#spbh

Music Videos

This era releases 3 music videos each building on the narrative of the last.

MV 1: The Archer

In this, Annabeth is about to be crowned and cuts between her, everything happening in slow motion, walking up some steps at her coronation in front of a large audience and her the night before, unable to sleep and wandering the halls of her castle looking at paintings hung up in a long dark hallway. As the song builds people in the audience start to reveal themselves and, before she can be officially crowned, an onslaught of arrows comes at her and she is forced to flee. It ends in a wide birds eye shot of her running away from her castle.

MV 2: Miss Americana And The Heartbreak Prince

Continuing from MV 1, AB finds herself hiding from authorities in a small town. She runs into a guy (let's call him THP for now) who covers for her. She's still wearing her coronation dress but the skirt has been shredded. It follows AB and THP as he shelters her in a small home on the outskirts of this outskirt town and her finding a sense of peace in open expanse. It ends with her on the top of a hill on a horse (his horse) with his sword and the old castle in the distance.

MV 3: New Romantics

NR follows Annabeth as she throws herself into combat to reclaim the castle. It cuts between her fighting and her inserted into some romantic era paintings.

This was my original post about this music video I did change which paintings were to be used in this and ended up landing on

- the lady of shalott

- execution of lady Jane grey

- the desperate man

The ending is her standing in the same hallway she was in in MV1 with her sword. This time the hall is fully lit and the paintings in full view. Similar to the New Romantics cover

Stage

The stage show is similarly split into 3 narrative arcs. Here is the set list, although, disclaimer, set lists tend to get changed a lot for concepts like this

It generally follows the same sort of story arc as the music videos though with some flexibility for energy/vibes for a show.

Outfit 1 for the first arc of the show is meant to be a flow-y gown, almost sort of fairy-tale like. The start of the hero's journey before anything has happened. In this narrative she is royalty of some form but without the hardness you might associate with a queen/king so it needed to be more of a princess-y vibe. T he laced up heels and off the shoulder flowy sleeves convey a sense of impracticality for movement that tells a story of someone who is relatively sheltered. WIth that being said, the practicality of the stage does still need be considered and her Arc 1 songs are still relatively energetic therefore good mobility is a must so an asymmetrical skirt gives us that compromise. Skirt material was also a consideration, tulle and chiffon were probably the best options as it both, again, implies an innocent princess vibe as well as being relatively light even with volume for practical purposes.

Colours were basically decided by creating a number of variants and narrowing down to the best looking ones, keeping in mind to maintain variability in terms of the tones of the colours.

Some of the references for this dress:

*This aesthetic was also heavily inspired by Chotronette, one of my favourite boutique dress stores since forever

Outfit 2, probably my favourite set of the 3. It pulls the corset and the asymmetrical translucent skirt from the first outfit but adds a more practical shorts and boots element. This is meant to reference the change from MV1 to MV2 in which she is wearing the same dress but it's been torn and destroyed from being on the run. The boots, while still heeled for the aesthetic and the stage, is meant to invoke the boots of an adventurer.

The butterfly motif has two meanings. Firstly, it’s a reference to the butterfly in the F&A album art. Secondly, it represents a sense of rebirth and change. This second arc is representing transitory period for her as she processes what has happened so far, explores a new relationship, and grows into herself.

This set had two different microphone designs that match 2 of the outfits each.

Outfit 3