MEG & DIA

album music video series

When my friend Dia Frampton approached me to direct for her and Meg Frampton’s Christmas album, she only had one video in mind—as we discussed plans with the label however, they hoped that we might be able to cover three songs, one of which being a stand-alone performance piece.

We came up with a story told in two parts: Intending for the music videos to be released on subsequent weeks, we designed “December, Darling” to be released first, followed by “Lights Blown Out.” “December, Darling” fit best because of its sweet, romantic melody and lyrics, which depicts a nostalgic trip to a cabin for holiday festivities with the two sisters and their boyfriends, filmed in Super 8mm film. This video switches to a clean, digital look at the end as we see one of the boyfriends (Johan Khalilian) pull out the DVD from his player. The ending shot was intended to have an annotation link that led to the next video, “Lights Blown Out,” which reveals the context surrounding this one.

DECEMBER, DARLING

“CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU AROUND
IS A TREE WITH THE LIGHTS BLOWN OUT”

The lyrics and tone of “Lights Blown Out” is a stark departure from “December, Darling.” It’s contemplative, dealing with themes of loss, grief, and loneliness. For this video we feature one of the couples (Meg Frampton & Johan Khalilian) from “December, Darling” seemingly alone during the holiday season. In a split-screen, they pull out their own copies of the 8mm home video we saw in “December, Darling,” albeit with new footage. The goal of the piece was to create a sense of isolation and loneliness with the initial imagery, and to lead the audience into thinking that Meg is headed off to visit Johan at the end--before revealing it was really Dia she was missing this whole time.

After a nearly decade-long hiatus of the band breaking apart (with Dia following a successful solo career following being on The Voice), the two sisters were finally back together, with this being one of the albums that heralded their return. We wanted this piece to not only to work as a sweet, nostalgic Christmas music video but also one that states that Meg & Dia are back.