Filming Paul Brandt’s “I Was There” Music Video – Part 1 of 4 – Nashville

This blog post is Part 1 of my experience filming the Paul Brandt “I Was There” Music Video for the Edmonton Journal. Later posts will cover filming the actual video. Today’s post is about traveling to Nashville to capture Paul recording the song.

You can also view Part 4 – Action and Editing, Part 3 – Real Characters,  Part 2 – Video Gear and the 7P’s, and Part 1 – Nashville

—

Country music star Paul Brandt records the official theme song “I was there” for the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, Tenn. on October 24, 2011. Journal photographer Ryan Jackson is shooting the official music video and will be traveling around Alberta for the next month capturing junior hockey players and fans.

—

So one day I go to work and ask one of my editors what my next project will be. “Your shooting a music video for the World Junior Hockey Championship….. oh and Paul Brandt is singing the song…. oh and you actually have a budget!” she says.

I was amazed! A few months earlier I had seen that the New York Times Magazine was creating music videos to go with stories and I thought that was so innovative… and now here I am with the same opportunity!

I had filmed the music video Pearson “Purity of Heart” and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

This was going to be a chance to really push my cinematic skills and create something cool.

—

The Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald were going to be official media sponsors of the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship and our marketing heads and editors wanted to do something innovative and different.

The idea was that we would use the power and reach of the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald to get submissions for ideas and inspiration for Paul Brandt to write a song about hockey. The theme was to be “I Was There”

Chorus radio, which was another official sponsor would help pay for the recording of the song in Nashville and then they would get the song for their radio stations.

Hockey Canada helps pay for the music video and they get a theme song and theme music video to play before all of the World Junior Hockey Games.

The Edmonton Journal pays for me (through my normal salary) to spend two months working on the music video with the help of staff writer Amanda Ash.

The Journal owns the music video and gets exclusive behind the scenes photos, blog posts, tweets and stories for the paper.

A newspaper creating a music video is also very innovative and shows the Journal is pushing to become more than just a “snoozepaper”

Paul Brandt benefits by getting tons of promotion at the same time as his new album and concert tour begins.

Albertans and the Journal’s readers benefit through participation as we used crowd sourcing to help write the song and also find characters for the video.

Finally proceeds from the sales of the song went to a charity to help under privileged kids play hockey.

So the whole project was pretty win-win for everyone and I got to shoot a music video for the Edmonton Journal!

The following are some behind the scenes videos and photos from recording the song in Nashville. We didn’t end up using any of the footage of Paul in Nashville in the final music video for continuity sake. It was still worth going down there though to meet Paul and discuss ideas for the film.

—

A fun video reporter Amanda Ash shot of our travels in Nashville. Pretty cool.

Here is a short time lapse of Amanda Ash and I setting up the video lights for Paul Brandt.

—

The next blog post will cover filming the video.

Here is the final result

Tags: #iwasthere

360-degree view from the Empire State Building in New York

In October my wife Ashe and I went to New York for a week. It was exactly “like the movies”. An amazing experience.

A panoramic view from the top of the Empire State Building in New York City on Oct. 7, 2011. This image was created by stitching multiple images together. Panorama by Ryan Jackson, ryanjackson.ca

Click on the above image to view a 360-degree panorama from the top of the Empire State Building in New York City. Panorama by Ryan Jackson.

The panorama is HTML-5 compatible so it works on iPhone, iPad and Android devices as well. EXTRA cool with an iPhone 4G or iPad2 with gyro.

We stayed at The Warwick Hotel which was built by media baron William Randolph Hearst  who is the guy that inspired the movie Citizen Kane.

Here is a view from the top of 30 Rock at night.

Speaking of 30 Rock.  Ashe and I went to see a taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Ashe got on TV as a game contestant!

Ashe bought a lot of clothes and I went to the world’s biggest camera store, B&H Photo Video, and bought the crazy Canon 8-15mm Fisheye lens.

The Brooklyn Bridge with the Canon 8-15mm lens on a 5D Mark-II.

Ashe and I in Times Square.