Behind the Scenes | Back to the One Video
In creating a music video for my song, Back to the One, I wanted to stay true to three life-changing encounters I wrote about in a previous blog, The Story Behind the Songs:
Watching Haitian refugees arrive on Miami Beach when I was 14
Treating a beaten and bloodied cross-dresser in my job as a nurse
Giving a few dollars to a mother trapped in poverty
In translating those events into visual stories, my desire was to honor those people, who shaped the lyrics of the song as well as the direction of my life. That’s why we chose Fuse Media for the job.
As a digital media collective, Fuse brings together Asheville’s best artists to tell client stories. My husband Mike and I met with Rob Wilkins, Fuse owner and creative lead, and Aidan Weaver, the director of our video.
We learned that Aidan, a recent graduate of North Carolina School of Arts, had been nominated for a student Oscar for his senior film project and that his entries for the Asheville 48-Hour Film Festival had won awards for Best Picture, Best Director (twice), Best Cinematography, and Best Writing.
We met several times with Rob and Aidan to collaborate on visualizing the lyrics.
“The song was story focused, very character driven,” Aidan says. “We focused on three central characters, each distinctly different and authentic, to serve the greater theme. As we compressed what the song was really about, we understood how central these characters were. Trying to visualize them in a way that complemented the lyrics was our shared goal.”
I would like to thank Adam Goodrum at Flat Rock Playhouse for supporting young filmmakers by making space graciously affordable. On the days of shooting, I was amazed how the video came together. I vividly remember the people I wrote about; they affected me deeply. Seeing them come to life in a video with incredible people, each with his or her own story, was so gratifying.
I would also like to thank Ian Sage, Jenn Odom, and Savanna Komera Snead, who respectively played the roles of cross-dresser, impoverished mother, and refugee from the lyrics.
Ian, a burlesque performer, used his own personal experience with hate and prejudice to play the role of the bloodied cross dresser I met as a young nurse.
Jenn, a mother with a passion for social justice, brought to life the single mom living in poverty.
Savanna, an 11-year-old refugee from Rwanda, expressed the hopes and fears of the Haitians I saw on a Miami beach when I was a child.
During shoots, I watched as Aidan and Rob's passion to convey the meaning of the song shaped a powerful visual story. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look from the video shoot.