Why some videos feel like short films
Launch library · evergreen read
Narrative driven videos borrow techniques quite directly from short filmmaking, establishing character, setting and a loose story arc that unfolds gradually across the runtime alongside, rather than simply illustrating in a literal way, whatever the song itself happens to actually be about, treating the song less as a soundtrack and more as a starting point.
This particular approach demands genuinely careful pacing, since the video must satisfy both a song's own musical structure and a story's underlying need for build and eventual resolution, all within the very same tightly limited amount of time available across a few short minutes, two competing structures that a skilled director has to reconcile carefully.
When it works well, a narrative video can add an entirely new layer of meaning to a song, giving already familiar lyrics fresh context through the specific story that has been deliberately chosen to accompany them on screen for the very first time, a layer of meaning that would simply not exist without that added story.