Experiencing Interruptions?

We Are Not Ourselves

In this sinister narrative music video for the Oakland-based band Foxtails Brigade, Laura appears to be not-quite herself. She manically wraps a large gift and heads to a dinner party with her sweet-as-pie friend Shannon. As the night progresses, Laura's disturbing plans slowly unfold.

  • Dominic Mercurio
    Director
  • Dominic Mercurio
    Writer
  • Laura Weinbach
    Producer
  • Laura Weinbach
    Key Cast
  • Shannon Harney
    Key Cast
  • Dominic Mercurio
    Editor
  • Matthew Rome
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Music Video
  • Genres:
    Horror, Dark Comedy
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Dominic Mercurio

Dominic Mercurio is an award-winning San Francisco based filmmaker and musician. His recent music videos have premiered on Billboard, FADER, PopMatters, and The Bay Bridged. Far Away and Long Ago, a stunning one-take music video he directed, was awarded Best Music Video at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, a Gold Award at Spotlight Short Film Awards, and was an Official Selection at Atlanta Shortsfest.

Far Away and Long Ago and his other recent music videos, We Are Not Ourselves (SF Shorts 2016 Official Selection) and Flames & Figures, are focused writer-director-editor visions that deeply intertwine visuals and music to create narrative music videos bursting with vibrant off-kilter characters and surreal nightmarish imagery.

Outside of film, he plays drums in two Oakland-based bands: Foxtails Brigade and Ghost Town Jenny. He has played at major venues and festivals across San Francisco and beyond; such as The Fillmore, Great American Music Hall, El Rey Theatre, Noise Pop, and SXSW.

Born and raised in the SF Bay Area, Dominic has a B.S. in Digital Film and Video Production from the Art Institute of California – San Francisco.

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Director Statement

"WE ARE NOT OURSELVES", as a song, is ripe for visual interpretation. It occupies this uneasy space between colorful and sinister while backed with an off-kilter cinematic arrangement. I soon realized it even followed a fairly traditional three-act structure within its peaks and valleys of intensity. The story was directly born out of matching musical moments within the song with what that moment could represent as a cinematic beat in a narrative. Percussive sounds became concrete actions, a verse filled with tense strings became a scene of suspense, an ominous synth swell became an unnerving reveal, the song title itself became the main thematic element of the story.

With these specific moments in place as the skeleton of the video, the story began to manifest itself as the connective tissue between it all. The goal here being to not only make the song the soundtrack to the visuals, but actually the foundation on which the visual narrative stands. Without the backbone of the song, the visuals would slide off into a pile of motionless meaty flesh…which, come to think of it, still sounds pretty cool.