Behind The Scenes: Melanie Meriney’s “The Reason” Music Video
What would you want the radio intro to be for “The Reason” (co-written with Hannah Kalfas and produced by Israel McFarland)?
Melanie Meriney’s latest single talks unrequited love for a best friend, but not from the perspective you might think! This is “The Reason”.
From hearing the song on the radio to seeing the music video. What message about the song do you want to communicate to fans through the video?
Some songs are less autobiographical, but this is one that is very much based on a real friendship I had where unfortunately the feelings weren’t returned in the same way. I’d love listeners (and watchers!) to connect to the story because maybe it’s something that is relatable to their own experience.
We met at the rink. We were 11. We were defense partners on our Squirt B team for the Mt. Lebanon Hornets. Over the next 18 years, he was my best friend- the person I could go to for anything, the one who I felt the most like myself around. When he exited my life, it felt like a part of myself had gone missing.
Behind The Scenes:
Because there was a lot going on this past year personally, I didn’t have the budget I usually do for a video, but I knew I wanted to release one because of the nature of this song. Thus, this video is very much a labor of love, diy-style.
- Concept: The concept was really personal in that I wanted to tell the story from some of the locations where my own story & friendship transpired.
- Storyboard: Because the lyrics, in my opinion, are so specific, I went with a very simplistic “storyboard”. The shots contain subliminal hints about the relationship, but largely I leave the lyrics to tell the actual story.
- Locations: The video was shot in my hometown of Mt. Lebanon, outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Locations include the uptown parking garage, the mall parking lot outside of Eat’nPark, and the Mt. Lebanon Ice Center where my story with this individual began.
- Planning shots and production schedule: We filmed it over Christmas of last year (2023) when I was home. At that point, I was already pregnant but not yet showing, and I knew I’d be putting the song out this year (2024). I figured it was the perfect time to shoot!
- Crew and equipment: My crew was my family- especially my brother, Chris, and husband, Michael, who did the filming. It was filmed entirely on an iPhone 13!
- Filming: We filmed over the course of two days- sneaking shots in between holiday stuff and other engagements.
- Post-production: Chris Fischer is a friend and we were lucky enough to get his skills on the post-production and editing process! He has his own production company and is extremely talented behind a camera, but for this project, he made editing look SO easy!
What’s ahead?
The rest of this year I’m working on a bunch of songwriting opportunities which will hopefully culminate in more music for release! I think the creative artist process is such an important one, and while we have pressure to constantly release new content, it’s vital to actually take time to focus on quality over quantity, and making sure I’m intentional about what is being released.
“The Reason” Photo Credit: @angeleaphoto