Lay awake for a couple of hours last night and had Big Ideas about the album. First of all, I want to steer things a bit to match up with a project that Will is going to start on in Boston.
This first big concept is to take one of the songs (tentatively called Run The Plan) and make it the introduction song, which in turn introduces the entire storyline as just that: a storyline, a movie, a game script, etc. I think this will help in a bunch of ways. First, it's a great storytelling device, in which the story you tell is about before or after a big event, but not the event itself (although we will probably indulge ourselves in various events themselves in a number of places later). Second, if you wink at the camera a bit in the very beginning, I think it makes it easier for the audience to follow when something really absurd suddenly happens. Third, I think the song itself lends itself to opening credits rolling... so there's that.
Next idea: Run The Plan as it's currently recorded has a very insistent tick-tick-tick sound (which was me tapping the snare mic). I want to replace that with sprinting footsteps (flap flap flap) of feet hitting the ground hard in non-running-shoes at a flat-out sprint. Maybe layer in some other sounds (kids feet running, etc) to make it really full. That sound can then reappear throughout whenever we need to get back to running. It can also dissolve into the tick-tick-tick of an alarm clock, which is a bit of a cliche but works really well with a couple of transitions I want to try. Basically:
running -> Run The Plan (credits) -> ticking clock -> alarm -> Seam up the Middle (this would be a dream from Steve's storyline, something of an underwear nightmare, where he's running through the streets in his underwear looking for something elusive) -> ticking clock -> silence, then Steve wakes up (after missing the alarm and having a crazy dream) and mutters under his breath "ohshit" (not pronouncing the t) -> cut immediately to his door kicking open and he's actually running in real life this time to get to work.
Another device that I thought would be fun would be to have Steve always either crashing through a window when he leaves a building or at least having something break on his way out (crash through the window for the underpants dream definitely, maybe just have a bottle on the counter break when he kicks open the door and goes running out to work on the third song). This works really well with Will's project (to be revealed later).
More later...
