Magical

Music, visual direction and edit — Ryan Douglas Michelsen

Magical began with a story chart tied to the composition. A funeral gives way to ashes entering the ocean, a passage through human history, an expansion into space, and a return to new life.

Ryan selected and assembled stock footage around that progression in Premiere Pro. Changes in scene order and scale carry the emotional arc of the orchestral piece, connecting the music’s movements to a story about death and rebirth.