Creating a Music Video
For my music video, I knew that I wanted to create something that was visually and aesthetically pleasing, but with also carried an important message via the use of carefully thought out narrative.
Because I live in Whitby, a small seaside town, I already knew of multiple possible locations which I thought would be perfect for the shoot. However, I wanted to get a strong idea for my narrative locked down first, or I would simply be choosing locations based on aesthetic merit alone, which I though would cheapen the piece.
Although in previous work we have created a video for a song, I also believe that a music video can be artistic impression; a short film of sorts set to music. In order to get across my "message" I decided to fit the music to my story and not vice versa.
Stage One - Creating a Story and Selecting a Song (29th May - 1st June)
I approached a couple of friends about my having to produce a music video and asked them if they would be happy to discuss story ideas with me. I explained that I wanted to the video to have a message and both friends agreed that this was important.
We discussed concepts for a while, at which point I said that I liked the idea that we could cross paths with the same stranger multiple times and not be aware of this fact, and that any stranger could have a huge impact on our lives without us even knowing it. My friend said that he like the idea of one stranger helping another simply because we all share the same human condition.
I decided to combine both of these concepts for my music video, by having the separate stories of two strangers play out throughout the day, with their paths crossing a couple of times without them noticing, only to have their days culminate with one having to actively intervene with the other.
In order to identify these two complete strangers as strangers, and to emphasise the fact that we can all be totally different but have so much in common at the same time, I decided to play upon a juxtaposition between the two. Then came the construction of the characters.
My first character, I decided, was going to be a stressed-out, high-flying, up-and-coming young businessman. Throughout the day we would see him slowly deteriorate. He is perhaps wearing a suit and driving a nice car, but as the video progresses we see him getting increasing agitated and depressed; perhaps an important business merger has fallen through.
In stark contrast to this, my second character was to be a happy-go-lucky, living life to the full, stoner-type. I wanted to show that relative to the businessman, in terms of material possessions and money, this character has nothing. However, what he does have is carefree, fulfilling life.
I decided that when these two characters experience each other, the businessman should regard the hippy character with a slight disdain, perhaps shaking his head slightly. The businessman's day will get worse and worse, to the point where we see the character "snap", at which point it becomes somewhat apparent to the audience that he is contemplating suicide. When this happens, just in time, the hippy character comes across the businessman's abandoned car (likely near a bridge or large building), puts together the pieces and runs to save the man. In the end, without words, the hippy character manages to save the man by simply offering company and extending a friendly hand, the final message being, put simply, love thy neighbour. Although we may all lead very different lives at face value, underneath, we are all the same.
In terms of song choice I wanted a song which had pace, but a little more depth and personality than a generic dance track. Something uplifting and with major chords but which wasn't too "pop-y".
After going through many songs and visualising how the general story idea I had in mind would fit, I eventually settled on "Don't Sing" by DATA. The song is piano heavy, with short sharp notes, which gives it the uplifting and hopeful feel I was searching for. It also had pace and a consistent beat with a chorus that would offer a significant enough contrast from the verse to fit the idea of the two intertwining story lines.
I believe the song is about revolution and breaking the mundane; standing up for what you truly believe in and not pretending everything is okay.
Stage Two - Sourcing Talent/Crew and Discussing Costume (2nd June - 3rd June)
As the video only contains two characters, I knew I only needed two actors and perhaps one crew member to help me with transporting and setting up equipment.
Because I wanted the piece to have an important and clear message, I wanted the acting to be as believable as possible, as well and the actors fitting the characters well.
I chose my friend Luis Norton to play the hippy character because he looks almost exactly like your archetypal happy-go-lucky teenager, with long hair and beard. He also mentioned to me that he can skate fairly well, which I thought was perfect. This would definitely add to the juxtaposition of the two characters if both were moving from point A to B in very different ways; one in an expensive car and one on his beaten up skateboard. We discussed possible costume and settled on old skinny jeans, trainers, sunglasses and perhaps a T-shirt or old jacket. I explained to Luis that I wanted the distinction to be clear, and therefore he should maybe wear something more strikingly colourful on his top half, in contrast to the businessman's black suit. Luis had previously acted in another music video for the band Warhol Superstars (in which he plays bass guitar), so I knew he would be reliable and had some experience.
