
oh how it shakes the ground
oh what a lovely sound
oh what a lovely sound
oh what a lovely
skin
is my
it's the only thing
that doesn't really fly in my land
and love, oh love
is my love is
it's the only thing that
butterfly in Thailand
let it be printed on every t-shirt in this land
on the finest of cottons and the hippest of brands
in bolder letters than the capital I
that it's the only thing, it's the only thing
it's the only lonely
ohhhhh
my skin is
white as parchment
drier than a downtown office building
where the air is tight
there's time spent
waiting for that
macrame bird of prey
to come down and sing
la-ling la-ling la-ling
la-ling la-ling la-ling...
la-ling la-ling la-ling
la-ling la-ling la-ling...
oh what a lovely sound
oh how it shakes the ground
oh what a lovely sound
oh how it shakes the ground
oh what a lovely sound
oh what a lovely sound
oh how it shakes the ground
(repeat to end)
Feedback, if you're so moved, is genuinely appreciated.