For the sake of this competition Moby has made available three tracks from his upcoming CD Destroyed. Competitors are permitted to pick one of these three songs and use it to create a video. The point is to interpret the music any way you see fit.
This is the bit that appealed to me; I love working with music. I love matching video to music and music to video. I love TV shows and movies that build a scene around a piece of music or, conversely, choose a song that perfectly compliments a pre-cut scene. These are some very basic video editing concepts, choices made my directors and editors.
I also love cutting to music, cutting to the beat, letting the rhythm of the song help me decide when to use slow mo, or stop motion, transitions and effects.
This is a movie making competition, not a music video competition; I for one will not be finding people to lip sync to a Moby song. I still can't watch a music video where someone is pretending to sing, even if it is their own song, without giggling.
Here are the three songs from which I had to choose. Take a listen to them all and see which one inspires you. Do you see images when you hear the music? Does a particular song evoke an emotion? Which song changes your heart rate and make your breathing change to match the tempo .. that's what happens to me.
For me, the clear "winner" was the last song on the list, After. Of the three it seemed to me the most cinematic. It quickly set a mood. I loved the tempo changes. I loved how it built. The tempo and pace changes evoked drama.
I also liked how the lyrics were spare. I didn't want to be bogged down where a lot of lyrics would lead me to a literal interpretation. I wanted some freedom.
The song, to me, sounded very urban but very urban. I think it's about dissatisfaction, I think it's about our lives being constricted by the world we live in. I think it's about two worlds: The world inside ourselves and the world outside of us and how one is often suppressed by the other. It's about lonliness and remoteness and feeling isolated while surrounded by millions of people.
As soon as I heard the song I made the movie in my mind. But it's a movie I cannot back. I don't have unlimited time or budget or resources. My movie involved actors and locations and would have required a lot time and planning. I have none of the above.
This is where you have to become creative. You have to always bring yourself back to the point which you want to express; if I can't have actors perhaps the city itself will be the actor. How do I express isolation without being able to focus on one or two people. Perhaps lots of people, the anonymous crowds of my city would serve in stead.
I'm not really sure, I'm making this up as I go along.
But I have my song, I have my inspiration, I have my concept, my message. My intent all along was to go gonzo with this video, to go as low tech as possible.
Making a movie is generally comprised of three periods: Pre production, production, post production. Pre production usually takes the longest time; it involves writing and fine tuning the script, getting together producers and directors, casting, location scouting ... A lot of my pre production is already down.
Damn good thing. One day down. Twenty more to go
No comments:
Post a Comment