Twitter/Instagram/Soundcloud: @TheDreRock
Tumblr: Songwritingdaily
iFunny: Musicomedian
Riot! is 10 years old today and now that After Laughter has also now been out for a full month, it seemed very appropriate (and fun) to make this video.
First, some of the easter eggs and little fun elements that went into this video:
1. Each one was made to resemble a specific album sound or song from "old-paramore": Ain't It Fun was made to sound like something from All We Know Is Falling, HTSYHB pokes fun at When It Rains from Riot!, Still Into You is made in the style of Riot! in general, Hard Times nods to Brand New Eyes but also makes HUGE reference to That's What You Get (which is also from Riot!), and Told You So is made to sound like something from Brand New Eyes.
2. Additionally, each "music video" set and style was made to resemble a video from the song/album it's mocking:
Ain't It Fun uses a tight boiler room/basement (with water raining everywhere) to poke fun at the video for Pressure,
Still Into You's desert background and effects are poking fun at Crushcrushcrush, Told You So is a room with a lightbulb in it as a nod to the Ignorance video, Hard Times uses a cozy living room with red walls that resembles the set of That's What You Get (THAT ONE WAS REALLY HARD TO FIND) and I used a stage for HTSYHB since obviously it's put to the instrumental of When It Rains, which makes me think of their live performance of it on The Final Riot video (stage lights for this part is from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebhRj-dxnWE )
3. One of my guitars is a Fender Telecaster Thinline Deluxe, which coincidentally is almost the same model and is the same design as Josh Farro's signiture guitar, the Fender Telecaster Deluxe. So when I recorded the audio and video for what I would think would be "Josh's part" I made sure to only use that guitar for it - and you'll notice that those parts are played by the guitar that looks almost identical to the one Josh uses in the Misery Business and That's What You Get music video (and just a lot during riot era and in general)
4. Furthermore, I made sure that for the member of (BNE era) Paramore, I acted like how they do on stage and in music videos down to even the movements and playing styles.
HOW IT WAS MADE: STEP 1. PREPARING MATERIAL:
I first retrieved the vocal tracks for the 5 songs used. For Ain't It Fun and Still Into You, this was as easy as googling "(Name of song) Acapella" but for Told You So and Hard Times, I had to filter out and isolate the center parts of the tracks where the vocals are, and then equalize and play around with the volume of the result of that to try to take out or hide all the remaining instruments. For HTSYHB, I just had to do the latter for it to sound decent. This step took about 1 or 2 days.
STEP 2. Recording and mastering the tracks:
I recorded the new guitar and bass parts over the vocal tracks from the previous step, and actually used a keyboard to play the drum parts via MIDI. I then had to master them (which involves a lot of steps that are hard to explain) but I'm no expert at that so I didn't stress myself too hard over getting an iTunes - quality master. This step took almost a week (but not counting the weekends so like 4-5 days)
STEP 3: FILMING
I put all of the tracks on a tablet which was hooked up to a speaker, and I played all of them as if I was in a music video, in front of 2 green screens (and lights) in my house, with each instrument used (the 2 green screens are better for different angles and lighting, and each screen took a full day to record - however, I only ended up being able to use the second one, as the first one messed up lighting-wise and was impossible to key (aka do the thing greenscreens do) during editing.) This took 2 days, 1 for each green screen/angle.
STEP 4: EDITING
I put all of the video files on my computer and started with Told You So, putting each instrument in a Final Cut Pro project and messing with the timing so they all played in sync (I often had to pan one instrument clip to the left and another to the right so I could hear which one was behind or started too soon). I keyed everything, turned all the volumes down and put in the actual emo-ized track, put in the appropriate background, and exported. While it was rendering, I'd download the music video for that song. After I lined up the music video and the exported clip of the instruments, I did a lot of slicing up the clips and adding effects to them to make it look like a real music video, and then exported the result. I did this for each song. Once I was done, I made the Intro, put all of the mini "music videos" into the project, and then put all the text and stuff in. After some final touches editing-wise, it was done! The editing process took about 4 days.
ENTIRE PROCESS: about 12 or so days, and just in time for the 10th anniversary of Riot. wowie
Special thanks: @paramorespam on ig
