I have always been interested in lyric videos, although I've never known how to make them. This is why I have chosen this opportunity to create one - the Covid-19 lockdown is currently in place, and as someone particularly vulnerable to the virus, even when restrictions ease I will struggle to go out to shoot footage for a film trailer or title sequence. I can, however, create a lyric video from home - I have all of the Adobe tools on my computer.
One song I have long felt would suit a lyric video is Disturbed's Sound of Silence, a cover of the iconic Simon and Garfunkel song. This adaptation and its music video have become hugely popular over the world, and is Disturbed's most-viewed YouTube video, with 500 million more views than their next most popular upload. Through this, Disturbed have introduced their sound to the mainstream, and though they still hold to their heavy metal roots, much of their more recent music is influenced by hard rock. Sound of Silence doesn't fit these genres, however, and I would like to be mindful of this when creating my lyric video.
At first I thought about different types of lyric videos. My favourites were Ed Sheeran's Perfect and Castle on the Hill, and Justin Bieber's Sorry. Sheeran's videos are beautifully illustrated, possibly by hand, and Bieber's has a fascinating way of using the lyrics to interact with the scene.
While I don't think I currently have the skills to create a similar product, I like how both of these artists have used a handwritten font to convey the more personal message behind these songs. Sound of Silence is a very personal song, and the first line of "hello darkness my old friend" sounds almost like a diary entry. I will consider this when choosing which fonts to use.
Disturbed have a number of lyric videos - their most recent being a series of songs from their latest album. These videos are all very similar, with the same background images and the text simply appearing line-by-line at the bottom of the screen. I'm not keen on the simplicity of this, but the imagery used in these videos is something I would like to include in my video. There is a lot of mist and darkness, and occasionally lightning. The song Best Ones Lie is from the same album, but has a more detailed lyric video. Much of the same imagery is used, but it is much more varied, and the typography effects are much more purposeful. You can see how the words "sickening me" rush towards the screen, and that they have used different font sizes to emphasise specific words.
Similarly, their lyric video for The Light is complex and considered. Throughout, streaks of light shine through the text, highlighting the message of the song. This video is particularly interesting as it appears that they have used the camera tool in After Effects, allowing for much more versatility in the design. Another point of interest is the choice of font. The thick capitals with a slight serif hint towards something more medieval, which ties into the band's typical genre. I will have to decide whether to use a similar medieval print to match the band or a handwritten font to match the song lyrics.
Disturbed's music video for A Reason to Fight has many similar elements to Sound of Silence. They are both serious and deal with personal demons, with the former about battling addiction, and the latter about the disconnect and lack of love within humanity. Both videos are shot in black and white to create a serious tone, and both use a lot of mist to evoke a mysterious, darkly-ethereal atmosphere. For my lyric video, I wouldn't like to simply paste text over the existing music video, but I will include stills from the video to tie them together.
After researching lyric videos in general, the band I have chosen, and many of their existing lyric videos, I have decided to create a full-length monochrome lyric video for Sound of Silence. In order to reflect the personal nature of the song, I will use one or two handwritten fonts, although these should not be too extravagant. Ideally they will be sans-serif to enable the text to look as though it could have been written in a diary. I am aware that this style of text does not fit with the usual genre of Disturbed's music, however, the song is so different from their typical style that I don't feel this choice will be detrimental. I will use stills from the existing music video, including shots of the vocalist, David Draiman, to connect the audience with the band. These stills will be edited so they look less photo-realistic, mirroring the narrative of a restless dream.
The song starts off fairly calm, so the effects and transitions will reflect that. As the song progresses, the transitions will be shorter to complement the higher intensity of the vocals and lyrics. I would like to utilise some special effects with key words and phrases, such as a bright flash at the word "vision". The phrase "neon god" could be interesting to play around with, so alongside simple transformations I will also look at the available presets and see if any are suitable. During transitions between the stills, I will aim to include some visual effects like fog and possibly lightning, should the lyrics and the timing benefit from it.
This will be a huge learning curve as I have never used After Effects before, but I am confident that I can pick it up quickly and create a final product I can be proud of.
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