For the role of the businessman, I asked my friend Luke McCarthy. He was very keen to help out in any way he could from the start and showed immediate enthusiasm. I also needed someone who could drive for the role of this character. We ran over a few scenes all of which he acted convincingly, so I asked if he would be happy to play the part. We decided on a simple black suit jacket, black trousers and shoes, with a white shirt and plain tie in terms of attire. This would offer the visual contrast I was looking for.
For crew I asked my friend Kai Greensmith. He had previously produced the aforementioned video for Warhol Superstars, so had a little knowledge of filming and equipment. I explained that I would probably need help moving equipment around which he agreed to do.
Stage Three - Sourcing Locations and Shot Ideas (3rd May - 4th May)
As i mentioned before I wanted my locations to be both aesthetically pleasing, and fit in nicely with the narrative. Myself and Luke, who would double up as our shoot transport went around hunting for locations. The first thing we needed was bridge for the final scene where the businessman is contemplating suicide. There is a large bridge in Whitby which forms part of an old railway system called the Viaduct. We knew this was also public land and therefore would not require special permission. I wished to keep all of the shoot this way if possible.
I also knew that we would need some driving shots of Luke in his car, but we concluded this would be most efficiently done whilst driving between other shooting locations. In order to make this footage go further and not get old quickly, we decided I would sit in different positions within the car; in the back seat and the front for an over the shoulder shot and a close up, respectively.
I also wanted some tracking shots of Luis skateboarding and decided this would be best done by utilising a Glide Cam. I would sit in the boot of Luke's car holding the Glide Cam, moving slowly at around 5mph, with Luis skating behind the car keeping pace. In order to do this as safely as possible, we agreed on a 4 am start for filming the next day (5th May). This would allow us three things: near-exclusive access to the roads/locations (meaning fewer interruptions for filming), for me to safely sit in the boot for the tracking shots with a minimised risk of other road users and the chance to film as the sun rises, offering varying lighting opportunities (which would also show a progression of a longer period of time in a short space of time). For the opening couple of shots with Luis skating, we searched for a road which was long enough for me to get enough footage for the tracking shot without many bends. We eventually located a straight stretch of road which would be ideal.
With locations for my opening road shots, driving shots and end shots sorted, I wanted to utilise Whitby's idyllic sea front for the other shots. The promenade was perfect for this purpose as it is a stretch of around a mile which runs parallel to the beach, but which offers many different interesting shot opportunities within a short distance. I wanted a shot featuring the famous chalets and so decided that I would have the businessman receiving an apparently career-destroying phone call with the colourful chalets in the background. I liked the idea of a contrast between their bright, happy colours and the businessman's increasing hopelessness. I decided on contrasting two shots in the same location by featuring the hippy character dancing between the chalets before cutting to the businessman receiving his phone call in the same location. The stretch of promenade offered the opportunity for another tracking shot, too.
I wanted to feature Luis drinking alcohol, to emphasise the carefree nature of his character; a chilled out teenager skating around, drinking and listening to music early in the morning. I then had the idea of, in the final shot, the hippy character offering some to the businessman. He hesitates before nodding and taking a swig from the bottle. I thought this was a beautiful way to end as no words are exchanged, it's simply one man offering a drink to another man. There was something I found inexplicably satisfying about the lack of dialogue, especially in this scene; as genuine human compassion, even stranger to stranger surpasses the need for language.
Stage Four - Filming (5th May)
I met with Luis, Luke and Kai at the first location at 4:30 am. I had decided to shoot in sequence, as non-chronological order would raise issues with lighting inconsistencies as we had chosen to film at sunrise.
