This week, I have started to consider the option that I want to take for my Content Delivery assignment for university and to begin planning and studying the brief in more detail. One of the first steps in the stage of pre-production is to do research about my choice and to ring people that could potentially become contributors for my piece or that could help me with relevant information. Therefore, I chose to create a story and to shoot a music video for the meaningful song that the singer-songwriter Tom Walker has released in 2017, namely ”Leave a light on”.
Considering that I was not familiar with his music or this song in particular before, the first step was to do my research regarding the inspiration and the real story behind this emotional song in order to get more sense of what it is all about and how I could visually portray it for my assignment. Produced by Steve Mac and written by both Tom and Steve, the single tells the story of a real friend of Tom that was struggling with addiction and it represents his own personal way of reaching out to him and helping him to recover. As Tom Walker stated in an interview with MTV, the inspiration of this song came from a couple of hard-hitting experiences that he encountered in the past. “One of my friends…was in a really bad place at the time and, I don’t want to say went missing, but he just dropped off the map and I had lost a family member also, so it was those two things coming together, on that day, in that session… I think it’s one of the realest things that I’ve written.” (MTV News,2018)
Furthermore, I realized that although it is a gut-wrenching track about serious issues like struggling with addiction and being enveloped by darkness, the song still has a powerful message that urges to bring light and a ray of hope in what we may all see as being hopeless situations. My research then was redirected to the music video that accompanies the song and how the essence of it was beautifully transposed in the story of the music video. Produced by Charles Mehling, the music video reveals the singer that desperately tries to reconnect with his friend who is far away, alone in the middle of the ocean, isolated by the world and with no way of getting back to his old-self. ”The stunning visuals perfectly encapsulate the isolation and distance between Tom and the friend he’s reaching out to in an emotional plea.” (APB,2017)
Taking all of these facts into account, I started looking up for charity workers or experts regarding addiction and mental health issues that could help me with my ongoing research. I came across the Change,Grow and Live charity based in England that ”supports people to change their lives for the better” (changegrowlive.org, n.d.) They offer a wide range of services for people of all ages that are struggling with drugs and alcohol addiction, abuse or mental health problems. The approach they use is to ” combine medical, psychological and social work interventions to support people to make lifestyle and behavioural changes that will improve their health and wellbeing”. (changegrowlive.org, n.d.) Unfortunately, there was no contact number so I could not call but I have e-mailed them in hope of getting an answer back. If they will not get back to me, I will keep looking for relevant contacts or search for another charity that will be able to offer me some insight about the influence of addiction over young people.
REFERENCES:
- Mtv.co.uk. (2018). Tom Walker Talks The Emotional Inspiration Behind ‘Leave A Light On’ | MTV UK. [online] Available at: http://www.mtv.co.uk/brand-new-for-2018/news/tom-walker-talks-the-emotional-inspiration-behind-leave-a-light-on [Accessed 18 Feb. 2018].
- Apb-pr.co.uk. (2018). Incredible new single Leave A Light On out now, UK tour in November | APB PR. [online] Available at: http://www.apb-pr.co.uk/news/tom-walker/incredible-new-single-leave-light-out-now-uk-tour-november [Accessed 18 Feb 2018].
- Changegrowlive.org. (2018). CGL | change, grow, live – health and social care charity. [online] Available at: https://www.changegrowlive.org/ [Accessed 18 Feb. 2018].