Ledinsky "High Society" treatment

In short: We follow Ledinsky's journey from his revelation that he's stuck in the hamster wheel that is modern society, how he frees himself from it's shackles, goes off the grid on a soul searching road trip and move into the woods where he become friends with the animals and build a new home with their help.

An anthem and an Into the Wild for the slacker stoner generation, sick of the current state of the world and society.

Script

The video opens with a shot of early morning LA. We are outside Daniel's house, we hear birds singing in the background. One of Daniel's dogs walks into frame as the opening chords start playing. We follow the dog walking from outside in through the open garage door, through Daniel's rehearsal space/studio, walking over music gear and instruments, up the stairs through a dark doorway into darkness. We fade up from black into a dream sequence. We see Daniel from above, sleeping on a mattress on the floor. White pillow, white sheets. He's having nightmares. The nightmares are projected onto and around him on the bed and the room, very Michel Gondry style - this is all done with practical effects and in camera. We see animations of cog wheels, a hamster stuck in its wheel, workers lining up, punching in the clock, money in piles, executives laughing. The images projected are cut at a high and stressful pace, but the shot itself of the bed and the room is still, only zooming slightly. The tonality and feel of the scene is reminiscent of The Science of Sleep.

As the song passes the line "I've been working since age 13" the dog walks into frame aiming for Daniel's face. The dog licks his face and wakes him up. Simultaneously we cut away from the dream sequence seen from above, to a shot from the side, the projections are gone, the room is back to normal, sunlight coming in through the windows hits his face. Daniel sits up, squinting, pets the dog with a hand to his forehead, face grimacing, burdened by the insight that yet another day in the hamster wheel awaits. Think Ron from Office Space, before quitting his job. 

Then, In front of him on his window sill, sits a bird. Their eyes meet and the bird starts talking to him. "Daniel, we've all been fooled, nothing is what it seems". Daniel is speechless, not knowing if he's still dreaming or this is real. As the backwards cymbal cues up the chorus, the bird then blows smoke in Daniel’s face in slow motion. We cut to a reversed first person perspective, as Daniel enters a rush and a high like never before. Extreme close up of Daniel’s eye as the pupils dilate wide open. We cut to wider shots in slow motion, covered in a clouds of smoke, the world is spinning around him. This sequence is shot with special warping lenses that distort the world around Daniel, but leaves what's in focus/his face) relatively intact. See picture of dog below for reference. We won't use the overly used, digital looking post production plug-ins to warp the image, everything is analog and done in camera. Still image references below. Also see the video for Queens of the Stone Age's "Smooth Sailing" for references for what we are going for with the reversed first person shots of the buzz/high/tripping far out.

We see a close up shot of Daniel's face against a dark void, hair slightly waving in the breeze. We cut out and he we see him floating in space. He is deep into the trip now.

We are approaching the end of the chorus. We exit Daniel's high with a shot of him from above, laying on the ground. The scene is shot in reverse. First the frame is filled with smoke, but it quickly pulls away and disappears back out to the sides (smoke blown into frame but reversed), Daniel opens his eyes and "wakes up" from the trip, filled with the insight of a thousand mushroom & DMT trips combined. He knows what needs to be done now.
Verse 2 hits. Cut to Daniel and his dogs leaving his home. They hop into an old van, and as they are driving away, we see large flames burst out of his open garage door. Cut to them driving out of the city, up into the mountains and the wilderness. Epic wide shots of mountains, valleys and ridges.

They stop where the road ends, leave the van and head into the woods. They pause at a lake and as a cleansing ritual to free himself from all the stress and endless pointless noise of Facebook, Twitter and social media, he throws his phone in the lake in an epic wide shot in slow motion and watch the ripples on the lake with a smile.

We see Daniel and the dogs walk through the forest.
In the foreground, out of focus in the depth of field we see silhouettes of animals and birds curiously watching them from afar. 

Daniel and his dogs reach a clearing. He sits down, and as the lyrics state "I'm gonna grow my herbs and dream the days away", he plants seeds in the ground and in an FX shot we see Cannabis plants grow out of the ground in seconds. Daniel lights a joint and looks around. It's peaceful. He lays down on the ground, looking up into the trees, listening to the birds. We're now at 1.40, where the song calms down slightly and starts building again.
We cut to a wide shot of Daniel laying there, blowing smoke up into the air.

Cut back to Daniel. A shadow slowly falls on him. He opens his eyes and lifts his head. We cut to a shot from Daniel's perspective, looking up against the sun, blocked by a silhouette. A ferret stands before him, looking at him, only an arms length away. They're calm, just watching each other. There's animals around them in the edge of the forest, standing in a large circle like spectators in an arena, everyone's holding their breath. You could hear a pin drop. 

It's like a warped version of the scene from Snow White where she encounters the animals in the forest.

Cut between close ups of Daniel's and the Ferret's eyes as the song builds. Calm movements in the Ferret's face, ears are slightly moving, eyes calmly blink. Daniel finally has to exhale the breath he's been holding in. The smoke he has in his lungs flow over the ferret's face in slow motion. We cut to a close up of the ferret's eyes and the pupils dilate. 

Cut to a wide shot from above of Daniel and the animals lying down on the ground, all high as kites, exhaling smoke into the air.

The chorus then continues with a montage of Daniel out exploring the forest and mountain, epic wide shots. The animals follow him wherever he goes. He's collecting sticks, stones and logs around the forest. The animals help him, they are collecting too. They are up to something. 
More scenes of Daniel interacting with animals: he tries to teach a baked beyond belief Owl to blow smoke rings. He stands on a cliff overlooking the mountains and valley together with the ferret and a couple of beavers.

The animation of the animals isn't comedic or over exaggerated. They aim to be true to what the actual animal would behave like, only with the slightly warped animatronic look, adding to the uncertainty of this is really happening or just in Daniel's head.
Shot of one of his dogs bringing him a hammer in his mouth, like they've been playing catch. A hummingbird deliver a joint to Daniel with its beak as he is hammering nails into something. Beavers drop stones and logs at Daniel's feet, he continues to puff away and build. 

The scene is like a stoned, mellowed out version of Disney's Cinderella getting help from the mice and birds to make her dress - there's activity everywhere, all the animals are chipping in in whatever way they can. Again, the animation isn't exaggerated or comedic per se, but aim to make you smile.

In the final scene we see a close up of Daniel and his dogs from the front, sitting down, he smiles and scratch them under the chin. We cut to a wide shot, revealing Daniel, his dogs and the animals on the porch of the cabin they've built together. Daniel smiles that smile that only he can. 
He's home.

Cut to black.

Locations & days needed

Video will be shot in Los Angeles and in Big Bear, California.

Approx. shoot time:
1 day in LA, CA
1 day road trip shots, CA
1 day cabin in the woods, Big Bear, CA
= 3 days total

Deadline & delivery

Possible and preferred shoot days Oct 3rd-7th. Edit, grade & post production will be done during the shoot and the following week Oct 10th-14th.
Preferred video delivery between Oct 17th-21st. Delivery can be rushed and made possible as early as Oct 14th if needed.

Thank you!

/Peder