Honeysuckle Lane

7:00am is a magical time of morning during the summer. On this particular morning, the 28th of December, the sun sat behind a thin layer of grey cloud, casting a cool and crisp light on our surroundings. As the suburb of Prospect was beginning to start it’s day Jen, Jakub, and I walked down Honeysuckle Lane and prepared to shoot the footage for my first video clip. The song we were about to film for was my cover of ‘Scars To Your Beautiful’ by Alessia Cara.

Honeysuckle Lane is somewhat of a hidden gem. Along one side are the backs of unique cafes and shops, on the other are the fences of private houses. But it is not what frames the lane that makes it special, it is what adorns it. The lane way is graced with murals and street art, each with it’s own myriad of colours. (On a side-note, if anyone knows who produced these amazing pieces, please let me know so that I can credit them here and when I publish this video clip on YouTube).

 

The lighting could not have been better, the location was perfect, but that does not mean that there were no challenges whilst filming.

Throughout the hour and a half that we spent working on filming this clip we had no less than 5 vehicles drive through. Though it was not much of an issue, it did provide a few laughs. Jen was spewing that she did not get photo evidence of me pressed flat up against the wall as a van rolled on through, a sheepish yet slightly terrified look on my face.

I also had two separate people walk past with their dogs as Jakub filmed me singing along to the recording we had made the week prior. Ever the professional actress, I kept going and did my best not to let the adorable dogs distract me from our task. I even watched one lady, who was walking past the end of the lane way, disappear behind a building and then pop her head back around the corner to do a double take. Apparently Honeysuckle Lane does not get used for video clips all that often.

Aside from the aforementioned outside influences, there was one other, slightly more serious issue, that posed a bit of a problem for me at first. As a child and teenager I did a reasonable amount of acting in school plays, but acting on stage to an audience is a lot different to doing so at a camera. It took me a few goes to get the walking pace right for Jakub to follow in front of me with the camera. I also had to practice rising from my sitting position at the very start of filming the moving take; as with the walking pace, I had to move quite slowly so as to have it captured properly. Fortunately, it only took half a dozen times to figure out at which pace to move!

 

Over-all, the experience was amazing and I am very fortunate to be able to work with Jen and Jakub. Their artistic talent and technical skill made filming this clip a lot easier than I thought it would be. And to top it off, I received not only a video clip out of this, but also some wonderful photographs courtesy of both Jen and Jakub.

When I can I will update this blog entry with a link to one on Jen and Jakub’s perspective.

Until next time –

Cailin xx