My Blog
INTRODUCTION
We have finally come to the fun part! Since we haven't made a music video before, my team and I were assigned a preliminary task of making a music video. We chose the same genre for the preliminary task as we decided for the final music video, i.e., pop music. This task was to help us build an understanding of how the whole process, from making a story board to actually shooting and then editing is done. Narrative type of music videos spoke to us the most and that is why we decided to make a narrative music video for both the preliminary task as well as the final music video. The following is our journey through the whole experience of shooting our very first music video.
PLANNING
SELECTING THE SONG
For our preliminary task we chose the same genre as for the final video. So after watching a lot of music videos my team and I finally decided on a song.
Song: Eastside
Artist: Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid
Composer: Ashley Frangipane
Song writers: Benny Blanco
Nathan Perez
Label: Friends Keep Secrets
Genre: Dance-pop
Duration: 2:53
Lyrics and Meaning
Lyrics:
Uh
Yeah, yeah
When I was young, I fell in love
We used to hold hands, man, that was enough (yeah)
Then we grew up, started to touch
Used to kiss underneath the light on the back of the bus (yeah)
Oh no, your daddy didn’t like me much
And he didn’t believe me when I said you were the one
Oh, every day she found a way out of the window to sneak out late
She used to meet me on the Eastside
In the city where the sun don’t set
And every day you know that we ride
Through the backstreets of a blue Corvette
Baby, you know I just wanna leave tonight
We can go anywhere we want
Drive down to the coast, jump in the seat
Just take my hand and come with me, yeah
We can do anything if we put our minds to it
Take your whole life then you put a line through it
My love is yours if you’re willing to take it
Give me your heart ’cause I ain’t gonna break it
So come away, starting today
Start a new life, together in a different place
We know that love is how these ideas came to be
So baby, run away, away with me
Seventeen and we got a dream to have a family
A house and everything in between
And then, oh, suddenly we turned twenty-three
Now we got pressure for taking our life more seriously
We got our dead-end jobs and got bills to pay
Have old friends and know our enemies
Now I, I’m thinking back to when I was young
Back to the day when I was falling in love
He used to meet me on the Eastside
In the city where the sun don’t set
And every day you know where we ride
Through the backstreets in a blue Corvette
And baby, you know I just wanna leave tonight
We can go anywhere we want
Drive down to the coast, jump in the seat
Just take my hand and come with me
Singing
We can do anything if we put our minds to it
Take your whole life then you put a line through it
My love is yours if you’re willing to take it
Give me your heart ’cause I ain’t gonna break it
So come away, starting today
Start a new life, together in a different place
We know that love is how these ideas came to be
So baby, run away with me
Run away, now
Run away, now
Run away, now
Run away, now
Run away, now
Run away, now
He used to meet me on the Eastside
She used to meet me on the Eastside
He used to meet me on the Eastside
She used to meet me on the Eastside
In the city where the sun don’t set
Meaning:
Evoking a nostalgia that fits perfectly with these summer evening moods, “Eastside” is the latest song from benny blanco, featuring Khalid and Halsey.
The mellow R&B/pop song reminisces about young love, as described by the two singers through their respective points of view.
Running just under 3 minutes, “Eastside” packs an emotional punch, brimming with the triumph of the teenage years while also touching upon the realities of adulthood.
Khalid starts off the track by telling the story of his first love. Because of the simplicity of the guitar arrangement and rhythmic backbeat, the lyrics of the song take center stage.
The verses capture cinematic moments from their childhood in descriptive detail, providing little vignettes like kissing under the light in the back of the bus or driving through backstreets in a blue Corvette.
But the song doesn’t just linger upon those happy moments, and, as Halsey sings in her own verse, “Suddenly we turned twenty-three / Now we got pressure for taking our life more seriously.”
This realization brings about a desire to return to the past, or at least a romanticized version of it – as she describes it, “Back to the day when I was falling in love.”
While the combination of reminiscing previous relationships and coming to terms with growing up brings a bitter sweetness to the tone of the song, the chorus remains highly optimistic.
While the verses are all set in the past tense, the chorus is sung in the present, giving the sense that their hope for the future hasn’t been completely diminished.
The phrases “He used to meet me on the Eastside / She used to meet me on the Eastside”, repeated in the pre-chorus and the outro, refers to the “Eastside” as not just a physical location but also a symbol of a time when love and freedom prevailed.
Like many songs inspired by the dreamy splendor of young and often rebellious love, “Eastside” talks about running away together to an idealistic paradise
.Instead of trying to relive what’s now history, “Eastside” is about honoring the moments of the past, remembering the relationships that have shaped us, and drawing upon that sentiment of limitless possibilities as our motivation and hope for the future.
