My name is Chase Johnson, and this project is a music video, created for the Christian-punk song Letters from God. This video presented quite a creative opportunity, because it didn’t really need a complex story with a lot of dialogue. It was based around a song that was almost entirely focused on emotion. That meant there wasn’t much for me to work with, but it also meant I had a lot of liberty with where I could take this project. It only required one or two characters, and so it also ended up being a project that was produced with only a few people on the crew. I decided from the very beginning of this project that it was going to be something I would pour a lot of passion and emotion into. With few obstacles in front of me for the moment, the sky was the limit.
How I Got The Idea For This Project
The song Letters From God is not a super well-known song so far, and was just released earlier this year. It was actually created by my brother, who goes by the online username of “blxnk fxce.” He wrote the song lyrics, composed the music, sung the song, and did just about everything himself. He created a song that drew a lot from Christian music, but also the rock and punk genres. When he was done, he had created a song, but no video to go along with it. Just some cover art.
I decided I wanted to help my brother out. He is very musically inclined and knows how to create a song. While I have had a passion for film and know how to create a good video. So, it was the perfect opportunity to add on to his work. It was also the perfect opportunity to surprise him. His birthday was around the same time I would be completing the project, and I decided to keep this a complete secret from him so that I could show him the finished video as a birthday surprise. I began to get very excited about the project, and set to work on it.
Pre-Production Process
Though I never told my brother I was creating a music video for his song, I did talk to him about it one day to discreetly ask him what the song was about. He told me the story was about how kids are told they can realize their dreams when they grow up, but the character of the song thinks that was a lie, and that life has passed them by. They then receive a letter from God, revealing there is a plan for them.
Since the song’s message was based around emotion, my first task was to write a script that successfully captured that. So, I decided to write a narrative about a young man who feels like he’s lost his way, then receives a message the titular message from God, and that changes his entire perspective on life. I recognized very quickly that this would be a matter of visual storytelling. I wouldn’t be writing any dialogue for an actor to memorize, and only a limited portion of the song actually has lyrics. So, I had to write a story that could unfold while the melody was simply playing, but could also be understood easily. I wrote the script to show that the main character’s emotions are very low by having him walk in several places alone. In a field, in his apartment, in his car, on a lonely sidewalk, and so on. Visualizing this script would involve many different locations, as well as many different times of day. Each scene would be fairly short, but there would also be many to shoot in various spots.
I sent out an announcement for auditions, and when the time came, I found an actor who was a friend of mine, loved the song, and was enthused to act in a short production.
Another part of the visual storytelling element meant different costumes for the main character. In the earlier scenes where his mood is very melancholy, he would be dressed in a dark coat. Then when his life changed for the better, he would wear brighter clothes. Me and the actor planned out four different outfits for him.
In order to shoot everything efficiently, I created a shotlist for all the many locations we would need and planned them out by days and time of day. I created a few storyboards as well.
Production
When I had planned out basically everything that me and the actor would need, there was nowhere to go but right into the project. Since the video was being filmed for a song that would serve as its sole source of audio, there was no need for audio equipment. Additionally, about half of the scenes were being filmed outdoors, so I could simply film on location without lighting. The first several shoots were some of these.
During these shoots, me and the actor were able to get them done really quickly. With only two of us, setup time was extremely quick, and barring the need to wait several hours for the sun to go down, the scenes would be done in an hour or two.
The indoor scenes were a different story, because when inside you can’t just rely on the sun. So, in addition to my sole actor, I called on another old friend who I knew was experienced in light. I had arranged the schedule so that despite there being several different indoor locations to film, those would be done in just two shooting days. When those days came around, I found that properly setting up a well-lit shot was not something that could be done in two minutes. Those days were much longer than the others, but in plenty of ways, that just made it more fun to put the story together piece by piece.
Challenges
Of course, no big project goes without a hitch, and there were several difficulties I ran into. Back in Pre-Production, before I actually found people ready to work on the project with me, it felt like the entire burden was on my shoulders, and I was just one man trying to get something done. When I received the needed help later, I couldn’t have been more grateful.
One of the biggest challenges I had to deal with was scheduling. When you create a project that revolves around the time of college students, you are at the mercy of their schedules potentially never lining up, and it can be a serious hinderance to something that requires a dozen or so people. I wouldn’t have expected a 2 to 4-person project to be hit with the same problem. However, during the same month I needed to shoot the video, the school’s theater production put on a show for Cinderella, and my actor was their tech guy. That meant I had to reschedule what days we would be filming several times. Another problem scheduling created is that my first choice for lighting the indoor scenes would be largely unavailable during the few times he and the actor could both be there. So, I had to change gears and contact a different friend for lighting, and with him, I had better luck.
Since the story I created for this music video was one that required different times of day, sometimes day, sometimes sunset, sometimes pitch-black night, that kept us on our toes. Potentially the most difficult was going to be the shoot wherein we would film during the sunrise. Due to the summer season, the sun was rising at about 6 AM, but it only gave you the orange glow that I was after for about 20 minutes before becoming too bright. That meant that me and my actor had to get to the location very early in the morning, and it unfortunately had to be rescheduled twice.
Another challenge came after filming was done, but one scene had been shot at the wrong framerate. Though me and the actor were both down to reshoot the scene, another obstacle came up, the weather. Since it was an outdoor scene, and I had very limited time to film left, the only days where we were both available was an overcast and wet day. That just wouldn’t work, so I decided to make do with what I had so far and live with it.
Post-Production
When I had finally gotten every scene I needed filmed, it was time to begin editing. The audio was already taken care of because of the song, and that meant it was my standard by which to match everything else. The pace and changing of clips had to match the beat of the song itself. Luckily for me, I knew the song very well, and from the very start I had planned for the scenes to only last a few seconds each so they could change when the song got faster and/or louder.
While in production, I had made sure to have many different locations, multiple costumes, and have the actor simply rely on his facial expressions. All of that was done for the purpose of visual storytelling, and here in post-production, I was going to continue with that theme. When color grading the footage, I knew there had to be a very significant shift in the story. In the first half the color had to be very pulled back and de-saturated. Not quite black & white, but a very grey color-palate to reflect the character’s dull and pained outlook on life. The night time scenes lent themselves to this because they were already very black.
Once the character receives the letter from God reminding him that he is loved and valued, that had to change. So, in the second half, I really amped up the color and the saturation in order to make things feel so much more alive and happier just by looking at the shot.
Since this entire video was created as a special surprise for my brother, I decided I would provide him with a couple different options for him to use. The full music video is just over 4 minutes, but I also created a 30 second cut of the story that he could post on social media. For that, I simply selected one small section of the song which had a beginning and end, and re-edited the most important clips onto it. This version of the video is very quick, but serves the exact same purpose of telling a story about a young man who has lost his way but finds the light in his life.
30 Second Cut
Conclusion
It’s so gratifying to watch a story in your head slowly become real. When you are making a film, whatever you imagine can become an actual product for others to see, and I was very happy with this one.
Creating a music video meant taking on a challenge of telling a story without an actual plot, and just relying on the emotions of it all. That was my primary goal when writing the script, directing the actor, assigning the costumes, selecting locations, and editing the color of the footage. It was all done to create a visual story that someone could pick up on even if they couldn’t hear the sound. And that visual story had to have the same message, feeling, and passion that my brother created for his original song. If I could do that, then I would have given his work the best gift I possibly could have.
Here is my full-length music video for Letters From God.