Sweetheart Couples
Sometimes the video production process is seamless; the project comes together almost miraculously as the music, footage and feeling effortlessly floats into place. And then, sometimes the video production process is a nightmare hellscape in which each component violently resists existing. This blog post is about the later. It’s also about love.
I’ve wanted to make a Valentine’s Day video since I started at Twillyp. The joy of falling in love on campus was a major part of my college experience. It seemed like the perfect feeling to share and celebrate. The concept for this video stretches so far back that I’m not even sure where it first came from, but some credit is absolutely due to one of my favorite music videos, “First Day of My Life” by Bright Eyes.
The idea: Pairs of alumni couples were to join us in the place they first met campus to talk about their relationship with each other, and with William Paterson. We worked with the alumni office to find couples willing to meet us on campus to film.
Unexpected Challenge #1
Real adult humans with actual lives don’t necessarily have time to stop by to wax poetic and reminisce about their golden years. Scheduling these filming sessions was beyond difficult. We had to navigate around Karate practices, family dinners and little league games.
Unexpected Challenge #2
It was cold. Like, unbearably cold. Like, no-way-are-we-filming-outside cold. My initial hope to shoot outside, where couples first met and spent time, became basically impossible. Instead, we moved our shooting location to the Power Arts photography studio, a room that students are required to book to use. Excessive scheduling ensued.
Behind the scenes: Chatting it up with lovebirds from the class of 1961.
Unexpected Challenge #3
In all honesty, I’m not sure if this challenge can necessarily be considered unexpected; audio quality has been an issue for us from our very first video. Some of our audio was crisp and clean, picking up on each small giggle and whisper. And then, inexplicably, some of our audio was a hot damn mess, defiantly rejecting to pick up anything.
These three problems conspired together to ensure that the very kind janitor from College Hall would tap me on the shoulder at 7:15 p.m. on February 13 and very politely explain that I needed to stop editing, pack up my crap and go home.
And yet, somehow, I am incredibly proud of this video. Sure, the audio is a bit inconsistent. And, yes, the editing is a little sloppy. But despite everything, this video is my valentine.