Music Video
Sat by a Tree by Dan Deacon
00:00 - 00:16
Project goals were to create a music video for a Dan Deacon song as a class.
The class was assigned one of Dan Deacon’s songs and each student was given random time stamps of the song to create a portion of the music video. We were given the option to work in any software we would like (such as Premiere, AfterEffects, iMovie, etc.) and could work in any style (like animation, stop-motion, video, etc.). The only requirements were to work in black and white or grayscale. All of the student clips then combine together to create a full music video for the song.
My video serves a the opening of the song (00:00-00:16) and utilizes stop motion.
The class was assigned one of Dan Deacon’s songs and each student was given random time stamps of the song to create a portion of the music video. We were given the option to work in any software we would like (such as Premiere, AfterEffects, iMovie, etc.) and could work in any style (like animation, stop-motion, video, etc.). The only requirements were to work in black and white or grayscale. All of the student clips then combine together to create a full music video for the song.
My video serves a the opening of the song (00:00-00:16) and utilizes stop motion.
Process
Setting out on this project I was quite nervous about how I would end up creating my portion of the music video. I had never done any stop motion or animation work before (digital or analogue for that matter), so this project was a huge learning experience for me.
I knew since this would be my first attempt at stop motion that I would inherently have some technical imperfections, so I intentionally tried to lean into that imperfect quality by creating a quirky and lighthearted animation.
The wooden figure begins laying on the ground and wakes up (a key phrase in the song), and then puts in his googly eyes. I thought the expression of the eyes helped to communicate how the figure may be overwhelmed by the stresses of life and then takes respite by sitting by a tree (another lyric in the song as well as the song’s title: Sat by a Tree). Although quite a literal approach, I felt this added to the quirkiness and silliness, as it is quite obvious from the start that the figure will end sitting next to the tree. The letterforms are hand cut from paper and then crumpled— again playing into the imperfect and amateur quality. Although the video does have technical imperfections (the tripod accidently moves in a couple of frames), I did attempt to create a true high quality stop motion set up (controlled lighting, use of a tripod and remote, and using typical stop motion frame rate).
Behind the Scenes