“Don’t Ever Give Up” is an encouraging song about not giving up on your dreams. Below is an interpretation of elements within the song that informed the direction and approach we took when creating the music video.

The Forest

The forest in the video represents all of the things that can hold you back from reaching your dreams. It’s a dense environment of your doubts, distractions, setbacks, and struggle when others try to discourage you, to name a few. It’s inspired by the lyric “If you want to go back to the forest they just put you through, you’re welcome but I’m not going too.” Joe’s been there before, found his way through, and he’s not going to get lost in there again with you. Joe, in a sense, represents what you know in your heart. He can guide you out of that forest.

Forest Cinematic Approach:

I wanted to create a sense that the forest was large and overwhelming. Here are the steps taken to achieve this:

• Filmed close to the ground, camera angled upward at times, to help make the viewer feel small.

• Filmed in old growth forest so the trees would be bigger than usual, adding to the effect that the viewer is small within an overwhelming environment.

• I wanted to show wandering through the forest with no clear direction on how to get through. My approach was to film in the brush, camera moving through foliage, and pausing to showing details of the forest.

• To show Joe standing tall and confident in the forest, I would position the camera at a lower level, pointing upwards to give him more dominance in the scene, more power.

• Joe knows the way out of the forest. To convey this, I shot closeups of his legs leading the way down paths. He continues to be larger than the viewer, a bigger more powerful force in the forest. He’s willing to guide you out of it, but he’s not staying out there with you.

• The song mentions “ruby red birds” flying high in the sky, which symbolize the dreams we’re aiming to reach. (These birds are meant to be Summer Tanagers.) In the forest scenes, I mixed in moments of Joe with flowing red ribbon following him to represent the birds.

• In post-production, I used color contrast to emphasize Joe’s confidence/dominance in the forest. To achieve this, I masked Joe so I could apply a warm pink filter on him and a separate cold green filter for the remaining environment. In real life that forest was beautifully vibrant with a wide spectrum of spring greens, light browns, and golden sunshine.

The Shelter

Joe and I looked at the attic scene as being a shelter, a reprieve from the forest, but still within the forest (its trees seen through the windows). The shelter is a safe place where full-on self expression and creativity can flourish, as seen through Joe’s enthusiasm during the chorus of the song. It also indicates that one may not be able to fully leave the forest. There’s always the risk of retreating back into a mindset of doubt, where we get lost and lose track of the path moving us towards our goals, our dreams. It takes courage to pull yourself out (and keep yourself out) of the forest. There’s also isolation in the shelter to represent that no one can make your dreams come true for you. It takes your own courage and hard work to make it happen.

Shelter Cinematic Approach:

• The shelter is simple with no objects in the room to distract from the goal of making of the music.

• To represent that no one can make your dreams happen for you, Joe is seen individually working out the parts for every instrument used in the song. They’re rehearsed one by one, but split screen is also utilized to show all (or multiple) instruments at once in order to give the viewer a sense for what the finished product would look like at the end of the creative process.

• Additionally, the moments of Joe playing each instrument represent his efforts to prepare himself for the moment when he’s back on top, “winning again” and “the ruby red birds are flying oh so high”.

• The stage lighting represents the vibrancy and energy of the creative process. Creativity is adding life and magic to this otherwise drab and deteriorating shelter.

• I also wanted to give Joe dominance within the shelter scene. In the full shots, I have the camera angled to look up towards him. But, there are also shots where the viewer is with him at the same level, having an equal experience.

• To show that the shelter was still in the forest, stage lighting was pointed up into the trees outside of the windows. During the shoot, the trees were mostly still. However, there was one one brief magical moment while Joe was playing the drums where they began blowing around like crazy. It looked really cool and made us wish we could have had some sort of massive fan blowing the trees the entire time.

• To further express the progression of the creative process and persona, Joe added a new element of his traditional stage attire per each instrument. The progression starts with the drums, where he has no costume or makeup applied yet, and reaches completion with the vocals where he’s in full costume.

The Bridge (“Otter’s Den”)

The bridge of the song is meant to be the darkest moment when one is at his or her lowest, most discouraged point. A place where one has lost touch with their own journey.

Bridge Cinematic Approach:

• We wanted the scene for the bridge to feel like it was in a small and constricted space. We found an area affectionately called the “Otter’s Den” by Jef Benjamin, who resides on the property where we filmed this and the attic scene. Joe is seen crouching below a fallen tree that is heavy and leaning precariously above him. The fallen tree and surrounding area has been consumed by twisted vines spreading all over and they’re closing in on the space.

• In contrast to other scenes, I positioned the camera above Joe, looking down to make him smaller, weaker, lacking the confidence previously seen.

• We included a standup bass that has seen better days to help symbolize distress. Bass is also the lowest notes of a song to go along with the theme of one being at their lowest point emotionally.

Ending

The last scene is meant to pull the viewer out of the world of creativity and reconnect them with the beginning of the video where they saw Joe cautious and curious about what’s outside. The colorful lights of creativity go out and Joe is left alone inside a dark, deteriorating, uninspired environment. He turns away, appearing discouraged. The ending contrasts the happiness and enthusiasm from earlier when he was creating his art and moving forward towards his dreams within that space. It’s a recognition that the journey will continue to have its struggles.

MTV Title

Joe had the fun idea of creating an old-school MTV title for the beginning and end of the video. I searched online and found a font similar to the original, called Kabel Black, for the video’s title. I also found some old MTV videos where I could get a sense for the title’s duration and when it would typically enter and exit the video.