"Life of the Troubadour"

The Birth of an Idea!
You ask: “How did this video come about?”
I say: “It was inspired by Sa-Ra’s video for “Feel the Bass”

Probably not an obvious response, but what would be? During the summer, Sterling Sweeney, myself and another friend had the privilege of seeing Sa-Ra perform live at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. The music was intense, colourful, rich and thick! Leaving the concert we were starved for more. We searched the Internet to see what we could find, but we only came up with bits and pieces. Then…there it was, the video for “Feel the Bass.” An artistic music video, with bold colours, unique style and nothing shy of sheer creativity. It was amazing, inspiring…so inspiring I immediately sent an e-mail to both Sterling and Bobby Del Rio, asking them if they wanted to make a video.

The idea of making a video was out there, but what would we shoot?

We let the idea ferment in our minds…for a while…and by a while I mean until the beginning of December. During a late night work session at the Green Room, with Sterling, we got a chance to talk. We started chatting about art and creativity, which lead to discussions around creation, which then lead to the discussion of the video. We were stuck on ideas of what we could shoot, then it struck during a conversation about Bobby’s album “boys, girls and other contradictions,” Sterling suggested shooting a video for one of Bobby’s songs! We quickly started talking about ideas and we agreed that each of us would shoot a video. This would allow each of us to execute our own vision and style, but allowing us to rely on the other person for co-direction and co-production. Sterling, eager to jump on it, chose “Life of the Troubadour,” a melancholy song about the life of a Troubadour.

Preparing for the shoot.

What came next was a whirlwind. On Tuesday, December 11th, Sterling and Bobby agreed on a shoot date of Sunday, allowing them to secure a theatre. By Wednesday, Sterling found a model, by Thursday we were looking at rescheduling due to illness, by Friday, we were back to the original shoot date. To add to the mix, only one location had been secured for the shoot, and we had many loose ends to tie up. It turned into a reality show, “Making of the Video.” No cameras following us around, it was just Sterling and I, pulling together our resources to nail down most of the details for the Sunday. By 9PM on the Friday night we were racking our brains for locations to shoot the video. Aside from a theatre, we had nothing else. So we started thinking of every location that fit the bill, theatres, schools, outdoors, indoors. By 9:30PM I started putting in calls and e-mails to friends and contacts. At 11PM we came up with the perfect location, a Studio/apartment/loft where a friend of ours use to live. The problem? She now lives in England, so we had to get in contact with her old roommate. I sent a message to our friend in England, and to her best friend in Toronto, in hopes of getting in contact with the old roommate. So off the e-mails went. By 1AM on Friday we managed to get a response for both girls. It turned out that the best friend now lived with the old roommate….BONUS! We secured the location. The Sunday shoot was on!

Saturday was a blur….we spent the day planning, picking up the Dog costume, getting food for the day of the shoot, doing test shots, planning other shots and tying up loose ends. To sum it up, a mad chase around the city! By 5PM, we were burnt. We decided to split up and take care of our own things for a few hours, and then we could meet up to discuss some final shots. I should mention, it was about this time that we discovered we were about to get the worst snowstorm in 30 years. When you don’t have a car, and each person is carrying a bag per hand, AND you rely on the TTC to get around town, your concerns begin to grow. I guess I was a little more at ease, as I was going to meet up with Bobby that night, and he had no idea what we were shooting. All he heard was dog costume. I met with him later that night to walk him through the details. Sheer exhaustion had kicked in, and the meeting with Sterling was called off on account on not being able to think straight. I decided it was time to pay a visit to my old friend sleep.

Day of the shoot!

11AM, the snow had piled up rather high…dead silence outside, the sound had been muted by the fresh snowfall. Always a bad sign for commuting. Sterling and I met at my apartment, we packed everything up, and checked our list twice. Our concerns now, how are we going to get around town? And will Jennica, our model, be able to make it down to the Queens Quay with a suitcase full of costumes?

Much to our surprise, Jennica made it to our meeting location!…with a massive pink suitcase full of costumes. The suitcase with wheels was more like a snowplow than a method of transporting clothing…it made for great comic relief. After walking Jennica through the roadmap of the day, we had one last concern. How do we tell her we’re going to shoot part of the video at Jane and Finch, the other end of Toronto (but what felt like the other end of the earth considering the snow)? After dancing around the subject for a few moments, we said it, and to our surprise Jennica didn’t even bat and eye. We were golden. We continued to walk her through the details of the day, and then we were off to shoot. From there on in, the day was fun, long and full of adventures. In total, we shot at three locations that took us from downtown Toronto to Jane and Finch. The snow added to the adventure of the day, but made it memorable.

The video and photos speak for the rest, click on the video below to view it. Be sure to pay attention to the backgrounds you will see some great art by Elyse Robertson and Victor Fraser.
BIG THANK YOU!!!!! to Sterling Pache, Bobby Del Rio, Jennica Beshiri, Victor Fraser, Elyse Robertson, Ericka Duffy and a HUGE THANK YOU to Temperance gallery.