Wake Up
Music by Donnie T. Smith
Video by Deja Michele Smith
After completing my first senior project in November 2022, I had to think I was doing for my last one. I decided to make another music video for my brother. I already had a vague plan for what I wanted to happen during the video. Throughout the beginning of December I made my previs for every shot and collected references. From late December and early January I filmed all the scenes in New York, Connecticut, and North Carolina. Then during my last 10 weeks at SCAD, I completed all 62 shots of the music video.
VFX includes green screen removal, modeling, lighting, texturing, and compositing. For this video, I want to show the randomness of dreams while also exploring the different theories on what dreams could mean. I want to explore how our subconscious records more than we know and how things from our past and present can show up in our dreams randomly but still have a deeper meaning.
Previs
You can find all my slides on class 1 of my blog.
Below is the original timing of all the slides with some scenes and shots complete besides coloring.
Spreadsheet
I used a spreadsheet to keep organized. I used Houdini for all but 1 shot for modeling, lighting, texturing, and rendering. I used Maya for scene 8 shot 7 for the camera matching and stair modeling and then Houdini for everything else. Redshift and Mantra were used for rendering. Photoshop was used for the building set extension and clean up. Nuke was used for compositing and majority of color grading. Adobe Premiere was used for editing and some color grading.
Check out my 10 week blog for this video here.
Credits
Deja Michele Smith
Donnie T. Smith II
Donnie T. Smith I
Tonya Smith
Ginger Graham
Michele Stewart Copes
Aelix Copes
Director, producer, camera operator, editor, previs, visual effects
Song, performance, wardrobe
Transportation, prop creation, set assistant, camera operator
Transportation, set assistant, location
Prop Creation
Location
Location
Special Thanks to...
Professor Joe Pasquale for approving this project and the constant encouragement.
Professors Andres Galeano, Bridget Gaynor, Deborah Fowler, Garrett Ilardi, Kirt Witte, Patricia Perrone, Stuart Robertson, and Timothy Steele. I would not have been able to complete this without the knowledge I gained in all of your classes.
Allie Sargent for the feedback and encouragement given in class everyday.