Today is the day the kids have been waiting for all year, we are releasing the music video they’ve been working on in Film Making class to the public. We will be launching the video at the end of today’s final film making class of the year. Stay tuned! (Update! The video is posted below!)
24 kids have been involved in the making of this music video. They have acted, filmed, run the sound, handled the time code and been instrumental in the creative vision and brainstorming of the final creation.
When I sat down earlier this year to think of a great song to use for this class project I had a number of ideas in mind, but when “Rule the World” by Walk Off The Earth popped into my head I knew we had a winner. I wanted a song that had powerful moments and a positive message. I wanted a song that would be appropriate to use in a school project. I wanted a song that not everyone knows, but one that everyone loves after hearing it. “Rule the World” is that song. Be sure to check out all of the songs that Walk Off The Earth has on YouTube, they are incredible!
When I presented the song to the class everyone got really excited. First I played the song for them, then we watched the original video for the song. We analyzed the video piece by piece and at one point I challenged the kids to count how many times the camera cut during the 4 minute video while we watched it in real time. They gave up after about 150 cuts. I was trying to demonstrate to them how many different camera angles and takes were needed to make a great music video.
In the end, our video was shot from 73 different camera angles and locations. There are 157 different cuts in the 4 minutes. Once they got the hang of what we were doing, they did a great job of filming over and over, capturing a different piece of the scene each time. By the time class was over each day, everyone went home excited and energized.
We filmed at the TIDE Academy to start with, creating the narrative that the kids thought of on their own. The video starts with them wrapping up their day at school and then we follow them through their journey into Tamarindo to Rule the World. We typically filmed around 15 to 30 seconds of the song per class.
The video was shot at school, in the parking lot behind the school, in Vino the van (that was a HOT afternoon), on the mountain top (when Vino broke down on the way to the location), in a pool, on the lifeguard tower, on the beach at high tide, further down the beach amidst the tourists (they were very curious), at the river, on the river in a panga boat and finally on the beach with the final drone shot to wrap up the entire production.
The filming went very smoothly for the most part, yet there were two memorable moments that have to be mentioned. First moment was when Vino the van stopped running on the side of a very steep mountain road on our way to the shooting location. 13 kids in the van and it just stopped. Thankfully, we had additional vehicles following us, so we piled everyone in the other cars and pushed ahead.
The second moment was when we were filming at the river mouth before we got into the boat and we noticed that a giant crocodile was just below the surface only a few feet from the shore. He was watching us. Not sure if he liked the song or was hungry, but either way, we boarded the boat a little further down the river and not in front of the croc.
I also want to mention that we added a few nods to Walk Off The Earth in the video to acknowledge their impact on our experience. Walk Off The Earth is known for tossing instruments to each other while they are playing, so we added in the scene with the surf boards flying in from the edges. We also used the scene with the kids in a line (during the bridge) that is similar to the way WOTE was positioned in their video.
I’m so incredibly proud of the kids and what we have created together. They had great ideas that I would have never thought of, like playing the trumpets and drums while surfing in Tamarindo. They also came up with every single dance move and choreography piece on their own.
Learn more about The TIDE Academy here: https://tideacademy.com/
Learn more about Tamarindo Films here: https://tamarindofilms.com/
Check out Walk Off The Earth here: https://www.youtube.com/user/walkofftheearth
I’ve added a few behind the scenes videos from the beach filming day as well as the final drone shot day below. We hope you enjoy the video!
A video posted by 10 Feet Traveling (@10feettraveling) on
