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Creative Ways to Show Passage of Time

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Nemesis318

I am currently working on a music video. The video will start off showing a guy and girl getting into a fight and breaking up. I then need to show some time has passed (say a year). The music then starts and the song is about the guy and girl trying to get back together.

I am trying to think of a creative way to show the passage of time without doing something cheesy like putting text on the screen that says "ONE YEAR LATER"

Any ideas?
 
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Use stop-motion and rip off pages of a calendar. Additionally, you can super-impose that footage over clips of the guy (or girl, or possibly both) in different seasons of the year, walking along on sidewalks displaying the proper emotions and such. That's what I would do, and it can be effective. I know it's been done before, though. :P
 
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Does it have to be a year? If not try a seasonal type deal. Along those lines are you shooting outside or indoors? If indoors it would be easier to pull off (not impossible outside either). You can make use of wardrobe and other props/backdrops to suggest the seasonal changes and even make use of some color grading to help set the tones and sell the mood. Make them break-up in the winter to a cold, blue tint to the picture and then reignite the spark, the heat, the passion in a warm, reddish summer. You could play with the changing of feelings through spring as blue morphs to red with the talent doing their thing showing how they miss each other and keep thinking about each other. That's one possibility. Good luck.
 
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If it’s literally a year, then you obviously end up back where you started, but just a year later.
If that is what you are going for to accommodate like ease of out door shots, then it can work, but it could also be confusing if the time passage isn’t clearly conveyed.

A quick seasonal time-lapse between the final word of the break-up and the start of the music can also work, but it might seem crammed into the short space of a few beats between break-up and start of music. It all depends how it’s done.

Maybe you need something a bit simpler, direct and more along the lines of what you are trying to avoid with the SUPER: ONE YEAR LATER.

Edge of an answering machine in the foreground next to a little desk calendar-
Answering machine blinks 0 messages –
Calendar shows month and year-
Tilt up to a window–
Night becomes day in time-lapse (Real or artificially lit) –
Tilt down-
Calendar shows a month close to a year later AND a different year-
Answering machine blinks with 375 messages-
Phone rings-
Music starts.


How you might maintain the notion that time has passed (if you have to) could have consdierations for seasonal props, lighting, wardrobe, make-up etc.

-Thanks-
 
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Dont forget that the lyrics (if its a song with words) might give the viewer plenty of information about the time change. Lyrics = Narration .

Also, as most lyrics are telling the story from the point of view of the "present day" start in the present.. and when its time to talk about the past, use flashback techniques.. old home movies of the "happy days" etc.. everyone knows a flashback when they see it..
 
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It's better if you can figure out a way that is also a part of the story.

Best example I can think of off the top of my head: The Shawshank Redemption.

Remember those posters of Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and Raquel Welch?

He covered up his escape tunnel with those posters too.
 
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Don't know what your budget is, but maybe a way of showing it through either seasons or holidays? A scene with Valentines, a scene with easter, summer scenes(beach stuff), fall(raking leaves?), Halloween, Thanksgiving, ect). Stuff that shows the progress of the year, even if you don't have rain/snow equipment, the way they are dressed can go a long way.
 
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Keeping a budget in mind, I would say hair change is the best, or maybe driving a different car? A little weight loss(pad the shirt a little). Piercings? I don't know I'm just spitballing.
 
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Instead of looking for generic ideas about time, you should really be thinking about ways that suit the material. (The Shawshank example does this)

Is a year a long time (for an argument, maybe), or a short one (because I will love you forever)? Should dandelions blossom in time-lapse, or the Earth spin furiously through space? What's the scale? Should Bush give way to Obama? Should 30-foot phone cords give way to cordlesses and mobiles? Should Britney make way for (or out with) Gaga? Broken arms, broken hearts, tattoos revised, new cars, old cars, new skills... if you have a clear connection to story then your choices will be the right ones.

Generic choices = generic film = yawn. Change channel to next 20 youtube suggestions.
 
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