Art Direction - Jersey Budd "Bright Soul" Music Video

We were given the opportunity to film a Music Video for singer/songwriter Jersey Budd. I was focused in making my role as Art Director more important. I really wanted to get my teeth stuck into the production. I wanted the production value to be better than my previous work and play an important role in the presentation of the Music Video.

I feel that I couldn't connect with the concept my Director finally rested on, in truth I hated it. I thought it was uninspiring and didn't represent the artists music and style one bit.

I was set the task to design and construct Two main sets. one being the main performance background, involving lots of pictures, for the story to unfold. The other set would be Jerseys Love interest's Bedroom.

The following pictures document my effort to construct the two main sets for the Music Video.

The "Love Interest's" Bedroom was easy to design and construct. The room had to be realistic, and seem like your average girl's bedroom.

Simple and basic structure of Girls bedroom.
I decided to liven up the Mise-en-scene with a deep purple paper for the center wall to give the room more depth and interest.
I felt that the space needed something more interesting than wallpaper. I wanted to make a window, as both a source of light, and simply to make the room more realistic and interesting.
The window was to be the main focal point of the room, as most windows are, it also helps towards tying the room together better.

The window acts as a warm source of light, complete with lamp to help set the mood. the bed and set dressings go together to help build the rooms presence.
Final photo of end result minus the television and Jersey Budd poster.

My second Set that I designed and constructed for this production was the main performance area.

This basically required a wall containing many different pictures. My attempts to help create the sense of nostalgia and a feeling of long lost love, led to me using a mixture of different styles and aged picture frames, which cluttered the wall space in an effort to create the sense that his nostalgic feelings, and love for this woman, cluttered his mind and was a great source for his troubles etc.

the following Pictures document the sets construction.

Basic wall structure to form the basis of the main performance area.
This was my choice in wallpaper. I liked its nostalgic connotations.Wallpaper fully covering the wall, organizing the picture frames in a cluttered pattern to fill the wall.
Setting the picture frames up to create the sense of clutter and style.
Final result. The pictures in white would be containing the live action scenes where the camera would travel into.

Final photo of both sets completed.

I feel that my role as the Art Director was unimpressive on my part. The production as a whole was a massive failure. I admit I was heavily unimpressed with the concept and overall idea of the production, however I was not prepared to let that influence my work. I feel that I done the best I could for the concept I was given, however, I also feel that the style did not compliment the song in any way shape or form. I feel that the final style doesn't represent the concept due to it being constantly changed throughout the production.

I first approached this production as a chance to really express myself both creatively and technically...

Unfortunately, as an Art Director, or Production Designer, your limited by your Directors creativity... which unfortunately hindered my hopes for this project from the offset.

My resulting opinion of this production and the Music Video is that of remorse. I feel that my failure to produce something visually interesting, is a learning experience I wish I didn't have to go though, but I feel motivated to learn form this mistake and move on with my work.

As you will tell from viewing the video that the concept I had been given was changed, and replaced with a series of unattractive motion graphics, and questionable camera angles... Hope you like it...

Although I am not proud of my work in this production, I feel that it is important to learn form ones mistake and there fore I feel it is important to show you the video not just for the sake of it, but for me.