Lost Map x RCS

This collection of music videos is the result of an exciting collaboration between Lost Map and students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s film course in Spring 2024. Led by our friend and esteemed director Blair Young — whose work includes videos for Biffy Clyro, Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand and Pictish Trail — the students developed pitches for songs by Savage Mansion, Afterlands, Susan Bear, and Kinbote. The four winning ideas were brought to life with incredible creativity and dedication. We’re hugely grateful to all the students for their hard work throughout the process, and especially to the teams behind each video for their talent, enthusiasm, and fresh perspective. Enjoy an exclusive look at their brilliant work, below!

Susan Bear - ‘Get By’

Taken from the album Algorithmic Mood Music.

Director: Missy McNaught

”‘Get By’ evoked a sense of melancholy for me. The repetitive vocals against the layered electronic track reminded me of that feeling of being lost in the music, but also of the feeling that comes after—the comedown to reality. The music video pieces together a fragmented night. Figures dance in and out of the shadows. They’re interrupted by glimpses of the aftermath—jaded, returning home at dawn through littered streets, to messy rooms. Each dancer is isolated, individual, but they’re all the same at the end of the night.”

Kinbote - ‘Catching The Bullet’

Taken from the album Hemisphere.

Director: Erin Williamson

”We watch a strange sermon by a man covered in cables doing whatever he can to make his audience listen. This was inspired but the technological lyrics of the song and how these could be part of a mad mans preaching. Of course, you are yet to meet him but he knows you... through the cables. He downloaded god from the website www.god.net and 3D printed him directly onto his own body. He is wires and cables. they are everything. Can’t you feel it? Why won’t you listen? The lines of cable call for you... they call for us all to go.”

Afterlands - ‘Ghosthouse’

Taken from the album We Are The Animals In The Night.

Director: Ariana Crolla

“Through a series of dreamy vignettes, scored by this Gothically romantic hymn, we tell a story off love lived and gone. Inspired by the romantic chaos of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this music video follows a pair of star-crossed lovers as they elope into the wilds and far from home in a reckless grab for the freedom to build a life together.  Once the sun sets, reality hits, and our runaway bride must navigate nostalgia and fantasy to decide whether this is a future she truly wants, or has merely been told to want. With £100 and a crew of eager film students, we shot this music video in two days across various locations in Scotland.”

Savage Mansion - ‘Total Colombia’

Taken from the album The Shakes.

Director: Adam Stewart

“It was the chorus of “What’s wrong with your eyes, nothing” which particularly stuck in my mind, reminding me of warnings I often heard when I was younger that watching too much tv would give you “square eyes”. This sparked the idea of using television as a central motif.  From here, to help create and shape a narrative I focused on the idea of how different feelings, experiences, a certain kind of brownie, and ruminating thoughts can alter someone’s perception of a situation. Using a mix of green screen effects and on location footage we follow the protagonist’s emotional slump, weaving in dreamlike sequences that intriguingly blur the line between his reality and his delusions brought on by his own heartbreak and gluttony.”