"Come Find Me" (my music video single) - an in-depth summary

[Mahesh]

@GregB recently offered his kind thoughts on one of my music videos from my EP titled "Accept" (http://fanlink.to/AcceptEP) and suggested I share some of my thoughts on it! Thank you for inviting me on here!

 

Come Find Me was the first single to release off the 5-song EP. One of the primary intentions of this studio release was to explore various influences sonically & production-wise that have shaped my singer-songwriter journey over the years such as John Mayer, Damien Rice & Radiohead. This particular track was the one that was most out there in the bunch - loud, long & angry with its 'unsettling' rhythmic structure & heavy choruses.

 

To be very honest, a lot of what we were trying to capture in the music video was influenced by these traits of the song & its emotions. 

 

 

 

 

Background : 

 

We had nothing much, to begin with. Not having a real "budget" for it was challenging. I'd spent years saving up money for the studio time from 2017-2018. And the only way I could get any video content going was to do it all DIY.  

 

Quote

"Work with what you have and make it work" 

I had time, energy, and friends!

 

 

It was produced entirely by myself & three other friends of mine - Shreyas (the director), Vishnu (the cinematographer), my current roommate Piyush (the editor). We used the Nikon D500 & Nikon D750 as our cameras with Adobe Premiere Pro as the software being used for the post-production.

 

For the sake of logistical convenience, we'd decided to travel to the coast and stay there for a week at the director's family home where we'd be shooting the whole video. So we reverse-engineered/scripted the story of this video by keeping the location and its nuances in mind while understanding how the main character would interact with that environment in the imagined world. There's a specific story that's running from the point of view of the character itself but the video can be interpreted in various abstract levels & themes from the pov of the viewer.  It took about a month of brainstorming, storyboarding & scripting until we were confident enough to schedule dates for the shoot.

 

The shoot week was probably some of the most exhausting days of my life. lol

 

We (myself, the director & the cinematographer) drove for about 10 hours to reach the village, crossing over to the little island where we were staying. We worked for 16-19 hours each day since it was just the three of us playing the roles of everything involved with no extra crew or helping hands. We'd wake up super early not to miss the golden hours at sunrise close to the island & head over to the beach in the evening for sunset. All the indoor shots were to be finished in the hours between. The nights would involve an exhaustive backup of what was done each day so that we can put the equipment for charging, pass out for a few hours and wake up for another round of the same. Man, it was really something. Besides the creative learning & experience, I learned a LOT about pushing yourself beyond limits. We had to be mentally & physically active all through the hours while having the mental space to get into the mindset of the character & the story being expressed visually. For example, the timelapse sequence at 5m:10s to 5m:15s in the video required me to sit in that very same position for more than 90 minutes as the sun set into the night. Moments like these needed a lil grit and I honestly didn't know where I had it. I sure did want to find out  

 

 

I also learned much about friendship & brotherhood that week. My boys pushed themselves as much as I did so we could put this together as the first music video release we've done. I owe these childhood buds a lot for many things I've(we've) done so far. 

 

Shreyas - director [left], Vishnu - cinematographer [right] 

 

 

 

 

The editing process was also an exhaustive couple of weeks with countless hours spent going through the footage and the song over and over again (to the extent that all of them were tired of the tune by the end of it LMAO). Though the storyboarding & the shoot itself were exhaustive, considering the constraints, we knew that we'd have certain shots that wouldn't turn out the way that we would have wanted. And so we continued to brainstorm and explore the screenplay during the editing as well; not so much as to divert from what we are trying to express or the story's direction but enough to reinterpret how it is visually represented.  And so, the editing process turned out to play a significant role in tightening the screenplay. 

 

 

BTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GregB]

Hi Mahesh. 

 

What a GREAT story of your trials and tribulations - thanks for sharing so much detail. 

 

It's certainly a good idea to do such intensive projects while you and your mates are (I assume) not tied by family commitments.  The first film project is also the hardest ... you're learning the harsh reality with everyone fumbling around and chipping in "great ideas"    But what a great fun and bonding project for a group of friends!

 

I'd imagine that, if you had to do another video of the same song, that you would approach the tasks way differently, drastically cutting the times for travel, shooting and editing.   But hindsight can only ever come from experience.  The trick (I believe) is to minimise locations, setups and footage.

 

Your video without doubt is visually compelling and serves the music well.  Kudos to all involved!

 

The only 'flaw' I noticed a few times (and this may well be an odd personal thing for me as I always seem to see it) was some imperfect synching of your mouth movements to the song, e.g. 0:27.   Just shifting the visual/sound a couple of frames would have done the job.  Of course, the way to avoid such hassle is not to mime the words at all ... just do the facial/body acting which conveys the real emotion.   [But if you want to look as if you're singing, you need to sing at even greater intensity than the track itself ... otherwise, if the singer's throat muscles aren't really working, it looks mimed.]  

 

I've mentioned that I've delved into and enjoyed all your videos.  I look forward to more of your visual creativity in the future, and some more stories here.

 

Cheers,

Greg