Overview
Song Title: Madeleine
Artist: Tickle Me Pink
Food Reinterpretation: Madeleine Cookie
Concept: Comedic reinterpretation of Tickle Me Pink’s “Madeleine” as a tragicomic song about a friendship with a Madeleine cookie.
Logline: Teenager grieves the loss of their sweet friend.
Director’s Vision: Darkly comedic, emotionally ironic, and subtly absurd. Juxtapose the sincere emotion of the song with the inherent silliness of a human-cookie friendship. Visual humor comes from literal interpretations of the lyrics within a cookie context and the honest portrayal of grief over something mundane.
Lyrics: Lyrical cues are represented in “bolded quotes“
Act Breakdown
Act 1: Implied Friendship & Tragic Discovery
- Visual: Opens dramatically, following our lead, looking somber and reflective. Shots imply they are deeply missing someone. Scenes of them alone in places friends might share (park bench, listening to music, the empty passenger seat in a car). Emo-inspired visual style – muted colors, focus on isolation.
- Lyric/Visual: “There’s a girl back home I used to know / Who cried herself to sleep every night”: A father figure screaming through the door of a bedroom
- Lyric/Visual: “We all knew, we all knew” – Shots of kids eating milk and cookies and talking about a sad situation.
- Lyric/Visual: “She tried to call me a month ago” – A close-up of a phone trying to dial out and then our lead on a swingset playing.
- Event: Build-up to a tragic reveal. Lead walks slow down to a waterfront. “They found her body resting by the river.”
- Visual: Our lead is distraught. A close-up shot of a BROKEN MADELEINE COOKIE lies forlornly on a riverbank. The broken cookie is staged dramatically, as if it were a crime scene. Mood: Melancholy builds to tragic revelation, then subtle comedic deflation upon cookie reveal.
Act 2: Cookie Friendship & Lyrical Reinterpretation
- Timeline Shift: Transition to flashbacks – “Those were the days” lyrics signal a nostalgic shift. Now, establish the literal cookie friendship, juxtaposing the serious tone with absurd visuals.
- Visual: Montage of scenes depicting activities from Verse 2, but with a MADELEINE COOKIE as the companion. The lead interacts with the cookie as if it’s a person:
- Lyric/Visual: “hide behind the trees / Smoking cigarettes until our throats would bleed” – Lead and a Madeleine cookie are “hiding” behind small potted plants. See a cigarette lying by the cookie and the lead coughing.
- Lyric/Visual: “Invincible to every sharp end” – Lead prevents some from trying to put a knife to the cookie.
- Lyric/Visual: “Drove so fast, thought it would last.” – Lead places the Madeleine cookie carefully on the dashboard of a car. Shots of the car driving at slightly exaggerated speeds on suburban streets. Cookie occasionally “falls” dramatically against the windshield during turns.
- Lyric/Visual: “Time had taken its toll” – quick shots of the Madeleine cookie becoming slightly stale-looking over time (perhaps with sped-up time-lapse effect, subtle visual decay on the cookie).
Act 3: Baking & Bittersweet Ending
- Timeline Shift: Return to the present day – Lead in a kitchen, now determined, not just sad.
- Visual: Montage of learning to BAKE MADELEINE COOKIES. Serious, focused expression. Show steps of baking in a dramatic, almost training-montage style – mixing batter, carefully pouring into Madeleine molds, watching them bake through the oven window.
- Lyric/Visual: “If I could turn back time / I’d find a way to remind you” – Overlaid as the lead meticulously bakes cookies, expressing their longing to have “saved” Madeline, now channeled into cookie creation.
- Climax/Tragicomic Twist: Lead proudly presents a freshly baked plate of Madeleine cookies to a friend.
- Ending: The friend casually takes a Madeleine cookie, pops it in their mouth, chewing happily. Lead stares at their friend in quiet, understated shock and disappointment – “Oh, you didn’t have to die.”
- Final shot: Focuses on the lead’s face – a mix of lingering grief, quiet despair, and subtle comedic resignation to the absurdity of the situation. “My precious Madeline”
Visual/Technical Highlights
- Visuals: Emo-inspired desaturated tones for scenes of grief and reflection (Act 1). Slightly warmer, more nostalgic tones for cookie friendship flashbacks (Act 2). Clean, brightly lit kitchen for baking scenes (Act 3) contrasting with the emotional darkness.
- Comedy Style: Understated absurdity, tragicomic tone. Humor comes from the sincere portrayal of grief directed at a cookie, literal interpretations of lyrics related to cookie-centric visuals, and the mundane tragedy of the ending.
- Sound: Original Song.
- Editing: Balance between slower, emotionally resonant editing for grief scenes and quicker cuts for the comedic montage in Act 2 and the baking sequence in Act 3. Hold on to the awkward, understated reactions for comedic timing, particularly at the ending.
Visual References:
