I’m listening to the faint strains of kids playing outside, trying to think of how to start. In all honesty, I’ve always wanted to write that I was listening to the “faint strains of something.” There’s a certain longing quality to it. Kind of makes me feel like I’m ready for an up-tight Hemingway book group. There you have it. A vague semblance of an introduction.  

What else have I wanted to give a go? Shooting photos with a production team. I didn’t know how that would come to fruition but it happened a few summers ago with Salt + Air Studios. I heard stories about cinematographer Mike Prickett and hoped that I’d get the opportunity to meet him. Eventually, I met him and that ended up turning into a behind the scenes  (BTS (lingo!)) photoshoot for the music video, “Sweet Summer Rain” by Kirsty Bertarelli. (Insert me being excited).

The story for the music video was that a guy takes a trip to Tahiti, meets a girl at a local bar, they hit it off at the fire pit… Actually, stop reading. Click this link, watch, listen. Really, do it. The rest of this won’t make sense if you don’t.

Now, where did I find myself in the mix of everything? Mike let me know that I’d likely end up being an extra as well as shooting BTS. All that entailed for me was bringing a couple of dresses along with my camera gear. When I first showed up, I felt a bit awkward. Once my camera was together and I started shooting, I found my rhythm and the out-of-place feeling dissolved. I stayed in the peripheral watching the team work like a well-oiled machine. They efficiently trouble-shot issues that arose and kept everything moving forward. 

After the sunset, I became an extra. First, as ‘Bar Patron Number 2,’  then, ‘Fire-Pit Girl Number 2.’ My ½ day was done and they went to the house to film the bedroom scene. Spoiler,  hitting it off at the fire pit led to the bedroom in this storyline. If you watched, you’d know that. Can’t say I didn’t warn you.

The next day was BTS in the water! Yay! Ocean photography! Feel the enthusiasm. After the surf scene came the…rain machine! I’m done with exclamation marks for a bit. I’ll give you a break. You know those days when you wish you could call up some rain? Like it’s 110% humidity with zero wind and your husband wants to go run at 2 pm and you agree? I should get a rain team on speed dial or not run at 2 pm. But I digress. The actual rain machine was a water pump, long hose, and metal tube–not exactly visually pleasing. What you see, though, is that perfect sun shower that you wish you could call up when you are unattractively overheating during your run. Production crew magic. 

The last part I had in the video before cleaning up was writing the music video title on the playing card the female lead left in the poor schmucks passport. Cheers to chick handwriting! Also, another spoiler if you haven’t watched it yet. To the most important point of this blog, Salt + Air Studios gave “Sweet Summer Rain” an excellent visual accompaniment that I enjoyed being part of.

 Teamwork makes the Funk work!

Dear Reader, that catchy closing line is under construction as a not everyone has a Funk as their dream or it may endure the test of time, stay tuned, dun dun dun