Serj Tankian - 'Empty Walls' - From the Album 'Elect the Dead' - 2007

This is the Video for System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian's second single off his debut solo album 'Elect the Dead'. This is possibly one of my favourite music videos, it combines an electric perfomance, unconventional camera and editing techniques, a mad, funny concept and an underlying, serious, political message.


The video opens with a felt Homeland Security Advisory System scale (accompanied by a seal reading "U.S. Department of Playground Security"), followed by a young girl building two towers of blocks. A boy by what appears to be accident launches a toy airplane into the towers, knocking them down and upsetting the girl.
Various scenes in the video refer to the War in Iraq: the children preparing for play war, a teddy bear being pulled down (referring to the symbolic pulling down of Saddam Hussein's statue), a presidential figure with a sign declaring "Mishin Akomplishd", an imitation of the capture of Saddam Hussein, a child in a cage reminiscent of one of the Kenneth Bigley hostage videos, the aforementioned collapse of the block towers, a child dressed and positioned in imitation of a published picture of Satar Jabar from the Abu Ghraib prison, and several children pulling another from a toy house to play execute him with a can of silly string (in reference to the Hamdania incident). A boy inside a toy car puts on goggles and is driven into a plastic ball pit wall to cause a burst of confetti, symbolic of the many suicide bombings at US Army checkpoints. The children performing acts similar to those of the US military are clearly distinguished by wearing helmets reminiscent of soldiers' helmets.

Meanwhile Serj, dressed in a top hat and suit, sings as they play. The video concludes as the children all look out the daycare window and solemnly watch a Marine Corps detail load a flag-draped casket into a hearse.

I adore the visual theme of this video, aside from being very politically charged and intelligent, it's chaotic and vibrant and the kids do an amazing job in acting out the atrocities of the Iraq War in a very unique and playful way. I think we could use themes like this in our final video...

I think this video could also be useful in inspiration for a possible treatment for our chosen song Start Something, i'll refer back to this post in some parts.