Directors Commentary

In the final week of school Nataly contacted me requesting if I’d help her make a recording she did of ‘Say Something’ (by A Great Big World) – into a music video. I embraced the opportunity; I wanted to create an actual music video possibly with a narrative story. I then got to work and took a couple of listens at the song…

Say Something Lyrics

Say something I’m giving up on you,I’ll be the one if you want me to,Anywhere I would have followed you,Say something I’m giving up on you,

And I, am feeling so small,It was over my head, I know nothing at all,And I, will stumble and fall,I’m still learning to love, just starting to crawl,

Say something I’m giving up on you,I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you,Anywhere I would have followed you,Say something I’m giving up on you,

And I, will swallow my pride,You’re the one that I love,And I’m saying goodbye,

Say something I’m giving up on you,And I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you,And Anywhere I would have followed you,

Say something I’m giving up on you,Say something I’m giving up on you….

Say Something…

My InterpretationThe first line “Say Something I’m giving up on you” immediately sounded to me like a break up line in the end of a relationship. As the song progressed, I pictured a young girl (possibly naïve/innocent - “Still learning to love, just starting to crawl”) entering the bedroom of a house and witnessing her boyfriend cheating on her with another girl. In my head, it had some sense of intensity, like when wong fu productions had that spinning clips of Phil and Cathy arguing except that, in this case, only the girl would be crying out – I pictured the guy standing there, in great shame and guilt, not knowing what to say, or withholding his thoughts for reasons for further audience interpretation (but by no means did I want to girl to look bad, I wanted the guy to look bad).

The line “I was over my head, I knew nothing at all” to me reemphasizes the fact that young love, can be blinding and that the girl may unfortunately be taking it out on herself too (perhaps thinking “why couldn’t I see this before, I knew something was going on”).

With the final line being repeated “Say Something I’m giving up on you” and ending with “Say Something…” I pictured the girl maintaining her dignity and walking out on the guy - ending the relationship, however deep inside her there’s still the young innocent whisper “Say Something…” that wished that they could have had another chance at it.

Alternate InterpretationI then watched the music video after interpreting the lyrics and listening to the song for myself, and noticed that there was a scene with a woman leaving a man in bed – which did conceptually correspond to my first interpretation, however as I watched the rest of the video, I noticed that the passing away of someone or someone in a coma might work as an interpretation of the song. However I quickly dismissed it because I do not believe the line “I’m giving up on you” is a positive influence or is realistic (I can’t really say as I haven’t been put in that situation) when you’re by someone’s side – especially if they are in a medical condition.

ShootingNataly wanted to shoot in iconic locations in London – “perhaps around Big Ben and the London Eye”. On location Nataly said that I could make this video however I wanted and gave me full control (of which I am grateful, thanks!), although I am the camera operator, sometimes the artist might a preference in mind. Evidently we were unable to film in a house or with the bedroom scene, so I started thinking, what if we had the same narrative but over the phone?...

Meaning, Direction and Visual appearance – An Analysis of the Music VideoThe music video starts off with a girl (a persona Nataly is acting and singing as) walking on a bridge she’s occasionally looking down and into the distance, contemplating, and taking in everything that has happened…The bridge is also quite symbolic of connecting two places and travelling – more on this later…

Another angle shows the highlights of the sunset on her face, but from this angle we can see that she’s also proud of what she has accomplished, slightly grinning..

The following cuts show snippets of a phone text conversation. The guy she’s in contact with is named Chris, and we can see that she’s texting “Just tell me what happened” but is backspacing it because she’s afraid of the truth that she is thinking of..

Notice the warm tones and the light on the phone, it appears normal – as if everything is normal, however this drastically changes later on to reflect her feelings and control of the relationship.Chris then calls her and she picks up. The video cuts to her back on the bridge walking, however this time she is even more contemplative and looking slightly depressed as she recalls the moment where she picks up the phone and loses control of the relationship.

