So I decided to rethink the way of presenting my content. I thought about making this experience more like an wiki. With additional background information, lyrics and pictures. So it may take lot of time but I actually had fun creating this first wiki post for Grain of Time. Check it out!
Grain of Time
Grain of Time
Status: Finished ✅
Contents
The Track
Grain of Time is the first released song of the Mixtape Some Thoughts of Mine. One fun or not so fun fact: During the recording of this song one or the other tear found it’s way flowing down my cheek. That’s due the fact, that I often have the feeling that I long for and dream of past events, wishing them back only to realize that they will never return. Guess I’m a nostalgic person but yeah I need to get over it.
Production
In the original sample the piano melody was fully panned to the left. So I decided to double it and make the other track go right. So the result was a stereo sample 🙂 Overall the beat is relatively simple for the most part: A piano sample along with an drum loop. In the later section I decided to add more and more additional melodies. I mainly used string and horn instruments for this, I wanted to lead the listener to an emotional finale, that concluded with an different part of the sample, this time with voice lines in japanese, which encapuslate the meaning of this song.
- Produced by Trash Music
- Rap by TentaBond
Samples Used
I used the first seconds for the piano loop, at around 10 seconds the vocal sample of the outro section starts. It’s a beautiful song listen to it!
Music Video
At the time of writing this article, I’m not 100% sure where the idea for making a video like this came from.
During production, the idea of creating a fully painted video started to grow, but I quickly realized that it would have been way too much work. Maybe someday you’ll see a fully hand-painted video from me. 🙂
To keep the spirit of something handcrafted, I decided to split the video into two layers:
- The first layer is the lyric section, where I originally had the idea of animating the writing of every single letter. However, after some tests, I realized that this was too ambitious. I liked the idea, though, and implemented it in the intro section. For the rest of the song, I used a more efficient approach by just taking a picture of every word that appears in the song and synchronizing it.
- On top of this layer I added the actual animations. I cut out paper figures and moved them on a professional greenscreen haha. All jokes aside, it was just a peace of green paper :). Later I removed the greenscreen via the free application DaVinci and put this layer on top of the lyric layer. For the lighting I used my desk lamp with Crêpe paper wrapped around it, which gave the scene a more natural balanced light. And yeah for the capturing of the fotos I used my smartphone, which was put on a stand build out of Lego Bricks.
At the beginning of the video creation process, I aimed to perfect every little detail, such as moving each body part only when it realistically should.
But I quickly ditched that idea because it was impossible. Instead, the result was that in every frame (6 per second), every movable part of a figure would move. For example, if I tried to move only an arm, the head would also move because the arm is connected to the torso, and the torso is connected to the head.
The result reminded me of a Series televised in Germany called Krawinkel und Eckstein. I actually liked the effect because it made the whole scene feel more alive.
One big point I wanted to prove with this project was that you don’t need a big production crew or a huge budget to create something worthwhile.
I spent $0 on this project—which is actually only half true, since I had to buy a new pen. So technically, it cost me about $1.
What I mean is that if you look around, you already have everything in your environment that you could use for a dope project. It’s a mantra I also followed while making my music video for “Chain of Thought.“
After a long day of running around the set, the figures decided to rest in this magical-looking box.
Lyrics
Sands falling in God’s hourglass
not slowly but pretty fast
It may be a dessert
but it has it’s limits to it
It passes before you even knew it
Grain after Grain
Hour after Hour
Day after Day
Year after Year
dropping in a perpetual cycle
nothing gets recycled
Playing outside with your friends
not realizing someday gonna be the last
looking through a blurred nostalgic lense
wishing that time back
why did it pass so fast?
It’s over, moreover
your clock is getting older and older
so be wise invest it in yourself, or other people
so your memories gonna be timeless like the beatles
And that made me think…
Sands falling in God’s hourglass
not slowly but pretty fast
It may be a dessert
but it has it’s limits to it
It passes before you even knew it
Everyone you know will be gone,
blink twice and they are vanished,
So please listen to this somber song
Man another year already passed dammit
It falls, falls and falls,
trickling down until no grain is left,
It’s the only thing you really own
So don’t let it be a victim of theft
You can’t compete
You need to lead with a better example,
Ah by the way, what’s your opinion this piano sample?
timeless I would say
No fight to win, my biggest sin
wasted too much time
should be held accountable for my crime
the price is higher than the heftiest fine
please listen to the next lines
Sands falling in God’s hourglass
not slowly but pretty fast
It may be a desert
but it has it’s limits to it
It passes before you even knew it
Sitting in a cinema watching old memories
blurs the right and the now
but be sure to leave after and don’t freeze
or the film is gonna loop over and over, wow
It’s time to create a new type of movie
something real groovy
something unexpected, never seen before
different to the core, something before rejected,
something that you want to see more of,
something that you love
春のこもれ陽の中で
君のやさしさに
うもれていたぼくは
弱虫だったんだヨネ