We managed to get the tracking shot in two takes, before getting some more shots of Luis skating using just the steadycam. We then moved to our second location, the promenade. I managed to get my footage of Luke driving en route without any issues.
Shooting at the promenade went without any hitches also; my shot of Luis drinking, a tracking shot of him skating (done using the aforementioned method). I got a shot of the sea to transition from the first chorus of the song, as well as a shot of Luke looking distressed staring out to sea and a shot looking in the wing mirror of the car while waves break over the promenade wall in the background. I wanted this particular shot for the part of the song where there is a slow build up to a chorus. From there, we filmed the chalet shots. This started with a close up of Luis' radio, with him dancing, before cutting to a wide shot of the same scene, in which Luke walks past looking disapproving. I got the shot I wanted of the businessman's phone call before moving to our final location.
This all went smoothly with the addition of a shot in which Luke "snaps" while sat in his car. In order to make it as clear as possible to the audience what is going on, I got a wide shot of the whole viaduct which I decided to place between Luis discovering the car band realising what is happening.
The hippy character discovers the car keys and businessman's suit jacket and tie and I got a couple of different shots of him running towards Luke, as well as a shot of Luke looking out over the bridge in order to establish the scale of the drop.
The final shot took the longest as I wanted the perfect level of emotion. I wanted to show Luke's initial apprehension at being interrupted by Luis' character and his eventual resignation and acceptance of company. Eventually, we wrapped up at 7:30 am.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQGVOGNdq-DSnRPdS1hRXhkS0U/view?usp=sharing
Risk assessment/Permissions:
As mentioned earlier, I chose locations with permissions in mind, meaning that all of my video was shot on public land and where the cast and crew were allowed to be at all times. We ensured we always kept noise to a minimum when moving through residential/built up areas.
The only major risk that I believed we were potentially going to encounter was when shooting the tracking shots. We minimised this risk by having Luke driving slowly, me making sure I was stable in the boot of the car and having Kai positioned further down the road to alert us of any potential other road users before we encountered them.
Here is the finished video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfZXtBmjuoU
My first character, I decided, was going to be a stressed-out, high-flying, up-and-coming young businessman. Throughout the day we would see him slowly deteriorate. He is perhaps wearing a suit and driving a nice car, but as the video progresses we see him getting increasing agitated and depressed; perhaps an important business merger has fallen through.
In stark contrast to this, my second character was to be a happy-go-lucky, living life to the full, stoner-type. I wanted to show that relative to the businessman, in terms of material possessions and money, this character has nothing. However, what he does have is carefree, fulfilling life.
I decided that when these two characters experience each other, the businessman should regard the hippy character with a slight disdain, perhaps shaking his head slightly. The businessman's day will get worse and worse, to the point where we see the character "snap", at which point it becomes somewhat apparent to the audience that he is contemplating suicide. When this happens, just in time, the hippy character comes across the businessman's abandoned car (likely near a bridge or large building), puts together the pieces and runs to save the man. In the end, without words, the hippy character manages to save the man by simply offering company and extending a friendly hand, the final message being, put simply, love thy neighbour. Although we may all lead very different lives at face value, underneath, we are all the same.
In terms of song choice I wanted a song which had pace, but a little more depth and personality than a generic dance track. Something uplifting and with major chords but which wasn't too "pop-y".
After going through many songs and visualising how the general story idea I had in mind would fit, I eventually settled on "Don't Sing" by DATA. The song is piano heavy, with short sharp notes, which gives it the uplifting and hopeful feel I was searching for. It also had pace and a consistent beat with a chorus that would offer a significant enough contrast from the verse to fit the idea of the two intertwining story lines.
I believe the song is about revolution and breaking the mundane; standing up for what you truly believe in and not pretending everything is okay.
