For his latest music video, Adrian Sutherland asked friends and fans to answer one question: “What are you scared of?” And boy, did they deliver…
Scared invites viewers on an eye-opening journey through things that people are most afraid of. Starting with typically creepy critters like ‘snakes’ and ‘spiders’, the video gradually shifts to a deeper place, revealing more personal and sensitive subjects as we move along. Some are heart-breaking while others are painfully honest. Each message is visually articulated in its originally submitted form, resulting in 110 individual ‘cards’ synced to the song’s tempo, and woven together using stark hand-drawn black-and-white animation.
From the very beginning to final fading frames, the emotional ride of Scared captures and holds attention through a wide spectrum of fears – simply external, deeply internal, even profoundly existential – before circling back to the realm of love. The underlying message? The world needs more love, because love truly can conquer all.
Especially the things we are scared of.
ABOUT THE VIDEO
Scared is the 5th music video for Adrian Sutherland created by award-winning filmmaker Justin Stephenson (The Secret Path animated film) in collaboration with Adrian’s manager and video producer RoseAnna Schick.
Says Justin: "Scared is a moving song about fears and how love is what we all need in the places where we're scared. RoseAnna came up with the idea of having people submit written messages about their fears, and people were quite vulnerable with what they sent us. The video is about sharing these messages and making a space for Adrian's meaningful song to speak to that spot in us that is scared of things."
Says RoseAnna: “Fear is universal. Every one has a fear of some kind, and the lyrics in Scared lend themselves to exploring what we are afraid of. We cast a net to see what people would send in – and ended up with so many amazing messages. We felt an obligation to honour everyone who trusted us with their fears, and were able to use every single submission. The video turned out to be surprisingly emotional, hauntingly memorable, and definitely relatable – we’re sure that everyone who watches will resonate with at least one of the fears, if not more.”
AWARD-WINNING VIDEO TEAM
Stephenson and Schick, along with Sutherland as executive producer, have been recognized previously for their collaborative music videos. The first project they did together was in 2019 for Sutherland’s protest song Politician Man, which won Best Performing Arts & Entertainment at the 2020 Yorkton Film Festival (Canada’s oldest film festival). This year they are nominated again for the same award at Yorkton, this time for the groovy animated live-action dance video Respect The Gift. The coveted ‘Golden Sheaf Awards’ will be handed out Saturday, May 28 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.