The Artist Explains: Francesca Blanchard - 'Happy For You'
Photo credit: Patrick McCormack
Francesca Blanchard speaks to us about filming her intimate music video for fragile indie folk single, ‘Happy For You’ which explores the many stages of grief.
Where was the video filmed?
In and around my mom’s house, where I’ve been cooped up and quarantined.
How does the video connect with the song?
It’s the most blunt representations of what the song means to me, little moments that capture the fragility of the place I was in when I wrote it. Some arbitrary still life, and some very personal shots… a mix of specific and vague.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
The very last shot of the video is of me spinning backwards in real time. It was the first shot I took for the video and the first time I felt creatively inspired since the stay-at-home order took place. I got so lost in the elation of my body moving and the excitement of sharing new material that I got a little carried away, and before I knew it, I was on the ground. I was laughing so hard at my own stupidity, imagining what it must’ve looked like from the outside. In the original ending you could hear me calling myself an idiot on camera as I got up from the ground, but my friends thought it was too sad…so I’m keeping it as entertaining B roll :)
Can you tell us about the ideas/themes/imagery used?
I really love hands. I think they tell stories of who a person is and what they’ve lived through. I wanted to capture hands doing arbitrary day-to-day movements (washing at the sink, playing piano, touching face…) to show something strong and recognisable going through the motions. The song also feels very fragile to me; it’s always felt like walking on egg shells (hence the eggs), and like a long, deep breath (hence the rising & falling of the chest). Anger, grief, jealousy, heartbreak… it’s all kind of a violent dance we do with ourselves. We have to accept to feel all of it before we’re able to move past it.
Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
Grief takes time.