Overview
normal the kid is a full-time music artist based in Michigan. I connected with him while we were both living in Ames, Iowa. Out of the blue, normal texted me asking if I’d help him turn around a music video in a week in Michigan (a 9-hour drive) for his song, “heaven, hell, and canada.” After diving into the logistics, I was able to commit the next week to the project and made the long haul from Ames, Iowa to Flint, Michigan. Taking on this project was the most editing work I have ever crammed into a few days because I not only focussed on the music video but also kept up with content that I regularly provide to my clients.
34 Hours After the Text
We had no time to waste, so he quickly provided me with a week’s worth of information about the story he was working through with his audience, and what his expectations were with this video in about 30 minutes, and then I was able to conceptualize from there.
42 Hours After the Text
After arriving in Flint, we drove together all the way across the state to meet up with my buddy Josh Horton in Saugatuck, Michigan. Saugatuck is a beautiful lake town that has a ton of beach and forest areas which is where we’d want to shoot. Again, we had no time to waste so we scouted out locations and shot videos all day in the cabin, at the beach, and in the midst of the forest. Once the sun was down, Josh and I got to work dumping all of the footage and figuring out which shots we’d want to utilize for the final product. Josh was super helpful with crafting together a creative vision for the film, and I’m so glad he was able to help!
84 Hours After the Text
During our second and final recording day in Saugatuck, normal and I went and recorded at the beach for around 4 hours. We were trying to gather as much footage as possible on the go since we didn’t have enough time to put together a shot list and wanted to ensure we had plenty of shots. I then spent the whole night putting the shots into place, so that by the time we traveled back to Flint, Michigan, I’d have a solid editing timeline in place.
101 Hours After the Text
We would’ve arrived back in Flint, Michigan, and I had a solid amount of editing work done. The look of the video is inspired by the 2019 film, “The Lighthouse.” The film was shot in 1:1 format and was fully black and white. This was a look I have not attempted before which made for a lot of fun. A lot of my editing work back in Flint was making the footage have the correct appearance, and making sure the story made sense.
12 Hours Until the Release
On the day of the release, I was already on my way back home. I had uploaded the completed project the night before, as well as 20 promotional reel clips that he could use to promote. I was tired as heck, but it felt really good to have the project on my belt. I told him that we’d have it done the day before, and it felt good that that happened. Although I don’t prefer tight timeframes, I knew I’d be able to pull it off while still putting out a quality video.
