24 Hour Music Video & Foburg Fest New Orleans

While in New Orleans for our Foburg Fest performance in March.  We were selected as one of 13 out of over 120 performing artists to be part of "The 24 Hour Music Video Festival".

My miscreants and I were nursing hangovers at the New Orleans St. Patrick's Day parade when I received a phone call explaining to me that we had in fact been selected as part of this music video competition.  The catch:  The yet to be assembled film crew would need access to us for 24 hours.
Obviously, we thought it was a terrific idea.  So we along with our hostess the lovely Ariane Trahan of Easy Apple Promo and No Correct Way Radio Promotions, headed back to her home to prepare for our Foburg performance, and what was now certain to be a very, very long night.

We arrived at AllWays Lounge for sound check at around 6pm and performed around 9pm. Which is precisely when Director of Photography Rob Davis arrived at the venue to begin our 24 hour video.  He spoke with me briefly before we took the stage and began filming.  After the performance (which was absolutely fantastic)  We spoke with Rob, and followed him the the crew's rendezvous point.  We were greeted by Director, Simon Marthinsen and he pitched concept for the video.   It would be of the song "Life Is Beautiful" and would revolve around the concept of my drowning and a ghostly second-line through a cemetery and into the streets of New Orleans.    These solemn scenes were to be cut together with a sunrise performance on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain (the same lake I was asked to drown in.   After speaking with further with Rob, Simon, and Producer Jared Serigne, we headed back to Ariane's apartment to await our call to begin filming.

At around 2:30am, we received a call to meet the crew at Beth Israel Cemetary No. 1.  We arrived to an eerie glow from behind a tombstone where the crew was ducking down to avoid being spotted my officials.  The moment they were aware of our presence, a high energy gal handed me white clothes to wear and I changed clothes among the dead.  That alone would have made my night.

We had less than 15 minutes to film the cemetery sequence, so by the 5th take we were on our way to the next location, Frenchmen St.   We arrived there around  4:00am  and began filming. A fully populated second-line was nearly impossible to gather at that hour so the crew opted for the progression to feature only myself, Mr. Gillespie, Dusty Bones, and Dante Edmont.   At one point I was asked to proselytize the song on a dark street-corner.  I happily obliged.

After a bit of downtime and a change of clothes for me, we headed to Lake Pontchartrain.  When we arrived, the scene was fully set with a generator, small jib and a camera dolly.  We set up our instruments and waited for the first glimmer of sunrise.   Our window was small and we filmed for only 20 minutes.




After completing the live performance sequence, I was asked to jump into the lake along with some debris the crew had gathered from a curb somewhere. They asked me to drown.  Again,  I happily obliged.

We finished filming at just about 8:30am.  The fellas and I had a house party to attend and perform at so we forwent sleep for a bit of coffee and breakfast supplied by Ms. Trahan.

12 hours later, we all gathered around to watch the unveiling.  An absolutely stunning music video that rivals videos made with days worth of filming and a formidable budget.    So, with out further jabbering,  I give you the 24 Hour Video of "Life Is Beautiful".  Planned, filmed, and edited in 24 hours.