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EACH I WRITE SONGS EPISODE will introduce us to the inspiring story of a songwriter or producer and the song that changed their lives forever. We'll discover the unique stories that led to the creation of a hit song. These stories reveal the incredible ways the power music transforms the lives of a songwriter, the recording artist and the world.
Throughout the episode, we’ll see surreal VFX touches that visualize their creative process and the particular muse that each artist chases. Every story is different as the songs are unique, and each episode is crafted to visually and sonically to match the artist’s feel.
COLD OPEN. An intro package establishing the song: reminding us of the history… The response to the single. The music video release. The Grammy performance… We see the influence the song has had on its audience: fans singing along on YouTube, people dancing to the song, the song playing at weddings, proms, memorials, and more…We hear the recording artist talk about how important the song has been to them - it’s a powerful moment where we understand the depth of the songwriter’s role.
Then we ask ... Where did this all begin?
ACT 1 | EARLY DAYS. We meet our songwriter. Just like Chef’s Table - we’re not sure at what point in their life we’re meeting them. We see them in an environment reflective of their early days: wandering the streets of a small town, building a home recording studio, playing an open mic show. We hear the story of their early days… How they grew up in a musical family, how music was always their escape, or how they found a hero in an iconic artist.
We learn how much music means to our subject, and how fundamental it is to who they are as a person. And, we see their early forays into the music business and their promising beginnings as artists and creatives in their own right. We see the early inspiration begin to play out in VFX: a sky that changes with the tone of a song, music visualizations twirling from a spinning record, colors in the world playing like music notes, etc.
ACT 2 | HARSH REALITY. We now move into a new documentary location representative of challenges in the songwriter’s life: the street where they lived in their car, the hospital where they battled cancer, the soul-crushing job where they worked a 9 to 5… This act is about the low point in the songwriter’s life - the fire they were forged in. It might be a moment of profound professional disappointment. It might be about a personal tragedy or loss. It might be that the creative well has dried up, substance issues, or mental health issues.
Through VFX we see the impact these challenges and trauma have on the songwriter’s creativity. The color drains from the world when someone’s inspiration goes away, substances distort the sounds of inspiration, or the demons of doubt animate and overwhelm someone’s dreams.
ACT 3 | THEIR MIND. We now find ourselves in a documentary environment that represents a break in the clouds - a light at the end of the tunnel. Fueled by their life experience, their dreams and frustrations, they write “the song.” Sometimes this is about digging deep and pushing through pain and creative frustration to write a masterpiece. Sometimes it’s about a gift of inspiration that seemingly comes from nowhere. They may understand this as a pivotal moment, or they may not see what it means at the time. Whatever their response is, they recognize that something’s happened, creatively.
We’ll explore the creative process in the greatest depth - here the animation and VFX will crescendo into a moment that communicates the songwriter’s process to even the least musical viewer. We’ll see all the visual cues from the previous acts come together into a visual climax. We see elements of the early days, elements of the challenge, and elements from the inspiration that inspired the song in the moment come together in a music video style homage to the song. We’ll also hear what the song sounded like in its most raw, early stages. Whatever the artist knows, we know, without a doubt, this is something special.
ACT 4 | THE MOMENT. We start by rolling back to a location we saw in “The Challenge” - it seems, at first, that the songwriter is back where they started. The road to success isn’t linear. The creative moment fades. Life for our songwriter goes back to normal. They send it to their manager, save it to a hard drive, or upload it to soundcloud. For one, perilous moment it seems that this song will be like too many others: unknown, under-appreciated. Despite all the heartache, talent and creativity, this will be another disappointment.
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Then, it happens.
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A phone call comes in. A YouTube video goes viral. Someone hears their song in an open mic, and everything changes. With the change, we move into a documentary setting that shows the positive change in the songwriter’s life. It may be a homecoming. It may be the airport where they took the plane trip to record with Kanye. It might be a home after living on the streets… Wherever it takes us, we see a physical manifestation of the change the song made in our songwriter’s life. Through archival and evocative re-enactments, we see the VFX from the songwriter’s version of the song blend with the version of the song we all know from the charts. We witness the transformation a song undergoes as it grows from a private piece of art to a pop culture phenomenon.
ACT 5 | ITS OWN LIFE. We move into a documentary environment that expresses the life the song had: an arena, a music video set, a club… The place that signifies that this song doesn’t belong to the songwriter or the recording artist anymore - it belongs to the world. We watch as the song is released and lives a life in the world, a dramatic payoff to all the moments we teased in the cold open. Fans sing along. People dance. DJs go crazy. And we’ll never see the song the same way again, because we know where it came from, and we’ve been there for every moment of the ride. We hear from the songwriter how surreal it is to have something so personal live in the world in this way. And finally, we hear from the recording artist what this song has meant to their journey, their art and their fans.
ACT 6 | THE FUTURE. We finish each episode in an environment that gives us a glimpse into the songwriter’s future: at the beach with a guitar, at home at a piano, in a studio recording new vocals. As the songwriter talks about the inspiration for the next chapter, we see new VFX and animation illustrating the ways they’ve evolved and grown over the course of this journey. We watch them putting together the elements of their next song, a song which may become their next world-changing hit.