This song is especially targeted towards teenagers because this contemporary song is such that can be relatable by almost every teenager: be it a girl or a boy.
The song may even have a darker meaning inside it because the song is mostly in past tense that may raise a question that what happened to either the girl or the boy.
Permission Letter
Since we are using the original song from Benny Blanco, and not singing it ourselves, it is mandatory and a requirement for us to ask for the copyrights (permission of the singer), so we sent a message to him. The above (on the left) is the official page of the singer (Benny Blanco). We sent him a formal message requesting for his permission (on the right) in order to produce our music video.
Synopsis and Storyboard
We will produce our music video in bright colors mostly, since it is a music video in which there are more happy scene that is why the colors will be light and bright. Our music video would have many transitions and effects and split screen to further enhance and attract the target audience.
The main plot for our music video or the synopsis is that, the girl and boy in our music video were attracted to each other since they were young, when they grew up and were in their teenage years, they started dating each other. The girl's father did not approve of their relationship, however they still managed to be together and get married. Since they married so young and after a few years in their early twenties, they started facing financial issues and could not pay their bills or rent. This caused many fights between the two. However the both of them realized that they need to work as a team and be there for each other so they left the house and moved out to find another place that is more affordable in order to lead to a happy life.
Mood Board
Mise en scene
Props:
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Cars
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Ring
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Picnic Basket
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Bags
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Vase
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Plates
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Drinking glass
Makeup:
The makeup throughout the video will be kept
casual for the girl since it is an everyday story.
Since teenagers do not do dramatic makeup
looks everyday so we wanted to keep it simple as well.
Setting, Background and Lighting
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Road
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Flowery pathway
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bedroom
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Drawing room
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Ground
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Inside a car
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Terrace
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Natural lighting
Cast
Ubaid Ali
Aroob Khawaja
Khair Muhammad
Crew
Danial Ahmed
Cameraman
Aroob Khawaja
ACTRESS
Ubaid Ali
ACTOR
Anam Ahmed
DIRECTOR
Budget
-
3 Plates Rs. 250
-
1 Glass Rs. 60
-
1 Vase Rs. 100
TOTAL Rs. 410
Technical Equipment
DSLR (Nikon D3400)
Tripod
PRODUCTION
Behind the Scenes
Experience
Shooting for our very first music video was quite nerve racking but exciting at the same time. Our shooting experience had quite a bit ups and downs but due to such a fantastic team we were able conquer those hurdles. It was quite an experience for us and we had gained a lot of knowledge while experimenting here and there. From setting up the scene as per the mise en scene to showing what expressions do the actors need to show, the two day shooting was quite hectic yet fun.
Strengths
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The actors were extremely communal and were cooperative
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the lighting was perfect, we had somewhat control over it but the natural lighting was just that we needed
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the parts where we shot indoor were uninterrupted and were easily shot
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The male actor is already a model thus he is more used to being in front of the camera
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My team's and my family was cooperative and lent us three cars to use in the video
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The facial expressions were quite as we wanted
Weaknesses
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Since the male artist was not familiar with the song it was not possible to add shots where the actors actually sung
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We had only two days of shooting since the male actor was not available so there were time constraints and had to change some shots
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the outdoor shots were quite difficult to film since we had to get permission from the authorities
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many people stared at the camera directly and the actors so the shots had to be redone
POST PRODUCTION
Software
For editing we chose the software filmora 9 to edit our preliminary music video. This is because firstly we could not find a version of Adobe Premiere which did not require payment and for just the preliminary task we did not want to waste the 30 day free trial on just the preliminary task. Since it was the first time editing our videos we needed to get familiar with all the tools and what they do so filmora 9 provided us with easy access and understanding of the tools.
The above shown are a few screenshots to show how easier it was to get familiarized with the tools. It had a bin, the preview panel and the timeline as adobe premiere. The cut and the overlapping tool was used a lot. We used markers to help us where to cut and add transitions and effects.However in filmora 9 there was only a limited amount of transitions and effects that can be used unlike adobe premiere however, the transitions that we needed for our video were present making it easier for us to edit the video.
Screenshots of Selected Shots
The above are a few screenshots of the shots that we selected for our music video. This shots include low angle, high angle, closeup and mid shots. This shows that we used a variety of shots and angles in order to make our music video more entertaining to watch and to convey the story more fluently and continuously. We used some camera tricks for transitioning such as walking into the camera with the hands blacking or fading out the camera for the next shot.
FINAL PRODUCT
The above is our portrayal of the song East side by Benny Blanco. The final product that came out is quite satisfactory for us and ranks as a high achievement for my team and I since it was out very first shooting experience.