DARE (Video)

DARE is a single from the Gorillaz album "Demon Days".

Synopsis
The video opens with a rotating shot of Kong Studios before panning downward on the word DARE spray-painted on one of the towers. The shot transitions to a view of Noodle sliding open a set of Shōji doors to reveal the disembodied head of Shaun Ryder, hooked up to an elaborate array of machinery within her closet.

Noodle then flips a series of switches and watches as her entire room begins to light up with music, dance lights (complete with a disco ball), and Shaun's head coming to life. The two then engage in a duet with Noodle singing lead and Shaun as her backup.

As the music continues to play, it becomes apparent that the music coming from Noodle's room is becoming obnoxiously loud, so much that Russel can hear it from the bathroom stalls on the lower floor of the studio. The camera moves up through the ceiling of the bathroom, into Noodle's room where Shaun's head is still singing, and then up to the room above, where 2-D is pressing his head against the floor trying to listen to the commotion.

The song progresses, the yelling of restless people throughout the studio begins to rise, prompting Noodle to shut the doors of her closet, putting Shaun back to sleep. The scene is abruptly cut by a distressed Shaun waking up in his bed in his flat only to be comforted by Murdoc who proceeds to tell him, "Go back to sleep, honey"; revealing that they are sleeping together (implied romantically.) This sequence is then also interrupted by (this time) a distressed Murdoc waking up inside of his Winnebago in a cold sweat; hinting that one or both of the sequences was a dream.

Availability

 * Available on the DVD format of the "DARE" single.
 * Available on the Phase 2 DVD 'Slowboat To Hades'
 * Available on the DVD edition of The Singles Collection 2001-2011.

Credits
Record Company: Parlophone

Artist Management: CMO

Production Company: Passion Pictures

Directors: Jamie Hewlett/Pete Candeland

Executive Producer: Andrew Ruhemann

Producers: Emilie Walmsley/Cara Speller

2D Animation: Robert Valley, Heath Kenny, Rikke Asbjorn

Key Assistant to Director: David Burns

Animation Assistants: Miles Peters, Brent Odell, Jonathan Wren, Gail Walton, Richard Wake, Gerry Gallego, Rachel Glodowski

FX Animators: Simon Swales, Barney Russell

FX Assistants: Mikolaj Watt, Sky Bone, Jane Wright, Katerina Kremasioti, Monica Brufton

Toonz: Phil Holder, Tim King, Megs White Dore

Art Direction: Daniel Cacouault

Matte Painter: Christobal de Oliveira

Creative Assistant: Paul Cheshire

Technician: Tony Clarke

2D Co-ordination: Jen Nunn, David Burns

CG Animation: Wesley Coman

CG Supervisors: Chris Hemming, Antoine Moulineau

CG Modellers: Stuart Rowbottom, Adam Sharp, David Usher

CG Lighting: Adam Sharp

CG Effects: Lukasz Pazera

Senior Compositor: Johnny

Still Compositing: Niamh Lines, Cassiano Prado, Ed Salkeld

Technical Director: Mark Wilson

3D Co-ordination: Emma Philips

DoP (live action shots) Richard Stewart

Camera Operator: Richard Stewart

Producer (live action) Russell McLean

Make Up: Cecile Nonon

Editor: Jamie Foord

Post Production: Rushes

VFX Artists: Duncan Malcolm, Marcus Wood, Brian Carbin

Rushes Producer: Carl Grinter

Trivia

 * At the end of the video it is implied that the entire sequence with Noodle and Shaun was a dream however, in the virtual tour of Kong Studios during Phase 2, it is revealed that Shaun's head was still sitting in Noodle's closet (long after her disappearance). Also, in the virtual tour featured on the Phase Two: Slowboat To Hades DVD, it is revealed that Shaun's head eventually shrank back to it's normal size from the lack of chemicals being pumped into his head and he was stuffed into the studio kitchen's refrigerator where he was forgotten when the band left the studio. It is never explained how his head was relocated from the closet to the kitchen fridge.
 * This video makes homage to classic horror films; one of which being the the statue of Pazuzu, the mascot of the Gorillaz's short lived campaign, Reject False Icons.
 * The crows circling the outside of the studio, is a nod to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.
 * Shaun Ryder is depicted as a Frankenstein-like monster who is brought to life as the music begins. Ryder's head being kept alive is a pun on the movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
 * The tube attached to Ryder's cheek switches from side to side as a tribute to the goofs commonly made in early horror films.
 * The monitor of the machine hooked up to Shaun is playing Pong.
 * When Russel is seen sitting on the toilet, he is holding a newspaper with a headline that reads CANNIBAL MASSAKREN, the Danish title for Cannibal Holocaust, an exploitation horror film. And on the back of the newspaper a headline text of the name "Freddie" is seen which is possibly a reference to Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
 * The zoom on Noodle's eye at the end of the video is taken directly from Ringu and its American remake, The Ring.
 * 挑戦 (Rōmaji: chōsen; Pinyin: tiǎo zhàn) means "challenge," which is another word for "dare".
 * According to a recent Reddit Q&A with Noodle, 2-D taught her the dance moves she did in the video.
 * At the end of the video when Murdoc wakes up, originally there was a poster that resembled Evanescence's "Fallen" album cover, but at some point it was replaced with a nun poster as seen in the currently available YouTube video.