Revolution
Will bring the light
Just a matter of fighting the fight
People stand up
Make them last
Never forget what you love best
We like to be, on the run
Wake up to the sound of drums"
I think this is fitting for the businessman character, who is perhaps pretending to be someone he doesn't want to be; living a stressful life for materialistic rewards and, in his eyes, "fighting the fight".
The hippy character on the other hand, is fighting a fight of his own, perhaps a fight against authority? He is not conforming to societies expectations and is far happier than the businessman. The line "we like to be, on the run" I feel also highlights an important part of the story idea; that both characters are, in their own way, running from something. Perhaps its home life problems, perhaps responsibility.
Stage Two - Sourcing Talent/Crew and Discussing Costume (2nd June - 3rd June)
As the video only contains two characters, I knew I only needed two actors and perhaps one crew member to help me with transporting and setting up equipment.
Because I wanted the piece to have an important and clear message, I wanted the acting to be as believable as possible, as well and the actors fitting the characters well.
I chose my friend Luis Norton to play the hippy character because he looks almost exactly like your archetypal happy-go-lucky teenager, with long hair and beard. He also mentioned to me that he can skate fairly well, which I thought was perfect. This would definitely add to the juxtaposition of the two characters if both were moving from point A to B in very different ways; one in an expensive car and one on his beaten up skateboard. We discussed possible costume and settled on old skinny jeans, trainers, sunglasses and perhaps a T-shirt or old jacket. I explained to Luis that I wanted the distinction to be clear, and therefore he should maybe wear something more strikingly colourful on his top half, in contrast to the businessman's black suit. Luis had previously acted in another music video for the band Warhol Superstars (in which he plays bass guitar), so I knew he would be reliable and had some experience.
For the role of the businessman, I asked my friend Luke McCarthy. He was very keen to help out in any way he could from the start and showed immediate enthusiasm. I also needed someone who could drive for the role of this character. We ran over a few scenes all of which he acted convincingly, so I asked if he would be happy to play the part. We decided on a simple black suit jacket, black trousers and shoes, with a white shirt and plain tie in terms of attire. This would offer the visual contrast I was looking for.
For crew I asked my friend Kai Greensmith. He had previously produced the aforementioned video for Warhol Superstars, so had a little knowledge of filming and equipment. I explained that I would probably need help moving equipment around which he agreed to do.
Stage Three - Sourcing Locations and Shot Ideas (3rd May - 4th May)
As i mentioned before I wanted my locations to be both aesthetically pleasing, and fit in nicely with the narrative. Myself and Luke, who would double up as our shoot transport went around hunting for locations. The first thing we needed was bridge for the final scene where the businessman is contemplating suicide. There is a large bridge in Whitby which forms part of an old railway system called the Viaduct. We knew this was also public land and therefore would not require special permission. I wished to keep all of the shoot this way if possible.
I also knew that we would need some driving shots of Luke in his car, but we concluded this would be most efficiently done whilst driving between other shooting locations. In order to make this footage go further and not get old quickly, we decided I would sit in different positions within the car; in the back seat and the front for an over the shoulder shot and a close up, respectively.
I also wanted some tracking shots of Luis skateboarding and decided this would be best done by utilising a Glide Cam. I would sit in the boot of Luke's car holding the Glide Cam, moving slowly at around 5mph, with Luis skating behind the car keeping pace. In order to do this as safely as possible, we agreed on a 4 am start for filming the next day (5th May). This would allow us three things: near-exclusive access to the roads/locations (meaning fewer interruptions for filming), for me to safely sit in the boot for the tracking shots with a minimised risk of other road users and the chance to film as the sun rises, offering varying lighting opportunities (which would also show a progression of a longer period of time in a short space of time). For the opening couple of shots with Luis skating, we searched for a road which was long enough for me to get enough footage for the tracking shot without many bends. We eventually located a straight stretch of road which would be ideal.
