Live Brief: Solivagant Music Video

For my live Brief project, I am creating a music video for a local Artist named Eric De Asis. I am creating a music video for his song Solivagant, of which is an electro-house type song. There are no lyrics to the song, of which in some ways presents a different challenge for the style of music video I can create. The song is exactly 3 minutes long and the different tempos and beat drops are very obvious and are timed to specific lengths, with the first drop coming between 1 minute and ending at 1 minute 15 seconds, as well as the second big drop starting at 2 minutes and ending at around 3 minutes. This will make brainstorming for ideas a lot easier, as there are roughly 4 stages to the song.

The term 'Solivagant' refers to the act of wandering alone. The song was made by Eric De Asis after he returned from traveling around Europe by himself (Pre-Covid). His adventures largely influenced his music, and so I think it will be very important to involve the action of adventuring into the song, as well as the aspect of traveling alone.

Initial Thoughts- My first initial thoughts for this music video involves a lone wanderer trying to find some sort of treasure. The tempo of the song slowly increases, building tension, as well as 2 parts of the song having an upbeat drop, of which is where the wanderer could possibly interact or find the treasure. I think I will be able to film this music video locally, as the countryside around Somerset will make for a good adventurer's route. The song is about a lone wanderer, so the main character will most likely be solo exploring, although I will discuss with the artist about how much the name of the song should influence the music video, as I think with a small group of friends the music video could perhaps be more interesting. A group of friends trying to find something or someone. The song is very progressive, and in these parts of the song, it can be basic, well shot moments of the group adventuring and trying to find the goal, mixed with scenery and maybe drone shots. There is a short 15 seconds change in beat as well as the final major change in beat which is 1 minute long at the end of the song. During the first 15 seconds of the beat drop, I think the group should interact with the end goal but it gets away somehow, or the information they have to find it isn't quite right, and they find the wrong thing. At the final 1 minute of the beat change, the group should find the end goal, and celebrate finding it or something on the lines of that.

Brainstorming- To start my brainstorming, I talked to the client again, to check if there was any specific things he wanted to see within the music video or if there was any creative input he wanted to add. The client didn't want to be in the music video, so I had the freedom to cast whoever I wanted, and the only creative input in which the client asked for was that is was an adventure themed music video. This gave me a lot to work with, and so I started researching music videos about adventuring. The first music video in which I took a lot of inspiration from was 'Keep It Gold' by Surfaces. This music video is about a group of teens on an adventure in a VW campervan around America. I really like the aesthetic of this video, as well as the calm nature of the shots and scenery. I think that a similar intro could be implemented into Solivagant, as the intro is very slow, and builds up, so a car scene, where the adventurers travel to the location where they are trying to find something could be possible. Apart from that, some shots in Keep It Gold are slow motion, and I don't think that Solivagant is the type of song where slow motion will fit, due to the song being relatively fast paced, as it is an electro-house song. I might also take inspiration from a few of the shot angles and activities, and will look at using them in a scissor reel. I wanted to build on this style of adventuring music video, and so I searched for more adventure inspired music videos, and along my search, It led me to cinematics, of vlog type inspired travel. These videos were travel vlog cinematics, using copyright free music in the background. There are plenty of the videos on YouTube, some better than others, and so after sifting through plenty of them, I eventually found some specific shots from different videos that I might take inspiration from. The shots include travelers walking, basic camping activities and scenic shots. I had the main inspiration for the majority of the song, but I still didn't know what the adventurers were trying to find, or what the point of the adventure was. I brainstormed the adventurers trying to find an artifact, but there were a few problems with this, the first being the location. I didn't really have an exotic area in which some sort of artifact could be achieved from, such as a temple, castle or secret hideout. The second problem was that the only reason for the music being upbeat and a fast tempo whilst the adventures find the relic, was if there was either a fight scene, or some sort of trap was set off. I liked the idea of a trap set off after the adventurers locate the treasure, for instance, the giant rock ball chasing Indiana Jones. But an effect like this wasn't really possible, and could possibly look rather cheesy and not very professional. I didn't mind the idea of a fight scene, but I thought of a better alternative. The treasure that the group is looking for instead, a person or creature. The group is looking for this creature, so that they can record it and take a picture of it. With this alternative plot, the creature could also be a dancer. At the 2 separate beat drops, the creature can be seen dancing. Perhaps the first time the beat drops the adventures can have some sort of acknowledgement that they are on the right path of the creature, and there is some sort of flashback or cut to the creature in their hideout dancing. To explore more possibilities for this, I did more research into different music videos with dancing creatures. I came across lots of K-pop groups dancing as animals, as well as choreographers dancing whilst in animal costumes, but one video in particular stood out for inspiration. This video was 'What Does the Fox Say' by Ylvis. This music video includes lots of dance scenes in the woods, of people dressed up like foxes. The location matched perfectly with what I could achieve. The dance scenes were also very reasonable. So it was decided that the song would be about a group of adventures trying to find a mythical creature, and as they are adventuring they find clues that they are on the right track. As the beat drops, there are dance scenes involving the mythical creature. The adventures would get closer and closer, and as well as adventuring clips, there would be b-roll of cinematic shots of nature, drone shots and landscapes. The final 1 minute where the main beat drop is, would be a large scale dance scene, when the adventurers find the creature. Finally, I had to figure out what the creature that the adventurers are trying to find actually is. The main concepts were Bigfoot, a fox or a dragon. I thought that the fox concept would be too similar to Ylvis' song, and I thought that the dragon concept would make more sense if the video was set in Wales but it isn't. And so Bigfoot was the final decider, but instead of Bigfoot, I opted for a gorilla, seeing as I already had access to a gorilla costume.

