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INTRO
The soundtrack to this video is a voiceover in which JJJJJerome Ellis visually describes the video. There is no music in the soundtrack. The following loosely describe the music that could have been included in the soundtrack, but wasn’t.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION
The film opens with a screen full of maroon color, then changes to an image of JJJJJerome Ellis. The image is tinted in deep maroon and black. JJJJJerome sits and plucks a hammered dulcimer. JJJJJerome is a black person. JJJJJerome sings into a microphone. JJJJJJerome is seated, wearing pants and a sweatshirt. The camera switches between different angles of JJJJJerome. The image cuts to JJJJJerome, JJJJJerome’s hands playing a harpsichord. The image cuts to a spool of tape moving inside of a machine that creates echo. The camera pans down and shows an image of the knobs on that machine. The camera shows a microphone in front of an amplifier, and a tape machine with knobs and red lights. The camera shows a stage with various musical equipment on it: harpsichord, speakers, cables, a grand piano, microphones. JJJJJerome moving a music stand and a stuffed hippo named Hildegard. Then the camera shifts to an image of a tree in shades of pale brown and green. The camera moves over plants on the ground. The camera moves to a stream flowing with the sunlight reflected in the flowing stream. The camera shows a saxophone hanging from a tree. Behind the saxophone are green plants and more trees. JJJJJerome approaches the saxophone. JJJJJerome wears a white t-shirt and blue jeans, and places their hands on the saxophone. JJJJJerome wraps their arm around the tree in order to hold the saxophone. JJJJJerome places their mouth on the mouthpiece of the saxophone and plays. The camera moves slowly. The camera zooms in on JJJJJerome’s face, playing the saxophone, their head leaning on a tree. JJJJJerome’s hair is black, their skin is brown, they wear a watch on their wrist. The camera shows a branch with leaves waving in the breeze. Behind, in the background, there’s an image of the sky. And then the film returns to a field of maroon color.
CAPTIONS
The sound of Ellis plucking a hammered dulcimer
soft, jagged, metallic
the sound of Ellis singing, their voice tired,
weak, rising slowly
the sound of Ellis playing a harpsichord
sharp but gentle
the sound spreading like short intervals of stirred water
river intervals of all longing
a song, maroon, blue, underground
a trunk whose heartwood would open inward for hours
a blessing, attended with microphones
touch forehead to water
a saxophone cycles air through centuries of brass
faced with breath, undone, caught between seasons
the sound of Ellis blowing through the saxophone, as
the glassblower approaches the three furnaces
to grow emptiness
Acknowledgements: Matt Talbot (camera) and Graham Duncan (editing)
Main image
Still from video showing thick vegetation, with green leaves, brown branches and twigs, and some small purple flowers covering the entirety of the frame. On either side of the image is a vertical black strip. On the left edge of the image is a black shape with rounded corners and a reddish hue around it, a result of the perforations on the film stock. The caption, printed in white text at the bottom of the frame, reads: “[A BLESSING, ATTENDED WITH MICROPHONES]”.