One of my favourite music videos of this past few years was the LEGO music video of “SMS Shine” by the David Crowder*Band. Though lyrically simple, the visuals were nothing short of amazing and remarkable as the video was created by using a LITE-BRITE® branded toy board, as well as 700,000 pegs. It’s no mean feat to do what David Crowder and his friends did all by themselves, however what eventuated is truly a masterpiece. “SMS Shine” won an award at the Dove Awards in 2011, which was expected and satisfying as well. Fast forward 4 years later and Sidewalk Prophets have semi-used this technique to create the music video for “Keep Making Me”.
Standing at a massive 5 minutes, the video tells a story about an animated chalkboard who is being made fun of, and who goes through an inner journey, in the end finding meaning and purpose in God and a fellow Christian who seems him differently to the way the world does. Though this synopsis sounds a bit vague, I’ve deliberately said it vague so that it’d be intriguing to watch. Taking more than a year to make, Sidewalk Prophets, with the help of Elizabeth Cardella, have created something Holy Spirit inspired and God breathed, as animation mixes in with the band’s live performance seamlessly and flawlessly. There’s plenty of vibrant, bright and captivating colours and stellar computer animation techniques worthy of being considered for a Short Pixar film if they wanted to pursue this video further; and the band should be proud of themselves.
On production value alone, this video is my favourite of the year, and thematically and lyrically it talks about God making us ‘…broken so I can be healed…empty so I can be filled…lonely so I can be Yours…’ so that ultimately we can rely on God and be moulded in the way He wants so that our character becomes stronger in Him. While I think this way of asking God to make us less so that we could be more in Him, is a stretch to ask anyone to do unless they have been through the deepest valleys and pits like Job; the intent of Dave in this song is what we should all as Christians strive to have- the boldness and the courage for us to say to God ‘More of You, and less of me’. It’s a bold claim and I commend the guys as they voice it out in their current radio single. Guaranteed to help others and sure to inspire many, here’s today’s ‘video of the day’ below. What do you think of the video?