Hot Chip Eleanor

The writer-director Alice Kong utilises animation to create a miniature world beautifully integrating major life lessons for the audience in a fun way without sounding moralizing to them.

The plot of the music video revolves around Eleanor who, after a series of unfortunate events then takes control of her environment and twists everything to her advantage by literally sculpting the clay world, she lives in.

The music video opens with a long shot of a building quickly camera panning into Eleanor’s world along with upbeat music establishing the subject matter Kong wants to discuss therefore increasing the degree of engagement of the audience with the content of the film. The set design, the combination of yellow, blue, pink, grey colour tone, dim lighting, camera angles, sound, costume, hair, makeup, and props add depth to narrative, realism, and relatability, therefore building and maintaining the emotional connect as well as the interest in the content even though the length of Hot Chip Eleanor is about 4 minutes long.

In terms of performance, Alice Kong and her team work hard to slowly develop a clay miniature form in this wonderful animated promo for Hot Chip. The team has decided to concentrate on the slightest of details like colour combination of the name-Eleanor Hot Chip, the colour of the brick, and the poster. The creative team has also hidden some Easter eggs in the animated clip making it an interactive experience for the viewers while watching it. The editing skills beautifully depict and demarcate the two different perspectives of life Kong wants to showcase so that audience can learn from them. All the cartoon characters as well as the props are aptly designed to suit every subplot. There are no dialogues in Hot Chip Eleanor making it dependent on body language, and facial expressions for taking care of the continuity factor as well as the smooth flow of the storyline demanding a lot of attention from the audience to enjoy and interpret it as per their understanding.

Hot Chip Eleanor talks about the need to craft one’s destiny and too much emotional dependence on people can prove detrimental to one’s mental and physical wellbeing. The music video reiterates the fact that it is all about making suitable choices to improve the quality of one’s life and also positively affect the lives of loved ones too. The cinematic piece restates that there would be a lot of people and situations that will tend to pull one back in the path of success but everyone needs to combat the hurdles to emerge victorious in life. Hot Chip Eleanor tells the audience that one should continuously learn from all their experiences and face their fears without giving up until life allows to portray all the qualities like charm, politeness, sensitivity, tenderness, happiness, hope and romance one has managed to retain despite all the hardships thrown at them by life.