Scissor Reel- I decided that the first step to creating the storyboard for this music video, was to compile together a scissor reel. This would be a concept piece for the music video, including clips from various music videos and other videos from Youtube. I will be including the clips that gave me inspiration for the music video. The scissor reel with give me a good focal point to construct the storyboard for the music video. I can see what types of shots I want at various scenes, as well as the main themes, locations and design to take into consideration for recces, shot lists and costume etc. I can also experiment with editing to the Solivagant song, such as when to transition, and the time frames of different scenes, such as when the beat drops or tempo increases. I can use the scissor reel to see what I like about the test shots and style of music videos I have taken clips from, to improve the clips for the actual music video. I will post the scissor reel below;

Storyboard- I will be sketching out a brief storyboard to help me have a focus for what the final music video timeline and scenes look like. I will be taking inspiration from my brainstorming and the scissor reel. I will be focusing on the main changes of the song, seeing as I already know what the filler shots and footage should or could include, such as walking/hiking, forest activities, drone shots, landscape shots and footage that shows the adventurers finding clues to the creatures whereabouts. I want the first 15 seconds of the music video to be the adventurers getting into a vehicle, with cinematic shots, followed by landscape and drone shots of countryside and the vehicle the adventurers are using, to get to the creatures hideout/location. From this point, until around the 1 minute mark, the footage can be the filler I previously talked about. The adventurers will then set up camp for the night and have a flashback to the creature in their layout, and this is the first dance scene, with the creatures doing a choreographed dance. This scene ends at around 1 minute 15 seconds, and until 2 minutes, the song has more filler, as well as increasing moments where the adventurers find evidence of the creature. 2 minutes is when the dance scene starts, so 10-15 seconds before this, the adventurers find the lair, and watch as the creatures dance. This scene will be a lot more cinematic than the first dance scene, with multiple camera angles used as well as dance types. As the creatures get to the end of the dance scene, the adventurers go to take a picture of the creatures, but as they get the camera out, the creatures have disappeared. As the adventurers travel back to the vehicle, the audience see one final glance of the creature. This is the main story-line I will be going off, which will help the shooting process of the video, as I will inform the crew about the different scenes, and what is supposed to happen at what times. The main story-line is concrete, although I still might come up with better shot ideas as well as concepts. Below are the sketched storyboards.

Covid Update- From boxing day on wards (December 26th), the UK has been put into its' 3rd lock down. This means that I can no longer meet with anyone at all. This has put the production in jeopardy, as I will have to rethink a lot of the storyboards, as well as the crew, seeing as I will have to now be the actors, camera man, director and editor. Straight away, I think that I can switch the production to be based on one adventurer, more in tune with the song title of Solivagant. I will also have to be the creature, and there will only be one creature. Another big turning point is that because I am the only actor, the creature and the adventurer cannot easily be in the same scene unless I use masks, in which case, the pair cannot properly engage with each other, else it might look amateur. I will stick to my original storyboard, but just change it to more manageable scenarios or shots. Next up I will start the recces, the shot lists, the risk assessments, as well as the final production.