Our final music video has been completed and submitted. I feel strangely removed from the final work because I wasn’t as involved in post-production as I was in the pre- and production phases. My role in post was more of an advisory role, I guess you could say. Being stuck at home with a medical condition during the final week didn’t help either!

The first time I watched the final submission, I couldn’t help but smile. It was done (ahh, sweet relief!) and while it isn’t exactly what I had in mind originally, it is still a fun MV and I think it captures the essence of what we were trying to achieve.

Some parts of the MV are great. I love the poolside arrest sequence towards the end of the MV where our lead character Lizzie gets her revenge. I think that it’s well-paced and I love the vibrancy of it. I love the retro red scenes, and the contrast between them and the rest of the MV. There are some cute moments (e.g. during the police lineup) that make you smile. It doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Then there are other aspects that, upon subsequent viewings, drive me crazy. These are mainly editing flaws that an extra week of diligent editing would easily fix. Firstly, there is a glaring big error relating to the stabilisation of footage that pops up part way through the clip (how was that missed?!) Secondly, the sliding split screens at the start of the MV don’t move in a smooth or uniform way. This bothers me moreso because it worked at one point but somehow got messed up and was never fixed. There are also some edits that don’t fit into the MV at all (e.g. footage of the drummer) but we had to use them because we didn’t have enough usable footage. I think this footage really stalls the overall narrative and pacing of the MV, and leaves the viewer wondering “huh?”

I am glad that the work has been completed, even though it isn’t perfect. However, I feel that we struggled to complete the work because we didn’t have enough footage (due to the cancellation of the third day of production) and because there was just a lack of commitment by each of us towards the end of the project (six weeks of an intensive summer school class while balancing all of your other life commitments is draining, and I think we were all just mentally cooked by that point). Mad props to Amber for taking the bull by the horns, getting into the edit suites and getting it completed and submitted on time.

Overall, I think that the final work aligns with the original vision about 65%. I am happy that the MV captures the whimsy of the original vision and (for the most part) tells the story we were wanting to tell. I don’t watch a lot of music videos these days, so I don’t really know how it relates to other MVs in its genre. I can’t imagine that there are a lot of MVs in the mainstream for the jazz/soul/funk genre anyway!

I’ve learned a lot from working on this project; about myself, about working with a team of strangers, and about working on a short-turnaround production. I’ve managed to overcome my chronic perfectionism in a very small way by abdicating control over aspects of this project (something I find it very difficult to do with creative work), submitting a final work that doesn’t necessarily meet my ridiculously high, self-imposed standards, and accepting that it is OK for it not to have been perfect. I’ve learned from the mistakes, the imperfections and the disappointments of be project so that I can do better next time… and I still SMILED when I watched the final work, because, regardless of the imperfections, we made this and it turned out great.