I always knew I would end up asking my girlfriend to marry me through a music video, but it took so long for all the pieces to fall into place. first was the song. I had originally wanted to use "I Would Do Anything For You" by Foster the People, but when Said the Whale's album Little Mountain was released in March 2012, including the single Loveless, I knew I had found the one. The lyrics spoke to me and better captured the way I felt for Melanie. For once in my life I wanted to get the bands permission to use their song, to ensure I had their "blessing" ;-) I wrote their manager and received a reply 17 minutes later: "Go for it Shawn. No issues".
The video was filmed in one day in Paris (thanks Hugo!) and I finished the bulk of editing within 2 weeks (Mel was out of town at this point). All that was left was to buy the ring, show Mel the video and get down on one knee. I finally built up the courage and showed her the video on September 22nd, 2012 and she thankfully said yes!!!
Nerdy stuff:
-Filmed entirely with the Canon 550D + the kit lens
-Cinestyle picture style for the washed out look
-Magic Lantern
-Editing done in Premiere Pro CS5.5 (the opening scene with the motion text on the camera that is obscured by my hand was done in Ae. Check out the following tutorial for a how-to: youtube.com/watch?v=8pjXZkmpIzU)
-Light color correction done natively in Ppro
-Three separate layers were added for the lens leaks, grain and scratches (see below for details).
--- Light leeks assets by David Fulde: projectmonday.net/post/19220762656/assets-for-free-hoorah-updated
--- Grain was from free grain pack at GorillaGrain: gorillagrain.com/features
--- Scratches ripped from youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=BFF2dk1f7gA