The next snippet (shown above) of the narrative reveals her picking up the phone, from her facial reaciton we can see that she is concerned. In this shot the lighting is different, there is less vibrance and appears gloomy – foreshadowing the truth which is about to be told to her. Big Ben also stands tall looming in the background, signifying time and that, her relationship may be coming to an end.

I’ve tried to create a personal battle which progresses throughout the music video. There are different and conflicting feelings within the persona Nataly is portraying. One side which is strong and is singing out her true thoughts and how she feels – this is a picture of inner feelings speaking out for herself in her head, whilst the other side of her portrays how she is acting in reality. (I’ll try to explain this clearer as this analysis progresses)

She begins to sing the song as she continues walking. The sunset is shining on her face as she tries to be strong and sing her thoughts, (note that whenever the sun is shining on the side of her face, it is how she’s picturing her thoughts – wishing if she could say them outloud, but she doesn’t feel like she has the say or courage – this creates a sort of personal outcry, that I hope may identify with audiences – it further relates back to the theme of “saying something” or “not saying anything”) She is furthermore facing the camera, these opening shots are the only shots where she is facing directly at the camera, as if she is talking directly to Chris...or at least wished she had in such a manner or perhaps wished she should have said something sooner.

There are also some birds flying in the background (above) denoting freedom – this hints at her fight for control of herself and of the relationship.

Back to the narrative, the next snippet (above) reveals her saying “What!?”. In this shot, the tones are slightly less gloomy as some warm tones return to her face, there is also overal more light in this snippet – however the sky is still quite grey. – The reason for this is that I wanted to show that she was finally getting a told the truth and it was a step closer to freedom.

The next snippet and ‘stage’ of the narrative, shows her in further disbelief. Her action of in some sense ‘faceplaming’ ties in nicely with “I was over my head”.

The following snippet is a close up shot, warmer tones are present and there is more light on her. She is comprehending the truth and reacting realistically back on it – upholding her dignity and strengthening her say in the relationship, she is also gaining more freedom and control as she is seen clearly saying “What is wrong with you, how could you do this to me?”

The song then moves onto the line “I’m still learning to love, just starting to crawl”. This line doesn’t immediately have an effect on her, however later on she then questions what she said “what is wrong with you” and questions herself as she is “just starting to crawl”.

The next line is the final line she delivers directly facing towards the camera “Say something I’m giving up on you” (turns away)…

She then turns towards the side of the bridge, from here on in the music video there is a stronger emphasis on her personal control and strength. (again Big Ben is looming in the background, however it is out of focus, more so than in the last snippet where it was also shown - this also may portray how time may not matter to her anymore)

Now the shot changes to diferent one whereby the sun is stronger on her face (above), she also delivers stronger lines “I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you” (I interpreted it if it was her inner self talking to herself, perhaps doubting and wishing she could have done something to prevent the situation)

The next juxtaposed angle (above) represents how she is actually reacting to the whole situation (post breakup) “Anywhere I would have followed you”, her voice is also deeper and more heartfelt. Light is evenly distributed on her as opposed to the other angle whereby the sunset is directly shining on her face. In the meantime, buses behind her travel in the opposite direction she was walking in, signifying that other people getting to where she was - “in a relationship” – juxtaposing her position.

From here on there are numerous shots which contrasts and shows both sides of her…

“You’re the one…”

“..that I love, and I’m saying goodbye”

There are various instances whereby she says something, but only completes the sentence in her head (where her true feelings lie) – depicted by the close up shots with the sunset on her.

Meanwhile… she gains further control and freedom in the narrative snippet – mouthing the words “I’m done with you”. Also the shot has more light than the previous snippet further corresponding to her stance.

Stronger lines are sung by her inner self (also as the song slowly rises to the climax).

She’s now in control of the situation (as opposed to feeling as if she is loosing the control) depicted by the properly exposed snippet and warm colors.

