SUGAR WATER CYANIDE™ Process Book

SUGAR WATER CYANIDE™ was created as my degree project in my final undergraduate semester. I began by writing a treatment for something I’ve been wanting to make my whole life: a music video. I challenged myself to art direct the project, be as detail oriented as possible, and utilize my vast reference pool of music videos and movies to inspire my own. The project was no doubt my most successful yet, and my most creative fulfilling.

For the video I took on a multitude of different roles, including writer, director, editor, producer, prop designer, and stylist. It was important to me that I was involved in every creative  process, but also making sure I leaned into collaboration and worked with six different amazing friends who made this production possible.

When thinking about a way of culminating this huge project into a singular book, I knew I wanted to play with scale and camp, opting to make the book look like it could be a prop in the video itself. The book is printed on 12x18” newsprint in both black & white and color, and bound with multicolored ribbons.

The process book chronicles my uncertain beginnings with the project, as I was coming off a very difficult semester and questioning exactly what I even wanted to do with my future. Deciding on my deliverable and end goal was really helpful when thinking about the project from the get, and finding collaborators who were willing to be a part of it early in the process motivated me greatly. I also go into depth about my inspirations, which came from movies, music, and most prominently, music videos. I detail the extensive planning I did, the amazing collaborators I worked with, as well as information about the online promotion and in-person premiere we held which also included a complete presentation of the project. Also included are 10 different frames from the final music video.