Ever since about two summers ago, I’ve been wanting to star in my very own short film or video of some sort. I’ve always wondered what it is like to project a different persona on screen and how it would turn out. About two summers ago, I even started writing a script for a comedy video of sorts. Not unlike Mr. Bean, I wanted to make a situational comedy type video that happens to me everyday. It didn’t require too much creativity because most of the scenes were taken from real life. But alas, the project never got off the desk and was never executed. It required filming in ‘real world’ places like my workplace, the subway, the gym, etc. and I required a cameraman to do that. At the time, I felt really awkward to even tell people about my project. So the Mr.Bean project was shelved along with some other projects that I had planned for that summer.
The following year, I went on exchange to Singapore and I had high-hopes for a successful project. My plan was to document my travels and adventures in Singapore and India and make some sort of music video. The clips were taken using my cell phone, so the quality was terrible. Eventually, I ended up making a video about Bangalore, which was received fairly poorly by the facebook audience. The Singapore video projects are still in the queue and perhaps I will get to them when I get to them. Anyway, on to the feature presentation! Swallowed In The Sea.
I first heard the song in the summer of 2009 when I was exploring new genres of music. I always liked Coldplay but never listened to all of their songs. After listening to 'Swallowed In The Sea', I really wanted to express my appreciation of the song to the world. The lyrics is fantastic and I loved the music.
At the time of making this video (i.e. Now!), I was in a really weird place in my life. All I ever did was go to work, take walks, enjoy being with myself, come back home and spend time on facebook, etc. As much as I love being with people and talking with them, it somehow turned out that I was alone most of the time. Nonetheless, I have always felt comfortable just being with myself and exploring my thoughts so I was happy. I realized it would be really nice if I can document my summer days somehow. So, I decided to take up this ‘one-man’ project to see how I fare in the creative world.
The initial plan was to record the song and just put it up on facebook to see how people react, but later I decided to turn this into a bigger project to satisfy all my cravings at once. For a couple of days, I went over the storyboard in my head while listening to the song. I got a basic idea of what the video should include and the major milestones of the video. At the same time, I started practicing my guitar and singing as I had lost touch over the months. After much deliberation, I decided to film my day on Tuesday, July, 21, 2009.
I guess I was excited, so my internal clock woke me up at 6:50 am for the first time in months. The filming at home was easy as I had the time to make mistakes and explore the knitty gritty parts of filming using a digital camera. The harder parts of filming was on the bus, where I had to point the camera at myself disregarding the awkward looks from people around me. The street videos were also difficult because I had to place the camera somewhere, run back and walk casually in front of the camera!
Overall, I was not terribly impressed by my singing abilities, but it was a great first experience to record separate tracks of myself singing and playing the guitar. The video had a lot of footage and much to be covered, so the video seems a bit more rushed than I would have liked. I was planning a more somber, slow video symbolizing my daily boredom and the monotony of routine, but it turned out a bit different. As I went through the editing phase, the tone of the video started to change from my initial plan. Although different than I had expected, I like how the tone of the video turned out. The climax was supposed to be me singing and playing the guitar, but that turned out to be the end, which worked out well I think.
All in all, it was a great experience making this video right from the storyboard to the editing phase. I am glad that I finally went through the creative cycle and completed what I set out to do. It truly is a great feeling! Hopefully this will get the momentum going for me to complete some of my other projects. Stay tuned folks!
Yeah, you belong with me… Not Swallowed in the Sea…
