On July 28th, 2020, Sony media singer Noah Cyrus released a music video for her song “July.” However, this wasn’t any ordinary music video with live-action, dancing, and spectacles. The music video was revealed to have been made entirely in the game “Dreams,” an exclusive to the PlayStation 4 entertainment system. A game where players can make anything they want, and what a way to test the limits of this game by creating a music video for a beautiful song.
If you're not familiar, Dreams is a game creation system developed by Media Molecule and was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It was released on 14 February 2020. In the game, players can create user-generated content in the form of fully-fledged games, mechanics, assets, sculptures, music, and art, which can be shared or remixed to be used in others' creations. It was here that a team of creators teamed up with Noah Cyrus and their dream of a music video into reality.
The team who created the music video, Media Molecule, stated that “we have been working with Sony for a long time to find the right opportunity to collaborate on making a music video in Dreams, showcasing the potential of the project for this wonderful art form.” When asked why they chose the song July, they stated that “it was clear by the end of the song is that this wasn’t a story of liberation or enlightenment, it’s about exploring internal conflict.” Molecule teamed up with Cyrus and production began.
The making of the music video began with storyboards, concept art, and animations, all visualized to be presented in the game. When developing concepts for the music, it’s quoted that the ideas developed came as a “natural response” to the song. The final product showcases beautiful, nature like sculptures and natural elements that blend into artistic presentations of life. Mountains, forests, natural and organic elements, all flowing around and from a giant marble statue of Cyrus herself. The elements were meant to represent emotions that Cyrus wanted to express in her song. Slowly, she disappears into what appears to be a space-like environment.
The creator’s number one goal according to an interview with Sony was to “capture Noah’s likeness and mood” that she expressed in the song. Not an easy task to do when you are making something in a video game. It requires flawless communication and cooperation with the artists. Using assets from the game that have been in development since day one of the game proved to be a challenge when creating this piece of art. Replace a pen or brush with a controller, and there are sure to be problems when making edits and creating.
"Dreams" is unlike any creation software on the market. It features unique sculpture, creation, and editing tools that give complete freedom to the artist holding the controller. Creation software that allows you to create hair, facial expressions, surfaces, and landscapes with real-time moving assets. Mountains, waterfalls, blooming, and lush forests, all created with a controller and a few in-game assets.
The song July was perfect for the creation of an animated music video, especially one of this magnitude. Cyrus stated on Instagram that “I wrote this about a time when I felt like I amounted to nothing to someone and never felt good enough for them. I stayed in fear of the heartbreak though my heart was already in a million pieces. anyway, it's out now here’s a piece of my life that made a huge impact on me.” A song about toxic relationships and heartbreak lead to a beautiful masterpiece.
The music video depicts a marble statue of Cyrus in a modern-esque grey room with a sleek design. As the song plays, she slowly begins, a red butterfly comes into view and begins to fly toward the statue. A single tear falls from the eye of the statue, and it breaks off into a vein-like string. The veins begin to morph into rivers, growing trees, and vegetation around them. As the song progresses, the room around her begins to morph into this beautiful biome of nature, with mountains and waterfalls pouring over the edges. She is surrounded and engulfed in nature. She is a part of nature. The song comes to an end and it is revealed that the little biome is a cube floating in space, and the statue slowly drifts off into a peaceful galaxy-like night sky.
With the creation of this music video and the collaboration between Molecule Media and Cyrus, it’s proven that when given the right tools and assets, and with the right creative mindset, you can truly make a beautiful work of art with a brush, camera, pen, and now, a PlayStation 4 controller. Perhaps this will become a trend of animated music videos for more Sony artists. The future will be the teller of that question.
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