Trying to fit a 6 minute story line into 3 minutes (Music Video)

[vision_filmz]

As a young Director I feel that I wrote a nice script and shot it pretty good. Problem is though that the project can only be 3 minutes long ( Music Video ) and I can honestly say it seems impossible that I can fit the story within the time limit.

What do I do, as I'm really stressed over here.

 

[MadMonkFish]

Try looking at the key scenes that tell the story and see where you can shorten things. I know you're doing a music video, so you have the ability to use a little more creative licence during the edit. It's difficult to give you an idea of the best approach without a little more to go on - is the story you've shot fully sequential (or does it have the opportunity to jump cuts or have lap dissolves or time transistions etc?).

In dialogue/narrative you often find an actors subtle eye movement or sideways glance can convey more emotion than a paragraph of dialogue... that's why performances often come alive in the edit. But, it really depends on your story & what/how you've shot it ie master shot & CU's or long single takes etc.

Step back for a minute & imagine it's not your footage - and look at it with a different eye. Untie yourself from the material as you know it and see if there's another way to tell the same story. There are always options, but you just might be to involved/close (at this point) to see them.

Relax for a while - the answer will come to you.

 

[vision_filmz]

Try looking at the key scenes that tell the story and see where you can shorten things. I know you're doing a music video, so you have the ability to use a little more creative licence during the edit. It's difficult to give you an idea of the best approach without a little more to go on - is the story you've shot fully sequential (or does it have the opportunity to jump cuts or have lap dissolves or time transistions etc?).

In dialogue/narrative you often find an actors subtle eye movement or sideways glance can convey more emotion than a paragraph of dialogue... that's why performances often come alive in the edit. But, it really depends on your story & what/how you've shot it ie master shot & CU's or long single takes etc.

Step back for a minute & imagine it's not your footage - and look at it with a different eye. Untie yourself from the material as you know it and see if there's another way to tell the same story. There are always options, but you just might be to involved/close (at this point) to see them.

Relax for a while - the answer will come to you.

Thank you, I think sometimes the problem is trying to do to much. I have a scene where a woman is supposed to take a bite of a fruit when the artist gives it to her, but they have to meet first.

So by the time the song gets to the point where the artist mentions the woman eating this fruit I am still showing the story how he is approaching her and I don't have enough space ( we need at least 2-3 scenes) to show him giving her the fruit.


Regardless thank you for the help & I will have to ax certain scenes. This is like my 20+ Music Video I have shot and still it's not easy

 

[clang]

Sure, look for scenes/shots you can remove, but also look at shortening each shot by trimming the beginning/end or even increasing their playback speed - e.g. changing a five second shot to be two seconds long only saves you three seconds, but do it often enough and you can dramatically shorten the overall film.

 

[MadMonkFish]

Thank you, I think sometimes the problem is trying to do to much. I have a scene where a woman is supposed to take a bite of a fruit when the artist gives it to her, but they have to meet first.

So by the time the song gets to the point where the artist mentions the woman eating this fruit I am still showing the story how he is approaching her and I don't have enough space ( we need at least 2-3 scenes) to show him giving her the fruit.


Regardless thank you for the help & I will have to ax certain scenes. This is like my 20+ Music Video I have shot and still it's not easy

Adding to the trimming & playback speed ideas by clang - why not also look at changing the narrative construction of the story you're telling?

Have the artist give her the fruit and she bites it - cut back to the artist & then have a flashback to how he approached her originally? You're just playing with a 'construct' and you establish the rules... this can be a liberating method of story-telling.

Basically (just an idea here!) look to alter the linear construction of the story... this may offer you the chance to then 'glimpse fragments' of the way they met... but build it up all the way through the finished promo... it could end with her leaving him - and a flashback for us (the audience) showing how they first met (just guessing story elements here!).

Play with your narrative and be non-linear... it'll work as it's a pop promo & the 'glue' on these jobs is always the artist and their song/track. Again, without knowing full details, it's hard to suggest an in-depth approach - but this reconstructed narrative idea might give you lots of creative options

Good luck!

 

[David Jimerson]

For the future -- don't write a six-minute story if you only have three minutes. Trim your script. Get it down to the bare essentials. And then meticulously plan what's going to be in every second of those three minutes before you ever shoot a frame.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

As a young Director I feel that I wrote a nice script and shot it pretty good. Problem is though that the project can only be 3 minutes long ( Music Video ) and I can honestly say it seems impossible that I can fit the story within the time limit.

What do I do, as I'm really stressed over here.

The question that I have is, if you knew the result was a 3 minute song, and that there were screen events that matched the lyrics... why wasn't that the 'guide track' in your script...

Sounds like you have fallen in love with some set of scenes, and don't want to go in and chop them down to what is needed to match the song, the events in the song, and the duration.

If you listen to the BTS for many of the films, or in the 'deleted scenes' with director commentary... you will frequently hear 'this was such a beautiful scene, hated to cut it, but it just blocked the pacing, or didn't 'add' to the story'.

If the rule of thumb is 1 page per minute, then the 'script' should have been 3 pages... If what you wrote was 10 pages... there's where the editing should have happened...