With locations for my opening road shots, driving shots and end shots sorted, I wanted to utilise Whitby's idyllic sea front for the other shots. The promenade was perfect for this purpose as it is a stretch of around a mile which runs parallel to the beach, but which offers many different interesting shot opportunities within a short distance. I wanted a shot featuring the famous chalets and so decided that I would have the businessman receiving an apparently career-destroying phone call with the colourful chalets in the background. I liked the idea of a contrast between their bright, happy colours and the businessman's increasing hopelessness. I decided on contrasting two shots in the same location by featuring the hippy character dancing between the chalets before cutting to the businessman receiving his phone call in the same location. The stretch of promenade offered the opportunity for another tracking shot, too.
I wanted to feature Luis drinking alcohol, to emphasise the carefree nature of his character; a chilled out teenager skating around, drinking and listening to music early in the morning. I then had the idea of, in the final shot, the hippy character offering some to the businessman. He hesitates before nodding and taking a swig from the bottle. I thought this was a beautiful way to end as no words are exchanged, it's simply one man offering a drink to another man. There was something I found inexplicably satisfying about the lack of dialogue, especially in this scene; as genuine human compassion, even stranger to stranger surpasses the need for language.
Stage Four - Filming (5th May)
I met with Luis, Luke and Kai at the first location at 4:30 am. I had decided to shoot in sequence, as non-chronological order would raise issues with lighting inconsistencies as we had chosen to film at sunrise.
We managed to get the tracking shot in two takes, before getting some more shots of Luis skating using just the steadycam. We then moved to our second location, the promenade. I managed to get my footage of Luke driving en route without any issues.
Shooting at the promenade went without any hitches also; my shot of Luis drinking, a tracking shot of him skating (done using the aforementioned method). I got a shot of the sea to transition from the first chorus of the song, as well as a shot of Luke looking distressed staring out to sea and a shot looking in the wing mirror of the car while waves break over the promenade wall in the background. I wanted this particular shot for the part of the song where there is a slow build up to a chorus. From there, we filmed the chalet shots. This started with a close up of Luis' radio, with him dancing, before cutting to a wide shot of the same scene, in which Luke walks past looking disapproving. I got the shot I wanted of the businessman's phone call before moving to our final location.
This all went smoothly with the addition of a shot in which Luke "snaps" while sat in his car. In order to make it as clear as possible to the audience what is going on, I got a wide shot of the whole viaduct which I decided to place between Luis discovering the car band realising what is happening.
The hippy character discovers the car keys and businessman's suit jacket and tie and I got a couple of different shots of him running towards Luke, as well as a shot of Luke looking out over the bridge in order to establish the scale of the drop.
The final shot took the longest as I wanted the perfect level of emotion. I wanted to show Luke's initial apprehension at being interrupted by Luis' character and his eventual resignation and acceptance of company. Eventually, we wrapped up at 7:30 am.
Footage of the tracking shot being filmed:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQGVOGNdq-DSnRPdS1hRXhkS0U/view?usp=sharing
Stage Five - Editing (5th May)
The edit of the music video took around 5 hours. I used techniques I had learnt during earlier research such as cutting to the beat. I used the "Warp Stabilise" feature in Premiere Pro for the opening tracking shot to minimise the natural shake of the car.
I already had in mind which shots I wanted to be longer, such as the shot in the mirror of Luke's car. These were mostly in the build up to a chorus, at which point I tried to make the cuts quicker to increase pace.
I colour graded footage to make Luis' jacket stand out more in order to highlight the contrast in the way the two characters were dressed, which I felt was an essential factor in the immediate distinction between the two.
Risk assessment/Permissions:
As mentioned earlier, I chose locations with permissions in mind, meaning that all of my video was shot on public land and where the cast and crew were allowed to be at all times. We ensured we always kept noise to a minimum when moving through residential/built up areas.
The only major risk that I believed we were potentially going to encounter was when shooting the tracking shots. We minimised this risk by having Luke driving slowly, me making sure I was stable in the boot of the car and having Kai positioned further down the road to alert us of any potential other road users before we encountered them.
Here is the finished video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfZXtBmjuoU
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