Have you checked out the brand new video for "Familiar Taste of Poison" yet? If not, click here to watch it and read the full treatment below which reveals the storyline that sets the stage for it's creation.

"FAMILIAR TASTE OF POISON”
VIDEO TREATMENT version 2.0
“The sweet escape is always laced with a familiar taste of poison...”

OVERVIEW

A, haunting, visually arresting video.

LOOK

Beautiful, brooding noir. Dark and stark. Stylized. While the references are from the 30’s/40’s the video will be contemporary, imaginary and timeless. The contrast of black and white in a stylized, graphic color palette.

ACTION

Chapter 1 – The Big Swim

It’s a haunting sort of a day on a hauntingly beautiful property as we make our way to where we’re supposed to be. The early chords of the song break the silence.

Floating in a fountain, we find our Femme Fatale (Lzzy). She’s deadly beautiful and beautifully dead, no evidence of foul play that we can see. Sharing her afterlife with us, she opens her eyes and begins to sing. We flash to a darkly lit, luxurious room where Lzzy Fatale puts on lipstick in front of a mirror. In the background, we see the ominous silhouette of a man. Something’s not quite right.

Chapter 2 – Send in the Law

We now find the fountain is a crime scene with uniformed officers looking for clues and interviewing a gardener (Justin / guitar tech). Hardboiled Cop (Joe) makes his way to the fountain to get a view of our dead Femme Fatale. It’s love at first sight; which is kind of inconvenient being that she’s a corpse. Lzzy Fatale sings again and maybe we’re seeing her through Hardboiled Joe’s eyes as he’d like her to be.

Joe turns to see a suspect escorted out by two uniformed officers. He’s a cocky son of a bitch and he looks guilty as hell, this Playboy Doctor Boyfriend (Doctor Josh Smith). He looks upon Lzzy as she gets zipped up into a black body bag, singing to us as the zipper closes over her. Odd, how come Hardboiled Cop looks more upset than the Playboy Boyfriend?

We flash back to the scene of the lipstick being put on and it becomes apparent that the silhouetted man is Playboy Dr. Smith. Lzzy’s shaking her head “No” but he’s offering a martini and a fur coat. She hesitates. Then, she blows him a kiss, and if you were a rather clever Halestorm fan you might notice her pose matches that of the angel statue at the opening of Love/Hate Heartbreak video.

Chapter 3 – A Thousand Words

Hardboiled Joe is looking through Dr. Smith’s house as the smug doctor waits in cuffs, smirking. We see two drinking glasses confiscated and we see the fur coat, but nothing conclusive. Like Dana Andrews in “Laura,” Hardboiled Joe finds a portrait of Lzzy that he can’t take his eyes off. It’s haunting him like hell. Is she singing to him? Is he in love with a dead girl? He shakes it off, got to get out of there.

Chapter 4 – The Morgue, the Merrier

Coroner Arejay is collecting his reports as Lzzy sings to us and Hardboiled Joe on the gurney. The toxicology report is in: poison was the cause of death, not drowning.

We flash back to Dr. Smith charming Lzzy over a posh dinner and some glasses of wine. As we hear the strings come forth, Lzzy watches a quartet play along. Dr. Smith watches her as she drinks like the smarmy bastard he is. Is there something in her wine?

Back to Arejay’s cadaver palace, Joe holds up one of the glasses in an evidence bag and Arejay shakes his medical head as he seems to also be conveniently handling forensics for this case. No evidence of poison on the glass. How can this be? Hardboiled Joe is now completely boiled. He’s obsessed and has no life other than finding out what happened.

Chapter 5 - Ways of Making You Talk

Dr. Smith sits in an interrogation room while Hardboiled Joe tries real hard not to beat it out of him. That same clever Halestorm fan from before might see a similar Easter Egg set-up to the interrogation room in the "I Get Off" video; maybe Dr. Smith is even wearing a hood to start the scene. Joe rants and raves and Dr. Smith calmly holds up his handcuffed hands, as if to say "Who me?" Hardboiled Joe jumps across the table, not terribly successful at keeping his temper in check.

Chapter 6 – Goodnight, Sweet Princess

We cut to Lzzy singing, looking gorgeous. We then realize she’s in a coffin, ready to put the finishing touches on six feet under.

We pull away to see we are at a wake in a stunning room. We see Dr. Smith watches the proceedings, not a care in the world as everyone else mourns. He looks to get away early until Joe steps in with some uniformed cops.

The cuffs get slapped onto Dr. Smith and he looks outraged. Hardboiled Joe holds up an evidence bag with some lipstick in it.

We flash back to see Lzzy putting on the lipstick.

Dr. Smith yells a few not very nice things as he’s hauled away. Joe moves to the coffin and looks in. We follow his gaze.

Dr. Smith yells a few not very nice things as he’s hauled away. Hardboiled Joe's job is done, so he's even more lonely than before. Still obsessed, he moves to the coffin to gaze upon the object of his desire.

Lzzy is still singing to him and to us as a scary Funeral Attendant (Rob) begins to close the lid. Joe stops him, unable to tear away from Lzzy. She finishes singing and Joe can now let the coffin lid close, barely.

A haunted Joe walks away to the rest of his miserable, hardboiled life as we flash back to the final, resonant image of Lzzy touching the poisoned lipstick to her lips.
   

More photos here.

Director: Jeremy Alter
Producers: Meiert Avis, Anton
Copyright Pushermedia 2010
www.pushermedia.com
www.theperfectsleep.com