For the next few days, Sinéad followed the crew because she was relatively free lately, and she was also very much looking forward to this MTV. This MTV had a lot of money put into it because it was a very ambitious single. She wanted to use this single to break into the American market, as she was already well-known in Ireland and even Europe. So, this single was a tentative move for the American market. She herself had an apocalyptic complex, and this song was also written for that. She hoped Eva could capture the height of the apocalyptic sentiment, but gradually, as she observed, she found that Eva was not just shooting an MTV; she was shooting it like a movie.
The biggest difference between a movie and an advertisement or MTV lies in thought. A movie should enlighten people and make them think; that's what makes a good movie. In Eva's MTV, those flashy shots, colors, and compositions were not what she was trying to express. Ultimately, she was implanting her reflections on human nature in the MTV.
The girl Eva created had compassionate eyes for humanity, a despair about the technological threats to humans, and a hint of weak human emotions along with her own moral values. But through her, Eva just wanted to explore one question: Violence can destroy everything, and humans create violence for desire. But when violence transcends morality, law, and all forms of restraint, who decides what is just and unjust?
So, will human desires ultimately destroy themselves?
At the same time, Eva gave her own understanding to the audience that human civilization will lead to its own destruction in the face of extremely advanced technology. The boundless expansion of human desires will lead to the decay of the world. She condemned the world filled with desires and perversions through the aesthetics of violence and the interplay of light and shadow. People, for the sake of empty desires, turn everything into imaginary enemies day and night, becoming cold, greedy, lifeless, ignorant, authoritarian, and totalitarian as a way of life.
Eva created a set of pantheism and then implanted it into her work. Then, you saw through Eva's lens a future world full of paradoxes, grotesque, and numbness. Various robberies, car crashes, social turmoil, and humans without hope of survival—all need salvation. You see, how barbaric is civilization?
After observing for a few days, Sinéad found her excitement growing, as if she were anticipating the birth of an incredibly excellent work. Because this work fully expressed the connotation of her song and even elevated it to another level, this MTV was shot with the philosophical and epic sense of a movie. Every shot contained the director's personal reflections on human nature and conveyed these thoughts to all the viewers.
After a few days of shooting, Eva also felt that the attitudes of the staff around her had changed. At first, they thought she was just a newcomer, even subtly looking down on her. But as the days of shooting passed, their impressions of her completely changed by 180 degrees. Because Eva was incredibly skilled at shooting! She didn't seem like a novice at all; every shot was solid, and her storyboard was textbook-level. She was truly an extraordinary person.
At this moment, Sinéad made a call to her record company boss, Adam, and her words were full of praise for Eva. "I definitely made the right choice this time. This girl understands my thoughts perfectly."
Adam was still skeptical, as he had previously said that Sinéad would regret her foolish decision to let Eva direct. He said, "Sinéad, I hope you sincerely believe that."
Sinéad confidently replied, "Of course, I do, Adam. You really should see the rough cut she made. I think you will be impressed."
Adam sneered, "Impressing me without the level of a Grammy-winning music video is impossible."
Sinéad gave a surprising answer, "Maybe she really has that level."
Eventually, Eva's rough cut was brought to Adam by Sinéad's insistence. When Adam received the DEMO, he was drinking coffee and watching a movie in his room. He vaguely remembered that the air conditioning was very cold, so he adjusted it to 26 degrees Celsius. Then, he opened the video file sent by Sinéad.
At first, he didn't take it seriously because Sinéad had strongly insisted he watch it, and he wasn't very interested. The screen gradually lit up with a strange, dark tone. A kind of decayed, psychedelic beauty enveloped the screen. He saw a girl standing on a huge ruin, the wind blowing through her golden hair. This feeling was very strange. These simple elements made up this MTV: a woman with hollow, compassionate eyes, a rain-soaked, decayed, psychedelic future city, a decadent metallic quality, humans so small and insignificant, ethereal gentle music, and endless aesthetics of violence.
When these images flooded in, Adam was obviously unprepared. To be blunt, these things scared him. He clearly didn't expect what he saw to be so profound. And then, the more he watched, the hotter he felt. He obviously regretted setting the air conditioning to 26 degrees Celsius when he had felt cold earlier. Fine sweat appeared on his forehead, with a kind of surging force coursing through his chest.
This was just an MTV, but in just five minutes, it incorporated all the necessary elements of sci-fi movies: body and spirit, anarchy, dystopia, urban riots, and uncontrollable energy. My God, this MTV is a miracle, even Adam, a half-outsider, was shocked by this magnificent apocalypse.
Just an MTV, yet it mixed an alternative interpretation of divinity, humanity, institutions, and authoritarianism. How did she do that? When Adam finished watching the few minutes of DEMO, he lay powerlessly on the sofa, his mind filled with the residual impact of those images. The shock of this MTV was evident. Moreover, it was somewhat bizarre. When delving into what the MTV was trying to convey, Adam felt as if he had opened up a vast wilderness.
It had too much to say. It examined every viewer's internal definitions of right and wrong. There have been too many classic sci-fi masterpieces with themes of future cities and world destruction: "Akira," "Metropolis," "Ghost in the Shell," "Blade Runner," "The Matrix." So, the concept of "Girl on the Ruins" wasn't new. But those classic masterpieces were all two-hour-long films, while this was just a five-minute MTV! How many works in the world could make an MTV with the grandeur and depth of a film? Adam was an outsider, but aren't most films made for outsiders to watch?
At this moment, he just wanted to shout at the screen, "Damn, amazing." To make an MTV in five minutes, with almost no dialogue, and to achieve this level—this was the pinnacle. In terms of both visuals and content, it had broken through the wall of MTV, reaching the heights of a movie. Who exactly is this Eva Cody? A young girl with no experience, making an MTV like this—he couldn't grasp this pace. It's unimaginable that this is just an MTV! Really, just an MTV!