The Right Now and The Other: A Comparison

Kenyan rock band Murfy's Flaw released the music video of their song "The Right Now" on 19/9/19. The song is featured on their most recent album "Nataka Sitaki" which was also released on the same day as the music video.

"The Other” is the first Solitude in Apathy single taken off their debut EP and was "composed spontaneously during a rehearsal". The music video was directed by Gaetano Massa.

Similarities

1. Nature

The setting for "The Right Now" is all outdoors, with plenty of trees, rocks and even a cave.

The opening shot of "The Other" is outdoors, with plenty of trees and a big rock.

2. Slow Motion Walk

There are copious amounts of the slow motion walk in both music videos.

According to The Society of Aerial Cinematography:

"...overcranking makes footage look smoother in addition to slower, so it tends to give the subject a more dramatic, epic, or massive feel." The traditional use of overcranking was "simply to slow down time in a shot in order to convey importance, add suspense, give time for the audience to inspect the frame, or mirror a character’s psychological state."

"The Other" is "about the will to understand the other or simply oneself, reaching its epilogue with the inability to truly do it; the same themes underpin the fascinating video directed by Gaetano Massa."

According to TVtropes.org:

"...in movies featuring Godzilla and similar monsters, overcranking adds a sense of ponderous weight to the monsters' motion."

I wonder, who is the monster/The Other in "The Right Now"?

Differences

1. Light vs Dark

Although lyrically there is a bit of light in "The Other" ("The song...is built around a single sentence “In the other, try to see”), "The Other" is decidedly darker than "The Right Now", at least in terms of the sound of the song and the images of the music video. This is in keeping with the genres that Solitude in Apathy draw their influences from: "...shoegaze to darkwave and alternative rock, with a hint of gothic."

Light saturates the lyrics of "The Right Now":

Far-off streaming lights like a rainbow

Savour the moment while it’s open, and still honest
Don’t fear

...as long as we commit to the right now
That's something we will never regret


But there is also a hint of the underlying darkness in the song:

But you know the stars never cared,
And as we kissed they just callously stared, with their icy glares

2. Band vs No Band

Solitude in Apathy makes an appearance in the music video for "The Other" while in "The Right Now" Murfy's Flaw is no where to be seen, thus joining the long list of rock music videos where the band is not seen.

From the list of ROFFEKE official selections, here are a few of such music videos:

Rita
A bigger man
Cadger
Astronaut

Astronaut in Room 403: When two films talk to each other

As luck (fate?) would have it, Astronaut (directed by Pierre Ponchant) was submitted to ROFFEKE right after Spinoza Hotel: Room 403 (directed by Dr. Robert David Duncan). I usually watch the short films/music videos in the order they were submitted so I couldn't help but immediately notice the similarities between these two works of art. It's like Astronaut is an amplification or continuation of Room 403. But don't just take my word for it; see for yourself how these two films are talking to each other! (The lyrics of Astronaut are in bold while the narration from Room 403 is in italics)

Looking at the window, it's another day
Man that sun is a monster
I hate the day
Woke up very tired just like yesterday
The time I spend down here is a necessity
I dress up like man and I take my place
But that's just to keep this body going
Maybe all your dreams will come true
Maybe no one cares about you
I know a guy who knows how

Trains tickets for nowhere on a holiday
My entire place is a radio paradise
Every friday night I play silly games
Most of the time I'm in touch with my brothers in space
I follow the horizon it's the only direction
They orbit and orbit and I orbit with them
There's something wrong in me but I can't think of another way
I can decipher the static and check in with my souls
Maybe all your dreams will come true
Maybe no one cares about you
That's why I had to get to the top floor
Moving closer until I got 403 with the roof access

Up there
I have my foil antenna up there
Everything must
Be so tiny
The foil is as good as a microwave dish
Oh so tiny

One day, you'll see,
I won't come back
One day, you'll see
I'm not coming back tonight
I'm going to convert myself to pure radio emissions
and just upload into space

"Room 403 is another follow-up to the award-winning trio of films. In this one, we meet the Cosmonaut, who operates a network of radios from his room, communicating with lost spirits in space, a place he hopes to transport himself to someday."

"Astronaut is a no budget Space Odyssey, a voyage into the imaginary world of a hero who, night after night, explores the universe seeking for a safe haven."