#Billie Elish Medley my beloved

[acaplaya-musings]

Also this is the only "companion video"/"sister video" of VoicePlay's where the arranger wasn't the same person who did the first video/s! (Panic Medley was done by Layne and Earl, whereas this one was done by Geoff) (In comparison, My Mother Told Me and Valhalla Calling were both done by Layne, as were Mountain King and Classical Chaos).

Also Jules says "running gag", I say "actually kinda creepy once you notice it!

Trapped: Billie Eilish in 3 Minutes — VoicePlay music video

Between their "Panic in 4 Minutes" medley the previous summer, and the "Mission: Jingle Bells" mashup at Christmas, VoicePlay had developed a penchant for being kidnapped and restrained by nefarious persons unknown. So their fans naturally started to ask how this kept happening to a group of such jovial, hard-working singers. This video doesn't provide all the answers, but combined with some of Billie Eilish's eerie tunes, it's basically a short horror film and a fantastic addition to their spooky season catalogue.

Details:

title: Trapped – Billie Eilish in 3 Minutes

original songs / performer: all songs by Billie Eilish — "Bury A Friend", feat. Crooks; [0:15] "Bad Guy"; [0:43] "Bury A Friend"; [0:56] "Bad Guy"; [1:06] "Copycat"; [1:23] "Bad Guy"; [1:37] "Bury A Friend" & "You Should See Me In A Crown"; [1:59] "Copycat"; [2:19] "Lovely", feat. Khalid & "Bury A Friend"; [2:32] "Copycat"; [2:46] "Ilomilo"; [3:00] "Bury a Friend" & "Bad Guy" NOTE: The "Bury A Friend" video includes body horror elements, "You Should See Me In a Crown" contains many spiders, and "Ilomilo" has a repeated flashing light effect.

written by: all songs by Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell; "Lovely" in collaboration with Khalid Robinson

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 4 October 2019

My favorite bits:

those delicate, crunchy harmonies combined with their expressions of fear and confusion at the situation they're in

Geoff's bassy spoken punctuation moments

the heartbeats, gasps, and crunching sounds in Layne's percussion combined with the unpredictable audio panning that enhance the creepiness

their slow-mo Reservoir Dogs walk away from the van

the repeated visual gag of everyone just missing seeing Layne being hauled around the house

the monophony and gradual beatboxing tempo increase during the second "Bad Guy" verse

the cool stuttering effect in Earl and J.None's backing vocals during the transition between songs

Eli's smooth timbre on the lead for "Copycat"

the whooshing sounds in Layne's percussion as the group separates to search for him

Earl being prevented from completing ♫ "might seduce your dad type" ♫ by a shovel to the face

Geoff's lovely, light tone on ♫ "sorry I'm the one that told you so" ♫

the floaty harmonies and bell chords in "You Should See Me In a Crown"

J.None and Geoff in unison on those low octaves for ♫ "tear me to pieces, skin and bone" ♫

coordinating Eli hitting the door with Layne's kick drums

Eli's fantastic descending riff on ♫ "all you sa-a-a-a-a-ay" ♫

J's beautiful vulnerability on the melody of "Ilomilo"

the gloved hand reaching for Geoff's face as we hear his voice menacingly say "Come here."

Layne jerking his head around in time to the beat as though he's feeling the additional danger of their confinement

finishing on a minor chord that sounds so despairing

Trivia:

○ Because this video is a prequel to their "Panic! in 4 Minutes" medley, they paid close attention to continuity.

The date on J.None's phone screen is the day before the previous video's public release.

Their clothing is the same, and their hair is as close as they could reasonably get it. (They didn't make Layne buzz his head or Earl bleach his hair, though, which then raises other creepy narrative implications.)

○ The guys are taken down in ways that explain their later bedraggled states when they wake up in the abandoned sawmill.

Layne — choked out from behind and dragged across the floor ⇒ scrapes and bruising around his left eye

Earl — smacked with a shovel ⇒ diagonal scrape across his cheek and nose, bruise on his forehead

J.None — tripped on stairs & dragged ⇒ scrapes and bruises on his left cheek and jaw

Eli — knocked against a door, glasses left on chair ⇒ bruising around his right eye and scrape on his left cheek, no glasses

Geoff — finds the key, knocked out by facepalm ⇒ has the key around his neck, cut on his right eyebrow, scrape on his left jaw

○ Geoff joked on Instagram that Layne "had to go first" because he's "the cutest". For practical purposes, it seems more likely that he just didn't sing any lead lyrics that needed to be captured on camera. (But also, Layne's the tallest and Earl's the burliest. It makes sense for their captor to take out the two biggest physical threats first.)

○ When Layne is being pulled down the hallway behind Geoff during "Copycat", Earl put his big muscles to use doing the dragging. (I assume he also towed J.None across the floor during the overhead shot, but Geoff didn't specify that part in his tweet.)

○ The YouTube comments are full of speculation about the identity of their abductor. Many suggested Tony, though none offered a reason he might do so. A few considered Home Free or Pentatonix trying to take out their rivals, but fear not; in reality all three groups like and support each other. (My tinfoil hat theory is that it was sound guy Paul who had gotten fed up with their antics, since he wasn't in the van with them as he usually would be.)

○ Their artist friend Leon King surmised that it might be an inside job, with last man standing Geoff as the "Bad Guy".

drawing by Leon King

○ The cabin location, Big Oaks Ranch in Chuluoata, was the same place where they had filmed their (much more lighthearted) video for "Daddy Sang Bass" the previous spring. The guys have since used other parts of the property for a couple of Geoff's solo videos and two episodes of PattyCake's Villains Lair series.

○ According to Eli, the horse trailer didn't smell as bad as they'd been worried it might. That was probably a relief after the aromas they had encountered while filming their video for "Grow Old With You" at an active horse ranch.

○ They posted part of their blooper reel for this video on social media as an enticement for their Patreon. (Poor Eli really earned those fake bruises.)

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○ Layne and Tony also used "Bad Guy" as a villain song for Maleficent in a PattyCake music video the following month, and VoicePlay later included it in their "Aca Top 10 – Hits of 2019" countdown video at the end of the year.