The Sara Johnston Music Videos from 24hr MVMC 1.0

Once upon a time in the high Summer when the althetes who are Out were speedily marathoning and such throughout our deliciously diverse city (translation:during the Outgames in Montreal, ie; August) Indyish held a great contest to test the steely wills of her video making inhabitants. Four brave makers received a song from Sara Johnston (which- I’ll admit it was suggested by me- but she officially chose it! i don’t think she was paying that much attention to my flurry of pre-contest emails- she was travelling. She didn’t know she had to judge until the day of! And she admited to me, with an astonished smile after the launch party, that she didn’t think ‘this was going to be anything’ which still makes me giggle. Her frankness is one of the things that makes Sara awesome.) Anyway, as I was saying 4 brave makers (and teams of makers) received a song from Sara Johnston that runs well over 5minutes long which they had 24hrs to make a music video to. Sorry about that guys, but you rocked it, so ha!

Chip’s Team consisted of two students from the acting school Chip co-owns, the Acting Studio of Montreal, and Chip himself, who is a dear and fiery and inspiring man. They insisted, as did many other participants, that the hardest part was coming up with a good idea for the video. Umm, that and shooting and editing it. They ran out early enough to get some good light though for those sun dappled, looking off into the distance, memory shots. Those ones which clearly convey the angst involved in getting famous and having to grow apart from your old friends, and then which also convey the sun dappled morning of your friendship’s renewal. So that’s good. Don’t think it exactly told the story the lyrics tell though, or not quite to Sara Jonston’s choosing. Maybe because of the absence of fish and boys. Nevertheless, a strong showing.

Team P.P. consisted of Olivier Perras and Dom Pompeo, though it seems there were other folks who got wrangled into helping out as well. They came up with a visual metaphor that they could play out throughout the song in a satisfyingly narrative way, so that’s cool. Also, they must have moved backwards throughout the whole shoot, and that’s hard! I enjoyed the lighting, and the musical motion of sheets flying in reverse, and the “big ego all alone” aspect of their video as it, for me, got close to the crux of the matter.

Sir Benjammin IV took up the challenge of this contest at my invitation, while he was there shooting footage for our Indyish DVD scheme. And he rocked it- I am perhaps most delighted with Ben’s (excuse me, Sir Benjamin IV’s) video because it appeals playfully and directly to the Open Source side of all our Indyish proceedings. Ben used all free software to play with the sound of the song, and the footage he pillaged from the Prelinger Archives- which are basically reams of open source video (though some different licenses apply.) He transformed the song into an echoey sea chanty, and cut it with this old silent blue footage of men at sea. Dreamy.

Kale Reum was Sara Johnston’s choice for winner, and it seems to have come down to one favorite shot- the cod in the bed. Kale thought up as many visual affects as he could do that would involve no human presence infront of the camera- he typed lyrics as they’re sung onto an old typewriter, he spun around on playground equipment with the camera and went down slides, and made a face out of plastercine which he had singing along to the tune. He played with some of the song’s imagery quite literally which pulled out the funny in it, which is good, because Sara is funny. Hence: big big winner.

Check out the videos for yourselves, and imagine what each one could become with budget and time, or start hatching your own arsenal of video ideas for next time.. and there will be a next time.. Also- stay tuned for some pretty funny clips from Tessa- she’s been editing together the interview footage she shot at the video screening and there’s some solid gold in there I swear.

cheers!
r