My House

A Music Video and an Epic Tale 

Once again, it's time for a long overdue post (though due to a recent opportunity, I'm glad I saved this post until now. So gather 'round and I'll tell you the story of our music video to the song My House by PVRIS.

Flashback to March 2015. The annual eMagine Media Festival hosted by my school was fast approaching and my partners (Miranda and Alec) and I were hustling to figure out what we were going to submit. We agreed on a music video, but to what song? The next day, we all came prepared with a few songs each and some key elements we would incorporate with each of them. Song after song we went through, some more promising than others, and then we heard it. Miranda had brought us the song My House by PVRIS and our minds were unanimously made up.

So we had a song. Now the video. And the fast-approaching deadline only a week away. 

(*Quick Tip: Procrastination is a terrible thing, especially in the film industry, and should be avoided at all costs. However, you will notice from many of my posts that it's easier said than done.*)

Anyways, we decided to stick to a recurring theme of our videos: strong independent women. We recruited Sarah (the same Sarah in the Old Scars/ Future Hearts imitation music video) and my friend Brigham as our actors, only giving Sarah two days to learn the song. We bought a bunch of cheap glass at a thrift store and tested many different ways to track Sarah as she walked (Alec ended up sitting in the trunk of his car and out Miranda's sunroof while we drove less than 2mph down the street). We also set up the studio at our school for the dark room shots.

It was a stressful week, but we managed to get the entire video planed, filmed, and edited in time for the deadline, and it turned out way better than we ever imagined. And when the night of imagine came, we ended up walking away with second place in the category. Quite an accomplishment I'd say. However, an even bigger opportunity was just around the corner, well, if it takes three months to round the corner.

Miranda and I meeting Lynn Gunn and Brian MacDonald
of PVRIS at Vans Warped Tour 2015

Miranda and I were checking the lineup for Warped Tour 2015 when we noticed PVRIS was playing this year. After both freaking out in excitement, I decided to ask one of my friends who just so happens to own a plug business that sponsors and travels with Warped Tour if she could figure out a way for us to meet PVRIS. She did. When the day of Warped came, Miranda and I were ecstatic. We were going to meet the band responsible for the song that we used and won an award with! And at the last second, I decided to grab a flash drive with the video on it to give to them. Well, the time came, and Miranda and I were nervous as we handed it over and explained it, but Lynn (the brilliant and gorgeous lead singer) seemed so impressed and excited and we walked away in disbelief that the whole exchange had actually happened. I don't know if they ever watched it, but it feels so amazing to know that something we made, made it's way back to the people who created the song.

So that's the grand story of our My House music video. From conception, to production, to award nights, to the hands of PVRIS, this video has been on quite a journey, and I'm glad I was along for the life-changing ride.

(Due to copyright laws, the video is no longer available on Youtube. When I figure out where and if I can post it without getting busted by the internet feds, I'll post the link here. Until then, thanks for imagining. Never stop.)