by Sheldon Bloom
Troy University graphic design students were recently selected to have their music videos shown at the 2023 UNA George Lindsey Film Festival.
The three-day festival highlighted both student and professional filmmakers from around the world. This year, two separate videos made by Troy University graphic design students were selected for the music video portion of the film competition.
The first video, which was set to “Just Sign the Paper”s by Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, featured a young couple navigating through the intricacies of a messy divorce.
“I wanted to make a music video that focused on the narrative of the song rather than the band behind the music,” said Cole Patterson, a senior graphic design major from Alexander City, Alabama, who served as the writer and director of the video. “I wanted to show the emotional turmoil of going through a divorce, but with a pedestrian aspect that shows it’s just a moment in your life, and you will get through it.”
The second video was set to the song “Killer Queen” by Queen and featured a young woman who repeatedly murdered the men she dated, which presented a special challenge for the video’s creators.
“We really just took the name of the song too literally,” said Howard Purvee, a junior graphic design major from Hartford, Alabama, who also served as co-director and starring actor for the video. “We thought it’d be fun to do montages of this girl killing her dates until she eventually struggles to kill one guy.
“It was difficult to keep the video at a specific length since you only have as long as the song allows. We had to be very intentional with how we planned our shots.”
The creators of the video also expressed their gratitude after hearing they had been selected for showing at the festival, citing it as a source of pride in their work.
“It was exciting because we ended up winning something in the yellowhammer festival with this,” said Nathan Hobbs, a junior graphic design major from Black, Alabama, who served alongside Purvee as the co-director of the Killer Queen video. “Seeing it be pushed to Birmingham for a showing is especially exciting though because it removes the idea that there was any home-field advantage.”
Those interested in watching both music videos can check out the Troy University Art & Design program’s YouTube channel.
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