EF Presents – Annie’s Grief (Running Up That Hill)

Feat. The Music of Kate Bush (Performed by Meg Myers) 

“Sometimes people leave and we don’t know why.”

5 weeks ago I had never worked a camera. Now I’m already shooting and directing movies in my first semester at film school. The workload of 12 credit hours here feels like 18 did in undergrad. And The learning curve is steep. For me especially as someone with zero production or theater experience. Its intense! but I am learning so much from my professors and loving every minute with my talented classmates.

I was worried I wouldn’t find time to make any music videos / montages as I usually do on this blog. But it just so happens a Music Video was precisely my first assignment for my post production class! Thus I was able to kill two birds with one (Emma) Stone. I borrowed her amazing performance as Annie from Netflix’s Maniac (2018).

I have to say that getting to show this on the big screen for my classmates and professor, and receiving their praises was the single most encouraging moment of the semester for me thus far. Now I don’t feel quite as much like a fish out of water.

I inter-spliced Emma stone’s and Julia Garner’s (Ellie) scenes with the winning skating scene in I,tonya (2017). Margot Robbie trained for months for her role as the 1991 olympic Gold-medal winner Tanya Harding. Sarah Kawahara and Heidi Munger did the heavy lifting, however – the jumps and spins and such.

This is a heavy portrayal of grief. And there is a gruesome car accident involved, I warn you.

I read that Kate Bush wrote the song, “Running Up That Hill” to be about a man and a woman swapping places. I am mostly subverting that theme here, and re-casting it to be about two sisters swapping places – one on Earth and one in the afterlife.

But there are male runners in the video as well. I take them to represent the soldier-like intensity of Annie’s subconscious – the chip on her shoulder for treating her sister badly. She never got the change to atone before her sister passed. I wasn’t able to communicate this entirely here, as their relationship is obviously complex. If you haven’t seen the show I hope you can at least understand and hopefully empathize with Annie’s grief.

Have you seen Maniac? Or have you heard Meg Myers’ rendition of this classic song before?

E.F.