French Windows is a solo music video project accompanying a baroque-pop song by the same title, also composed by Jack Osmond. The music video explores the changing of seasons and the affect this has on the landscape and peoples’ habits. The video incorporates a mix of stop-motion animation, collagraph printing, letter pressing and live-action video techniques. These processes were then brought together in a months worth of video editing.
There was a real emphasis on working sustainably for this project. All the materials were bought from sustainable sources or recycled from previous projects Jack had been working on. The stop-motion puppet was made from kitchen sponges bound around a wire armature, and then covered in several layers of liquid latex. Her facial expressions were added later in the editing process. The living room and furniture were built from mount board and fabric. Each floor panel and wainscoting panel was individually cut out and glued into place. The left over mount board from building the set was used to make the collagraph printing plates. The music video took a total of 4 months to make.
The song is supposed to feel very cold and detached to begin with; a synth keyboard accompanies Jack’s vocals. Throughout the song, the synth picks up in energy before reaching the orchestral elements. By the end of the song, the orchestral elements become distorted, returning to the cold atmosphere, which introduces the song. The piece is composed of three violins, a viola, a bassoon, an acoustic guitar, vocals and a synth.
