Music Video Final Cut

Since, she has now dropped Media Studies, Hira emailed me the Premiere file of the music video as well as the video itself that she edited on the 9th and then after I had requested some changes, she sent me another version on the 10th. However, due to the fact that she no longer took the subject and hence the bigger communication gap, I decided to make some remaining changes and alterations to the video myself, which included rearranging some clips and adding a different opening scene:

After that I colour graded some parts of the footage to add a slight vintage effect, but not too much. I did this by adjusting the "faded film" scale in the Lumetri colours tab, and adding a slight noise effect to some clips. For some clips I downloaded a VHS overlay to get a *drumroll* VHS effect, by placing the overlay on top of the clip and setting the blend mode to "Screen". I felt that this added the lofi, retro handicam effect that we were initially aiming for as well not just because of the fact that it's highly conventional in indie music videos, but also because, alongside the party scenes which are not so vintage/retro, it matches the video's concept of going back and forth between different events and times, and that a large part of the events of the video are fragments of the character's memory.

And it was finally done.

Here's the final cut of my music video:

(uploading the video directly (temporarily) because it has not yet been uploaded to YouTube)

(edit: it is now up on YouTube so here:)

I had already deconstructed the meanings behind most of the scenes in the music video in the rough first cut, but since there are some new and changed elements added in the final cut, I'll finish by elaborating on those. 

Firstly, I started the video this way because it connects directly with the song's title and hence seemed like an effective way to set up the context of the narrative(s) that follow(s) so the audience could draw that link much more easily. Also, according to feedback from a friend on the rough first cut, the relationship didn't seem like the central subject of the video (even though it was intended to be the main storyline). We realised we weren't entirely looking at the video from the perspective of someone viewing it for the first time without knowing the synopsis. To make it less disconnected, shots of the two characters were added on 0:24 and 0:25. The video was edited here to give it a more warmer hue and the colours were more saturated as well. This indicated that the emotions that they felt, but also, when happy memories are thought about in hindsight, they are often likely to appear happier than they actually were. Since the shots of the couple are pieces from the main character's memory, they appear as more (and even unrealistically) beautiful.

Secondly, there are shots of cards such as the queen and king being drawn together but a joker card being thrown between them, and the (obviously-fake-due-to-lack-of-resources) tarot card of The Fool. For audience not acquainted with cartomancy, the card could be considered in very literal context as well - the character here may be considered foolish for not being able to move on. The Fool, however, can mean multiple things depending on who reads it, but one common meaning derived from it is the idea of new beginnings, which do eventually follow for our character. 

Thirdly, another element that was added were subliminal messages, such as the "I miss you  me" shot (a bit edgy, I know) of my bathroom mirror which I wrote on with my favourite lipstick (the sacrifices I've had to make...), and the shots of text on the notebook, which read "i think we can do it if we tried", a reference to Clairo's "Sofia". The inspiration for these subliminal messages was taken from Alvvays' music video for "Archie Marry Me". The shots of the paper strips with "promises" and "happiness" written on them, burning from 2:29-2:32, mean quite literally what they show - the promises and happiness that were once there are slowly going down in flames and turning to ashes. The fact that she's holding the papers from the edge in these shots, though shows her reluctance to let go (of course, this shot filmed later on so I had to use my brother's hand after offering to do his chores). However, from 3:42 - 3:44, the papers are on the ground. These shots, much like this whole sequence of shots from 3:34 - 3:47, acts as the phase of transition, showing the character finally learning to let go.

This is where those particular scenes were shot - the terrace, even though you can't tell in the video

Prepping the props for the shot ft. the match box

Since, we're on that part of the video, the shot of the lightning before the beginning of the aforementioned sequence indicates the beginning of the change. Like all elements of nature, lightning holds very specific meaning, i.e. a sudden transformation, mostly emotional rather than physical, and indication of sudden enlightenment, which is exactly what we wanted to show.

In double exposure this sequence of shots also has scenes of the character dancing that are slightly visible, which shows her present state of escalated escapism and the now-fading emotions attached to her memories all running simultaneously in a state of renewed haphazardness and frenzy.