OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I did something I’d never done before this week: be part of a music video shoot.
The video is for “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” by Bon Jovi, and the setting is a Habitat for Humanity home-construction site in Philadelphia. I didn’t get to attend as much of the taping as I wanted—darned work kept getting in the way—though I was on the “stage” for part of the shoot. Of course, to avoid total embarrassment, I made sure to try to stand out of the main camera shots. The last thing anyone needs is to see me hanging around (though any savvy editor should be able to delete me from the scene!).
The band filmed some of their performance clips on the street with the new houses, and that’s why there were a slew of extras milling about. All in all, a nice gesture to donate most of the video production costs to the home building project, and maybe the video will raise some awareness about the agency’s work. A couple of weeks back, when the filming was originally scheduled, I spent a day working on a Habitat house on the project site, so I was able to experience a taste of what goes into it.
That said, not being skilled at home repairs, I had visions the entire time I was attempting to work on the house of the “Hurricane Neddy” episode of The Simpsons (what else), when the neighbors rebuild Ned Flanders’s house, and it turns out to be a construction nightmare. In the end though, the house I was in was still standing two weeks after I’d been there, so that has to be something of a good sign.
The number of takes that went into the part I was there for was remarkable. They filmed it from seemingly every possible angle, and even after the band left, the crowd still had some scenes to shoot.
To read about the project, you can find a story here: http://kyw.com/local/local_story_299172733.html (The screen grab to the left shows the scariest moment of the interview the station filmed. Can you guess why?)
I hadn’t heard the song before the video shoot, and during the filming, the speakers were so loud as to make it hard to hear the lyrics. About the only part we all could make out was a repeating chorus of “It’s all right,” when the director had the crowd raise their hands in the air to the beat of the phrase. I drove someone home from the shoot, and we joked that we’d only be able to sing “It’s all right” when the song came on, because that’s all we knew.
Being curious, I downloaded the song last night (the album also includes a duet version with Jennifer Nettles of the country band Sugarland) and really listened to what it was all about. The message is interesting—telling the story of someone who fled their hometown seeking that elusive “something more”—fame, fortune, whatever. In the end, though, they realize that “home” is a part of you that you can’t lose. As someone who feels a strong attachment to the region where I’ve lived my whole life, I like the message (though of course I can’t relate to having to “come back,” since I’ve never left). Beyond the lyrics, it’s a catchy tune, evoking to me, the sounds of John Cougar Mellencamp songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s (especially the country duet version). It seems like it should be a hit, though my saying so is probably the kiss of death.
All in all, it was a unique experience. I’m looking forward to seeing the video, and hoping they kept me out of it.
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