i’ve never been a part of something so magical as filming our first video with the other girls of belle starr.
first of all, the song “summerlea” by fred eaglesmith is haunting, moody and suggests a sweet sadness. all our locations heightened this. we had the incredible opportunity of shooting at the legendary chelsea hotel in new york city (!) as well as on top of a giant skyscraper overlooking the empire state building and under a train bridge in brooklyn.
we had many lovely moments – and a couple of transcendental ones. -
we were shooting with the playback and all of a sudden, the heavens opened and we were drenched by a heavy downpour. instead of dashing out of the wet, our director, the inimitable jeth weinrich, grabbed the camera himself and with the D.P. and focus puller covering the camera with a tarp, he kept shooting!
the sudden rain was incredible. what luck! all the footage looked amazing – we all sort of knew something out of the ordinary had happened with kenny singing honestly and movingly getting slowly soaked with people rushing with umbrellas behind her to get out of the rain and jeth capturing it all.
another astounding moment was when all three of us shot close together with the play back. we were all standing in the window of the chelsea, with the famed neon sign behind us and we sang the song. it was the first time we’d all been able to hear each other’s harmonies coupled with the atmosphere of that once glamorous, now seedy room. wow. we all got goosebumps.
jeth is magical. he’s quirky and mercurial. maybe this is a hallmark of a great artist. i’d love to see the world the way he sees it. he’s easy to work with, fun to be around and he has a loyal crew of guys who are all princes.
we all felt so much a part of the process, so proud of the overall beauty of the shoot. due to some miscommunication, we ended up not getting a makeup artist….so we all did our own hair and makeup and we all wore our own clothes (although since we are similar sizes, we swapped a lot!) but i think this made the experience all the more special, more real. we felt the honesty of the song and what we want belle starr to be. we were all just singing fred’s stunning song, being ourselves.
i hope you enjoy the video half as much as we enjoyed making it. we are so thrilled with how it turned out and excited to show you. thank you to everyone who had a hand in it. truly, truly unforgettable.
a special thank you to jeth, joel stewart and our friends at cmt canada.
x,
miranda
