Director's Commentary

Tragic Vendetta would be my first ever proper music, I think. I mean, Ass Wide Shut had a music video like appearance, but really that was an artsy sound piece and the video in that was just snippets of Eyes Wide Shut cut up to suit my sound piece. So in that sense, I don't really think of it as a music video. So yeah, Tragic is the first one I've made.

The concept of Tragic came around when I approached Cedric to see if he wanted to make a music video. He was involved with two bands at the time, so it was either going to be a rock video (Milliam Worris Agency) or a black metal video (Meza Virs). In the end we chose to do a video for Meza Virs. The song would be Tragic Vendetta and we would include the video along with the single in a limited CD release that they were going to sell at their first gig in March 2003.

We sat down and discussed what the video would look like. My brief experience with Black Metal was a rather negative one, and I was kinda hopeful that I wouldn't have to make a video with axe-wielding barbarians singing war-chants in the forest ("Nightspirit, embrace my sword!"). Luckily that wasn't Ced's idea either, so we ended up deciding on a more dark and urban feel. Then Ced took me to see the Hillview Spooky Mansion, and that was when the video really began to flesh itself out.

Tragic Vendetta marked a first for many things. Not only was it the first music video, but it was also the first time that I shot a video entirely on locations that were new and alien to me. Previously I always preferred to shoot in places that I was familiar with like places near my home and uni. Now, I was shooting in a house and a club that I've only visited once before. Not only that, but the club shoot was a once-only opportunity, as we could not afford to return for a re-shoot if we screwed anything up. That had never been a concern before.

Most importantly, this marked the first time I've worked closely with someone else on a big production from concept to finish. Before this, it was mainly just my own ideas and people helping me realize them. I had issues with collaborative work before because of creative differences that just caused frustration and bickering, but it was different with Tragic. Ced and I had different ideas initially but it didn't matter because we were still working towards the same goal with the same amount of drive, enthusiasm and passion invested into the project. I totally enjoyed this collaborative experience, and it changed my outlook on collaborations. These days I look forward to working closely with other like-minded individuals to share and compare different ideas and concepts.

Ced and I are very happy with the end result, and I think we're quite proud of our little joint project. Tragic was released to the public through a limited edition CD and also as a downloadable clip from the Meza Virs website. Rampant downloading overloaded their server, and subsequently the video had to be taken down from the site, but it just proved to be a good sign as it displayed the excitement shown by the public towards our video. Since then, a lot of positive reviews of the video have turned up in the MV guestbook, from both local and international black metal fans. Now that's a pretty big ego-boost.