My thoughts on the final product of Bloom MV

This Spring studio has been an amazing experience of many firsts in my works in media. It was my first time producing a music video, my first time (in a long time) working in a team where each member puts in as much work as myself, and the first time I was designated with a role and ended up stuck with it. To elaborate, I’m often the camera operator and director in film projects, but have also needed to work on the editing as well. So I’d stress over the project from start to finish, which isn’t such a bad thing but it can get really overwhelming and often clouds my ability to make good decisions with the production. Thus, with Bloom’s production, it was little bit different, but ultimately was a sigh of relief to have Sophia take charge of the project once I was done with my part as the director of cinematography. I wasn’t completely hands off with the post production stage; it was still essential for me to stick around and be there for Sophia when she needed a second opinion, and in having us all together but with Sophia’s fresh set of eyes to complete the edit, I believe we have created a really good quality music video. Furthermore, with Rohan’s expert help and advice, I believe from rough cut, to fine cut, to final cut, we have created a tight, well edited piece that I’m proud to be apart of.

The final product definitely was not what we had planned for precisely during the pitching stages. Initially cutting down to a few visual concepts on the pitch, we ended up cutting down even more in the final edit for many reasons. Some were due to the fact that we didn’t have enough time to film certain concepts such as burning flowers and dance sequences, but in experimenting with the placement of the shots and adding just the time reversal effects, we realised it was already a strong enough visual idea that’s simple yet communicates deeply to the viewer. If we added anymore effects such as our initial kaleidoscope idea, the video would just be too visually overwhelming and would not suit the simplicity of the music style. The effects of the reversing water droplets are such mesmerising visuals, accompanied with how I framed the shots with the natural lighting as well as Sophia’s editing to the music made the concept really strong and deep that I hope our music artists and many other viewers will be able to appreciate the hard work we put into this.

Overall, I am so happy with the final product. I’m proud of myself that it is evident that my cinematography skills are improving and that I’m slowly establishing my own style of visual art. I’m also so grateful to work with such awesome, respectable teammates, San and Sophia, who share the same motivation and drive as me. I really look forward to creating many more projects with them in the near future.