Making the Music Video – I am no Poet Music
Shooting I am no poet was a very intense experience. It was a very hands on shoot and I had a great time being involved with the project. I met with spencer in his Apartment in the historic district of New Smyrna. The environment was very relaxed but the tone was serious as we plotted out three days of production. The first day we would shoot footage of the ocean, and b-footage of several other locations before we lost light. The second day would be comprised entirely of the sequence that would become the final scene of the video. The last day we would go out again to the beach and shoot some footage of the last long stretch lonely road at the very southern tip of the island as well as the garage scene.
Video for I am no poet is in You tube – I am no poet appochoro
The first day we headed to beach side and gathered footage at various locations; sitting on the beach, the house where the song was written, some shots of the road, and some sea foliage.
The second night we took careful preparations to set up the shot. Wrapping two iPhones in plastic zip-top bags and securing them with duct tape to ensue that they would not be damaged. One of the phones was used as a light when we got into the water and the other was used to capture footage of Spencer walking into the ocean. We turned many heads as we walked briskly down the brick sidewalk towards the cold black ocean. We dried off, returned home, and reviewed the footage. We were very happy with the result.
Finally on our last day of shooting we went to the Canaveral National Sea Shore and set up a tripod rig in the trunk of my car. The footage was later reversed and mirrored to make it seem like it was moving forward on the right side of the road. Then we trekked deep into the woods off the beaten path to get some very nice shots of spencer playing his guitar. At one point we were almost out of data space. So I decided to do something a little risky. I flipped the tripod upside down, letting the camera hang upside down. I then walked briskly toward Spencer in an erratic serpentine pattern. Once flipped right side up this footage had a very smooth stabilized feel to it.
We ended the shoot by filming the garage scene that would be the base of the middle section of the video. I wanted to capture the feeling of being an outsider in regards to a close group of people and also imply a sort of opening of the fourth wall. I’m sort of fascinated by the idea of using other objects as “theater curtains”. In post production I spiced this footage up by superimposing clouds over the shot.
After a week to give us what I like to call “el ojos nuevos” or “an objective perspective” we got back to work painstakingly editing and reediting the video. We ran into the technical problems that caused us to go over our self imposed deadline but the video was eventually finished. Although I couldn’t help but think of the famous Da Vinci quote “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
