Animated Music Video – Front Row by Ezekiel Jay
The above video is an animated music video I co-created with musician Ezekiel Jay . Ezekiel Jay (Zeke) approached me about making an animated video for his awesome song, Front Row. I immediately said YES.
It has been a good while since I’ve worked on a music video. The last music video I created before this one was working with Gavin Mikhail on his Christmas song, Evergreen. That video ended up landing on YouTube’s homepage and garnered 200,000+ views in a day’s time. You can read about and watch that video here.
But let’s talk about this video now.
This video was a lot of fun and challenging. I’ll start with the fun.
The best part about working on this video was working with Zeke. When we began our conversation, we naturally spoke about creating something memorable and something that he would be proud of. From there, he let me run with it.
To start, I listened to the song many times over and I kept hearing and seeing a howling wolf at the beginning of the song. I naturally was attracted to the wolf as a symbol of self-trust. I interpret that to mean to trust your own heart and mind. Once I committed to the wolf as the ‘anchor’ that would launch the video, I then seemed to gravitate to the wolf-moon relationship. Any time I see or hear a wolf howling at the moon, it’s a symbol of longing. A longing for connection to something deeper within oneself.
I tinkered with the idea of using this wolf-moon relationship as a kind of symbolic backdrop and then juxtapose that against the ‘real world’ happenings of a human world. Using the wolf and moon as the north star of the video, I envisioned the verses being miniature departures only to return back to this idea of taking the ‘front row’, symbolized by the inner-animal symbol of the wolf.
I presented the wolf-moon concept to Zeke and he really liked it. But then he added a great suggestion and asked me ‘What if the WHOLE VIDEO was animals?’. The creative spirit in me jumped for joy! The video immediately became a project about staying true to myself and letting what is most true express itself. His suggestion allowed the video to be more symbolic, more playful, and created a lot of wiggle room. It didn’t have to be ‘real’-we could instead focus on making a fun, creative video that had room for exploration. I began to align with the video and it’s already present message.
The chorus of the song summarizes a relationship to authentic and confident expression and also ties in to how I felt about the video. It says:
All my life I didn’t want the attention
I Didn’t know I had anything to say
Then I found I could speak in connection
I’m not far away
I’m not far away
I’ll take the front row
I’ll take the front row
To me, the chorus is describing a journey of connecting to oneself, realizing your orientation to life, and then fully expressing. In the same way, Zeke’s suggestion helped me connect to my real desire, helped me orient to the video in a strong context, and then let go and start creating. It was about as good as a co-creative relationship could be on a large project like this.
Storyboarding Verses for the Animated Music Video, Front Row
From there, I went back and began to storyboard the whole song. Thinking of animals to ‘fill in’ the boards was pretty fun. I wanted to connect to the soul of each animal and found inspiration in different places.
Here is the first verse:
Oh, many years ago
I had a class that was much too hard and
So, I sat in the back
And drew skulls on my notebook
Oh, then she walked in the room
Hair slick with the glasses on
I wasn’t tough but I know she was
Put her finger to my lips
And took the front row
For this verse, the feeling I got from it was kind of like a ‘delinquent teen’ vibe. I thought back to when I was in school, drawing on my notebooks. Then I thought back to crushes and feeling the rush of encountering the opposite sex and the inspiration they seemed to cause within me. The fox as an animal would symbolize waking up and becoming more aware and receptive to the world around him.
Here is the second verse:
Oh, more recently
I took a ride in a limousine and
So, they weren’t friends of mine
Still not, lemme tell you why
Oh, in vino veritas
Revealed backward thoughts
I’m not PC but still was uneasy
Hey driver, I’ll ride with you
In the front row
This one was a lot easier. When I heard the line ‘So, they weren’t friends of mine’, I immediately was hit with an image of snakes. As I listened to the song, I imagined a character that would be relieved once they found safety, and be grateful to have reconnected with their preference. Then I rememered that snakes go after iguanas in the wild! The star of verse 2 was born.
Here is verse 3:
Oh, it was yesterday
I stopped in to hear locals play and
So, I sat in the back
And drew sips off a cognac
Oh, it was a brilliant jam
Made me wonder who I am
I pulled people right off the bar
And we filled that empty floor
With a front row
When I heard verse 3, I imagined a playful scene. I also imagined hands-hands holding drinks. Then I thought of the raccoon. The raccoon has this natural mask on their face. Have you ever went to a party dressed up and felt more free because no one really knows you? That is what struck me about the raccoon. The outer liberates the inner and makes you wonder who you are!
Beyond Creating The Verses For The Animated Music Video, Front Row
Beyond the 3 verses, the Bridge of the song was an opportunity to strengthen the storyline of the wolf finding his expression as an inner symbol for anyone who is in the process of finding their own. As you watch the video, you will see that the wolf leaves the scene to find his energy, to connect to something deeper (in this case, nature in the form of moon, starts, and mountains) which is a return to homeostasis for the wolf.
The rest of the animated music video – mostly the end scene of the wolf playing the piano – is just an opportunity to play. The video comes in at around 3:45 which is fairly long for an animated video. By the time I got to the end, it was time to let loose and add some color. Those lines of color were the last thing we added to bring the video alive.
As for how the animated music video was created, I needed to ensure that the method/way I was going to execute the video would support the vision we had. For this video, I decided to go with a basic, 2-D approach, and create it using Photoshop and After Effects. All digital.
That is where the challenging part came in. Using 2-D animation and After Effects is usually a very time-intensive process. And it was. So I imagined ways to simplify the movements and storytelling in parts and use more animation in others (such as the choruses). I decided that the verses is where we would use a more solid style of art, use more color, and strengthen the overall, compounding message of the video.
We imagined this animated music video being a journey and the choruses would show the crowd growing with the main characters from each verse. It was a way to put a bow on all the storytelling and hopefully leave the viewer with a feeling of coherence.
This animated music video took around 2.5 months to create, with breaks in the process. It was a big commitment for both Zeke and I. But in the end, I believe we both are very happy with the video. We hope you like it as much as we do.
To listen to more of Ezekiel Jay, go to https://open.spotify.com/album/0lvSFb14mljvJlVG7m9Y3L to listen to the album Emotional Charge for free. Go to https://www.ezekieljay.com/ to visit his website and connect with what he’s up to in the San Diego music scene.
If you’re interested in possibly collaborating with me on a music video or other animation project, contact me and we can discuss what’s possible.
Thank you for watching and reading!
Nick