My son and daughter in law welcomed a baby girl into the world in June! Due to the chaos that COVID has wreaked across our world, I was unable to visit and meet this new little angel on her birthday. So a plan was devised to allow me to do so… a 2 week quarantine in the state of Montana wold suffice. Given the fact that I’ve been largely out of work this year, I was able to spend the majority of the month of August in Montana (silver lining!)… first 2 weeks in quarantine, second week and a half being Meme and giving a million kisses to Viona Jane and her 2 year old brother, Lewis!!
Once this plan was hatched, I began looking online for a reasonably priced place to stay… specifically entertaining the idea of glamping… why not!? I found a vintage Airstream on a working farm a couple of hours away from the kids… perfect!
Once I booked it, I couldn’t stop visiting, and revisiting, the photos online. My idea wheels started turning and I couldn’t get the vision of a music video out of my head. SO…. basically sight unseen, other than photos of course, I prepped and planned and pre-determined a story board and time line for a video, HOPING reality would match my imagination. It did… and then some. All of my expectations were exceeded in pretty much every way! From location to hosts to animal friends! Even the weather cooperated!
Since I was in a quarantine situation, I had to figure out how to film this thing on my own. I’d already set up shots in my mind… from B-Roll to Key Shots (Thanks Jeremy Ryan for teaching me the lingo), I just had to spend some time paying attention to when the light hit where… Montana is very different from CA in that regard because it’s so far north…navigate the wind and a couple of days of rain. Then I did seemingly endless amounts of time setting up my phone on a tripod, hitting record, running into the shot, running back to check if my head or my feet or my hands were all in frame. I came home with an enormous amount of footage!
To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what story I was telling in the beginning… I mean, per the song, the obvious one being that of a woman waiting on love to arrive, ready to give it all she’s got. Or is it a woman watching love leave, and dreaming of it’s return? Either way, as far as tying all of the visuals in my mind together… that sort of came after the fact. In the end, it wasn’t hard to make it make sense. I waited until my return to CA to begin editing in earnest…( because…. GRANDKIDS!! As soon as I left the Airstream I went straight to my sons’s and spent every waking minute there!) But I must say, I have such a high respect for editors!! It’s an all encompassing full time endeavor.
As for all the wardrobe:
I made the plaid dress, matching head scarf and mask. I started sewing in 7th grade and with best friend/Project Runway alum Stanley Hudson (we met as teens) always only a phone call away, I’ve been able to keep at it over the years. I found the yellow underskirt in a vintage store in Orange, the yellow shoes I’ve had forever.
The delicious lemon chiffon dress I purchased online from a favorite vintage store, Embers Cinders.
The red gingham top (the sleeves I cut off) I purchased at Elsewhere Vintage in Orange. The vintage Levis I purchased from online Vintage shop One Good Coat, and the vintage cowboy boots I’ve had for a couple of decades. The vintage cowboy hat I found in Missoula, MT at Mr. Higgins.
The navy polka dot vintage vibe swim suit is an oldie from J.Crew, the white men’s shirt was purchased at an outlet mall in Italy ages ago, the head scarf is LV. The pink sunglasses in that doorway scene are the ones I wore to the Grammy’s in 1999 when Lean On Me was nominated and we performed! (we being myself, Kirk Franklin, Mary J. Blige and Bono).
The b+w polka dot PJ’s are from Target.
The vintage blue floral dress I also found in Missoula at Mr. Higgins, the massive straw hat is from Circle Square Antiques, Missoula. The suitcase belonged to my mother and I’ve had it my whole life! Also… side note, filming on those railroad tracks was SCARY! a freight train came by multiple times a day… IN BOTH DIRECTIONS! I spent several days timing it, but it was never consistent. Finally I just went for it…
This song, Let Me Love You, is from my album RHAPSODY. It was released in 2019 and is available everywhere you listen to music! Lyrics by me, music by me and my amazing producer Tony Guerrero.