The explorations unit was a group of projects allowing students to apply the skills they have been taught, and to a new situation. We used research and our passion, along with prior knowledge to create these unique and personal projects. I chose to make a music video to the song “Heartless” by The Weeknd, because I have always loved music, and mixing music and film is a dream come true. Particularly to a song that I love by an artist that I love.
My final production was a short section of a music video. I used the first minute or so of the song “Heartless” by The Weeknd. This song has a lot of hard hitting percussion and a consistent flow making the editing process a good learning experience. A music video is reliant on the editing just as much as the actual film. This is because it needs to match the energy. Along with this, the song has a distance vibe and ambiance to it. When I hear the song, I see a man walking through an empty town, so I made my music video about a man walking through an empty town.
The most important thing I learned from the explorations project is how to expand your thinking into multiple medias. While making my music video, I had to find a way to represent a song through visual means. This not only took a lot of creative thinking, but also technical thinking. I had to find a visual representation that matches the atmosphere of the song, but I also had to match the tempo and rhythm of the song through camera movement and cuts.
The Experimental Song was a song created suing only digital instruments. To accomplish this, I used pro-tools and a midi keyboard to craft the song. My song is a very dark and atmospheric track, with heavy inspiration from Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and The Weeknd. The Kanye influence is clear through the drum beat and alarming synths and horns, qualities very present in albums of his such as Yeezus. The Kendrick Influence comes through the aesthetic of certain songs if his, particularly “LUST.” and “FEEL.” from his album DAMN. . The Weeknd influence comes not only though the aesthetic, but also through the production, as his earlier albums, particularly House of Balloons and Kissland share a very dark atmosphere. A quality clearly present in my song.
The experimental song was easily my favorite Digital Media project this year alongside my stickers, as I have always been in love with music, and finally having the capabilities and knowledge to be able to make my own was a dream come true. I had a lot of fun with it, and I will defiantly. be making more music for fun in my free time.