Title: Daze Like This (direct download)
Length: 4:14
File Size: 9.8mb
File Type: QuickTime .mov
Music: "Dark Days" by DJ Shadow

Short Synopsis: Daze Like This depicts a day-in-the-life of an unnamed everyman who, like many Americans, spends every waking moment not in a crippling depression, but a more general soul sucking malaise.

About: Jonas Moody and I (Daniel S Dunnam) shot this video over the course of one long day. We met up at about 7am and shot all day. By 11p we were done.

The original concept was for the unnamed everyman to pull his car over on an over-pass of a busy 10 lane expressway and then jump off into on coming traffic. I liked this idea because of how depressing it was, and it would have been a fun set of special effects to pull off in After Effects. But Jonas felt it was waaaaay too much of a downer, and all but insisted we come up with an ending that was more "life affirming." We did, and in the end, I feel like it is a much more successful piece for it... but you have to admit, a guy jumping into traffic would have been pretty cool too.

Anyway, over the next few days I edited it, bringing in Alan Hatchett to contribute some ideas and help make the final cut. The original concept stemmed from listening to Everclear's "Annebell's Song", so we tried to incorporate that song (to no avail) and other songs were also tried, like cuts by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and so on. But ultimately, it was decided that this slightly edited version of Dark Days by DJ Shadow fit both the tone and editing requirements for the full duration of the short.

Wompedy Club Members got their own copy of this piece, and many others, as special edition content on the Halloween DVD.