A COLLECTION OF MY MOST RECENT PERSONAL PROJECTS

WRITTEN 2021:

When assigned with the open prompt to create what comes to mind with video as my vehicle, I was experiencing a creative block for a while. Until I remembered one of my favorite creative exercises..every time I hear a song that moves me, I write down all the visuals and fleeting moments that appear in my mind's eye to then utilize somewhere in the future when I find myself in need of inspiring content on videos I plan to execute. Knowing the project's parameters, between 5-10 minutes. I decided to take a few of those songs and create a long-form music video. With these four songs (Patience by The Lumineers, Is It True by Tame Impala, It's Over by Palace, and For the First Time by Mac Demarco) where I had visuals in mind already, I had to think of a way to arrange them in such a way that would allow me to tell a cohesive story throughout the selected music. With some predetermined visions, I decided to go in the direction of shooting in my hometown and having the concept center round a common, yet personal and intimate situation, I feel where many can relate. Granted, the video consists of a heterosexual couple, but the emotion behind is universal. It's about a deep relationship, a connection, and a friendship that is now "obsolete" ,and having to come to peace with that. 

The video begins with the couple already separated. My male character Eli is seen running out of his home, distressed, frazzled, thus getting on his bike to get some fresh air and relief. While he is on the way to his once beloved spot, a highlight reel of his first date with my female character, Annelise, begins to take over his psyche, to the point where he begins to hallucinate her in places they used to frequent. After a moment of grieving, Eli bicycles back to his home where a car passes by, transitioning to the interior of it. Inside is Annelise, with a friend. Again, emphasis on the small town. In the car, Annelise is also seen as distressed and trying to conceal it, as she too can't help but coincidentally, replay the same moments as Eli within her mind. Her friend, attempting to take them on a fun and distracting drive, takes note of Annelise's melancholy, turns up spirited music, driving them to the local convenience store. Annelise's friend works to spark constructive conversation, while aiming to give Annelise new memories to replace her old ones with. After the successful girls' night, we transition to both our main characters, Annelise and Eli, lying in bed separately within each of their own four walls, going through the tearing motions of a breakup, until they realize 'it's over' and it is now time to collect themselves and move on as they know it just won't work out. We then cut over to the grocery store, where we have the two both by chance grocery shopping. Of course, there is only one grocery store in town, therefore you're bound to run into someone you know, and in this instance, it was each other. 

They're suddenly spotted in a tight aisle as they swiftly pass one another, but after the precursor of all the interior emotion involving a broken bond and meaningful replays of what once was, as a voyeur in the moment, you would never know from the peripheral that these two-people shared a very special bond in life together, as we see them within their local store, appearing like strangers as they play it "cool". Already looking back there are a few things I would do differently/avoid. I need to become well- versed in my camera settinas as it is certainly not my strenath. I need to avoid abruptness and too abrupt transitions to next scenes. t here is more I would have shot to ease that. I would also work with some light dialogue, I usually stay away from dialoque as I fear the deliverv would be cornv or low-aualitv (due to not having current access to trained actors), but I think there are a few different tasteful ways I could have incorporated it. With all that being said, my actors were not hired actors and we were working on time crunch, but all-in-all I think I produced the best product between the extensive, yet quick, prior planning and the footage I captured and I exceedingly enjoyed this project!