‘S.A.D.’ Music Video

I spent a fair amount of 2013 editing my documentary film Walking Proof so it should come as no surprise that I would create a music video using footage from the It’s Not An Excuse, It’s A Reason photo shoot. This marks my first sole video edit without collaborating with anyone else so I’m excited to share it with everyone.

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I wrote S.A.D. in late 2008 during an especially bad bout of depression I was experiencing that was worsened by the darkness that accompanies the winter months in Canada. The lyrics abstractly paint a picture of feeling isolated physically, mentally, and emotionally, balanced by the hope and belief that this too shall pass.

‘S.A.D.’ is a song about acknowledging your current situation, however dire it may seem at times, as a chance to grow and learn something new about yourself and life as a whole and realizing that life is only as good as you make it so choose your outlook wisely because perspective is the difference between suffering and opportunity.

‘Doctor, Please’ Film Shoot

Last weekend I filmed my first ever music video for my song Doctor, Please. Despite getting less than eight hours of sleep over the course of the entire weekend, I had an absolute blast. We got started a little late on Friday because Chelsea, Skyler and I got stranded at the rental place in Toronto all afternoon after realizing the film equipment would not fit in our car. Thankfully, my selfless cousin Jesse was willing to drive over an hour to our rescue and another hour back to Barrie. Once we arrived, we got settled in and started setting up for the first scene.

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The music video (or short film as I like to call it) was set in the middle of the night so that’s when we had to shoot most of it. For the most part, we shot the film in chronological order which was really cool because it allowed me to build on the emotion in real time. Kudos to Chels for keeping us all fed and to my family who allowed us to mess up their homes and make noise until the sun came up. Everyone helped out in any way they could, whether that meant making us food to eat or simply staying out of our way.

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My beautiful and very talented cousin Averie (who some of you may remember as Euphoria) stars in the film alongside yours truly. She did such a great job and was a real trooper working late into the night with us. When my friend Christine arrived at the shoot with her pet snake, I was a bit apprehensive to handle it at first but not Averie. She was ready to let him curl up around her hand and get friendly. I really couldn’t complain though considering I’m the one who wrote it into the treatment. Originally, it was supposed to be a tarantula crawling across my face but we couldn’t find one to use in time.

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It was a long shoot for a music video, three days in total, but it was totally worth it. As you probably know by now, I don’t believe in doing anything half-fast and neither do the guys I worked with, Ryan Skursky and Derrick Glen. They were professional yet fun and I feel we made a really great team. We are now in the post production stage and working on the final edit. I’m really happy with how it’s turning out and I’m excited to share it with all of you very soon.

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