Synopsis

Winded was my first larger budget project (on an indie scale), about $10,000, though with the number of favors and discounts we had, it should have cost a lot more. We filmed the performance portions during both the day and the night, about 10-11 takes each with 2 cameras shooting each one, so we had more than 40 full performances of the song. Then we shot narrative elements between the day and night performances, so the final video editing was a major challenge integrating the story and the performances together into one coherent whole. We shot on various stages at Willow Studios in Downtown Los Angeles then also used their rooftop for the beautiful skyline views in the background.

A guy and a girl are shown in various stages of their relationship in half of the narrative element of the music video, from when they meet and start to connect to the middle stages of the relationship to where the guy has to decide if she is worth the effort anymore. The guy is having second thoughts about whether he wants to keep seeing her, implied by one of the song’s main lines, “It depends on what you want from me.” As such, the same locations where the couple are first seen, he is also seen alone at different times in the second half of the narrative.

In all, Winded played at 18 festivals, winning multiple awards, and was accepted to roughly 50% of the festivals to which I applied. It was a confidence-boosting early success for me that helped me grow as a director and eventually move into shorts and features, after several more music videos.