Making music videos has always been a big passion of mine. I love all kinds of music and enjoy learning about the musicians themselves and how their creative minds work. Recently, in collaboration with my friend, Daixuan Ai, who is a brilliant composer and pianist, we just released a new music video for her original composition Planetarium Trilogy. The composition is a three piece movement about the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth. Daixuan wanted to create a unique music video and so she looked to me to direct, shoot, and edit an original picture to compliment her music. You can watch the video below.
We booked a session at Black Valve Media, which is a production company and studio based in Cleveland! Founded by the Cleveland natives, the Prunty cousins, the studio boasts the incredible cyc wall. It is more than just a white backdrop, but a space that can be customized with any colored lighting, along with the ability to project images onto the cyc wall.
I had the idea to project images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio to create symbolic and grand imagery. As Daixuan would stand in front of the wall, the images would superimpose onto her along with the cyc wall. The idea was to show the relationship between her as a composer and the musical themes about the Sun, Moon, and Earth. By extension, Daixuan being with one the projected images shows a message about how humanity is connected with the solar system and how we as human beings feel small, yet at the same time, just as big as the universe around us. You can watch a quick BTS video from me talking about the music video here.
A big part of making the music video was finding the right footage to edit along with the studio shots from Black Valve. Since so much of it dealt with outer space, there was no way I could exactly fly outside the planet and get shots of the Moon or Sun! I looked at NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio and received footage from them. You can actually use videos and photos from NASA as it is public domain. Thank you NASA! Besides footage from outer space, there are many nature shots during the third movement, The Earth, that I’ve personally gathered over the years. One of these shots included the sunrise over Cleveland! And another features my own shot of the solar eclipse!
When we were promoting the world premiere of the music video, Daixuan and I did an Instagram livestream together to talk about both our ideas on the collaboration. Daixuan talked about her music and the aspects of composing, what inspired her and how she feels about the Trilogy. As a filmmaker, I would talk about how I approached the video by first understanding the music itself and knowing where to complement specific visual parts in the music. It’s important to understand music as a filmmaker. You have to listen to it multiple times and ask the creator questions like what images pop up in their head. Knowing what inspires a musician gives me direction on how to bring their creativity to a whole new level.
After the livestream was over, we had our audience hop over to YouTube to join a live watch party. From there, we saw how everyone reacted to the video together for the first time and saw real time comments. Everyone loved the music video and it really gave me relief and joy to see that it was well received. As a filmmaker, you always get a little nervous when your baby goes out into the big world! Both Daixuan and I were happy with the way our collaboration turned out and are excited to see what new projects we’ll create together! Be sure to follow her on IG and keep up with her journey as a composer. And follow me here at IG!