Again she is still fighting inside to let out her inner feelings..“And anywhere…”

completed by her inner self“..I would have followed you..ohhh woo oh” (climax of the song)

but now it seems she’s starting to speak out for herself as she sings strongly“Say something I’m giving up on…” – nearly finishing the sentence

“…you” (completed by her inner self)

She is stronger because she relives the moment she took full control of herself and of the relationship and hung up the phone. Here the snippet is even brighter than the previous one.

but cutting back to herself, she is seen saddened (understandably) by the fact that she indeed did have to end the relationship.

The final line (“Say something..”) is started – stirred up by her innerself“Say somethi…”

However this time, she finishes it off for herself.

“thing....”

The music video ends with a snippet ending the phone call. (Note that it was a phone call…. a call from him to her, and a call to herself) once again showing that she has full control. Here the shot is overexposed on the phone and there is a slight desaturated color (I’ll leave that up to your interpretation).

The final shot on her pans away and turns towards the bridge, the journey and progress she has made during the music video – getting in touch with her inner thoughts, letting it out, gaining freedom and control.

[Shot fades]

Cross dissolving into the final shot of the music video, again underlining her stance of ultimate control of herself and situation by deleting the Chris’s contact information.

I made sure that this was the most vivid, colorful and is one of the brightest shots of the music video.

Technicalities of the Music ShootMajority of the meaning and direction of the film was actually not fully intended upon location shoot, many of the shots where manipulated into place and edited to create meaning upon the editing of the music video (which took about 6 hours total, 3 – 4 hours putting the shots into place, and about 2 hours color correcting).

We had about 2 hours to shoot the music video as Nataly had plans after the allocated 2 hours; we actually started filming the phone scene first and then I attempted to do a far shot of Nataly walking on the opposite side of the bridge (however I wasn’t steady enough to be walking directly sideways and filming her perpendicular to my direction of travel), these shots weren’t used at all. We ended up filming the phone scene after shooting all the main bridge shots – which turned out well as it was darker as the weather was more overcast; so we actually only took about 1.5 hours filming all the shots seen in the music video.

With such a time limit for shooting the variance of shots was quite limited, upon edit I realized that I practically only had 2 angles whereby Nataly sings when she was walking on the bridge. Additionally, we initially shot the ‘leaning on the side of the bridge’ shots with Nataly facing the camera. I soon pointed out that it didn’t look natural enough and wouldn’t fit the feeling of the song at that stage from that particular angle, so we had to do a few retakes with her looking in the distance. With the limited shots you can see that there were two very blatant jump cuts that had to be made because there weren’t really any other possibilities to linking the shots and maintaining the pace. Furthermore it would have been ideal to shoot in another location too, to vary the shots and create more of a montage of what she’s going through, but we did what we could with our 2 hours :)

It was cooooold! Nataly’s hands were really cold haha (sorry for putting you through this Nataly!) xD you can see that she does move her hands in a fidgeting way in the shots where the sunset is not on her face – this did kinda work out as it relates to her in the music video not knowing what to do exactly (in relation to the narrative story).

As many of the shots are rhythmically timed in with the piano playing in the song, not only did the shots have to be timed correctly but also some of the phone shots (specifically the answering the call and ending of the call) had to be manipulated – time wise, slowed down a bit in order to preserve the length of the snippet and sync in the piano stroke when she answers and hangs up – also to correctly maintain the appropriate pace.

Nataly is not only a great singer but a pretty great actor too - if you ask me! I actually gave her very few directions (such as do a face palm haha) with the arguing on the phone call scene; she got into her stride and acted very well, coming up with her own lines improvised on the spot – which later worked out very well with the meaning in the music video.

Also the final export came out with slightly more contrast than intended – in the preview in the editing program the video did not have as much contrast as the export. However I was actually too excited on having completed it and could not really be bothered with lowering the contrast, re exporting and uploading it XD

Final CommentsI hope you enjoyed reading this commentary, I didn’t really intend on writing one of these but with all the different aspects and meaning I (hopefully) managed to implement I had to write it to let you guys know also I hope it would be an interesting read.

Of course all interpretations of the song and the music video is up to you as the audience member, what I have stated here is merely just what I was going for :)

Thanks again for reading this!