This video and story all stemmed from this Twilight Zone-esque image I couldn’t comfortably fit into the lyrics for: that of a person wriggling helplessly on the ground like an overfed tick, their head too swollen with their own ego/pride/drunken conviction/shame to pick themselves off the ground.

When I first brought the idea to the folks at Odd Commodity—the Chicago-based production company that brought this video to life—one of their main questions was “how horrifying do we want this head to look.” This was the sketch on the mood board when I left their HQ that night:

![A sketch in pre-production of the VFX design for the giant-headed tick man](assets/img/a-huge-dweeb.jpeg

Special thanks to Katie, Erin, Emilie, Ashley, Tony, and Chris for getting covered in mosquito bites and dancing with youthful conviction till 4 am on a sticky August night.

Extra-special thanks to my brother-in-law, Colin (aka Book Guy), for getting smoked like a brisket all night and agreeing to play the villain. Well… in Guitar Guy’s mind anyway.