This project involved the creation of a music video for Canadian singer /songwriter BronweN and her song Eden. We created this a number of years ago before I knew anything about After Effects so all of those edits are either simple cuts, dissolves, blurs or opacity changes in Adobe Premiere.
Now that I have more experience there are a number of things I'd do differently but I'm still quite proud of the flaming rose sequences and the fire transitions.
If you mouse over these photos you can learn a little bit about the process of creating the video.
At a conference where we both performing I approached BronweN about creating a music video for her song Eden which deals with deception and betrayal. In particular I was drawn to the catchy piano riff that reappears throughout the song.
BronweN had some specific images and sequences she wanted to include in the video and my job was to help her capture those moments.
The roses were an item that she wanted in many of the key visuals.
As is typical of many independent music videos the budget was very limited but BronweN was able to get us access to a couple of locations. The stone wall and staircases in this backyard patio were quite versatile for different segments.
I was particualrly pleased with some of the edits in this section as BronweN and I were cutting between various angles. She was especially good at maintaining consistent gestures during each take which helped made each of the edits look smoother.
When BronweN said she wanted to see blood dripping out of a rose we both thought it shouldn't be too difficult. Just get some stage blood from a costume shop and... Let's just say you'd be surprised how much blood a single rose can hold before it starts dripping.
Once the blood started dripping it ended up everywhere. Before BrowneN went to wash up I suggested we may as well grab some unplanned closeups of her bloody fingers holding and then dropping the roses on the concrete.
As day turned into night while I waited for the talent to return I captured a number of unscripted cutaways of the candles and closeups of the candle flames. This extra footage was very helpful in unifying some of the elements of the video during editing.
When BronweN told me she was going to sing behind a flaming rose, I said "but roses don't burn". Correction they don't burn very well. In the interest of full disclosure a number of roses WERE harmed during the making of this video.
The biggest lesson I learned on this video is to shoot footage of everything that catches your eye. Some of the most interesting shots in this video happened just because BronweN and I were open to experimenting beyond the shots in the script.
