Directorial Notes - October, 2021
Years ago, a viral video circulated on the internet featuring an uncanny homemade android.
This video was known as the "I Feel Fantastic" video.
The origins were unknown. A mythology erupted around the maker of the film, his motives, his past, but no definitive answers were forthcoming.
Our music video attempts to explore what happened to Tara the Android and her creator.
In the process, we want to treat the emergent folklore of the internet sincerely.
What drove John Bergeron to create Tara? Is it the same impulse that drives us to create and fetishize female pop femininity? What would happen if his creation demanded her freedom? These are the questions we wanted to explore.
In taking on Tara's story we made a deliberate choice to look at a meme as if it contained secret knowledge, deserving of interrogation. The myths, jokes, and pranks of the early internet may someday become the foundational stories we tell around the campfire. We wanted to treat the subject as if it already deserved that status.
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See the original "I Feel Fantastic" video here.
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Featuring: Lena Luca as Tara the Android, Tinus Seaux as John the Creator
Written & Directed by Travis Lee Ratcliff
Produced by Brody Carmichael, Emily Basma, Travis Lee Ratcliff
1st AD: Arturo R. Jiminez
Cinematography by Brody Carmichael
Styling by Kaidon Ho
Color by Brandon Thomas, TBD Post
Visual Effects by J.P. JaramilloEdited by Travis Lee Ratcliff
Motion graphic designer: Kevin P. Kearney
Filmed on the Varicam LT at Movement House Studios in Austin, Texas with Zeiss Master Primes.
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