BLOGLINE ENDEAVOR... Art Institute Class Project; Footstep Paranoia Music Video

Prismatic circa 1993 - Footstep Paranoia (Class Project Video)

Ahh yes, back to the days of the Art Institute and one of my final classes before graduation, Video Broadcasting. There is quite the story to be told about this video and the song 'Footstep Paranoia'.

THE SONG

Previously posted here on the SUB ONE blog along with the lyrics, the context of this song refers to a "DAYMARE" that I had. As I was relaxing one summer afternoon, I started daydreaming and as I began to reflect on my relaxation it all started to go wrong. I was staring at the floor of my bedroom and imagined a dwarf making his way into my house carrying a knife and slashing my throat. The rest of the "DAYMARE" gets a little more graphic as this dwarf gets excited over the sight of my blood and proceeds to rape me even though I'm dead!

Yes... I know... very wrong indeed... you don't need to remind me... however...

This very graphic turn of imaginary events prompted me to write some of the weirdest lyrics I had ever written for a song.

RECORDING

Two takes were recorded when I finally sat down and had the instrumental tracks arranged. The acoustic riff was fed through the ART processor with delay and flange and my vocals were also given treatment by the ART processor. The effect I used was a slap-back/faded delay which is the reason my voice has that crazy-spacey sound to it. During this recording session, I also laid tracks for the song 'Bossa Me Lost Ya'.

VIDEO

During our Video Production Class at the Art Institute of Philadelphia (AIPH for short), we were required to not only come up with our own individual idea for a segment production but at the end of the 12 weeks of class, it would all be pieced together for a variety show that included a studio audience. The variety show that we did was called "Juan's World" which was based on the Wayne's World SNL sketch and movie but with a Cuban/Latino theme to it.

Recalling the segment production, for preparation, all I had required was a blue board (which I ended up doing the painting on my own time) and the AIPH video production studio. Each individual segment was assigned to each student in the class and they were responsible for assigning team members as well as job assignments to each member.

Tyrone Mitchell, who was known to most as Mitch or Mitch Mitchell (after the Experience drummer) was given the assignment of line producer. His job was to be a liason between the action going on in the studio and translate that to those working in the control room.

As Mitch and I sat down to discuss how the video was going to be choreographed, he was given a lyric sheet and he was jotting down notes as I told him what I wanted to accomplish. Upon reading each line, he would tell me what he was going to direct to the control room and they would in turn direct the camera operators. Mitch reads the line "He raped me with circus toys" and flat out loses it! He could not keep a straight face after that and it transpired into the whole class getting word of what my song was about. In turn no one could keep a straight face - not even our Instructor, Pat McGrath.

Pat was one of my favorite Instructors from the school. He had a cool, level head and he was very professional when it came to video production. He wasn't one to fall out of his professionalism while he was teaching but the day I produced this video, he could not keep his composure. I remember his reaction to my project being very positive and he was constantly complimenting me on my efforts. Pat, if you're reading this, you should hit me up on Facebook.

PRODUCTION

So during the actual production and taping of this video, I decided I wanted to have a video overlay from what was going on in the studio and play another video of some previously shot material that was chroma-keyed as a background. Well, watching this video during class caused some classmates to lose it once again. In all seriousness, the background video could have supplemented the 'Footstep Paranoia' song rather sufficiently. Yet my idea to have two classmates with the longest head of hair on either side while I was doing my thing was a benefit in the end. Those two classmates names were Vince Mount and Jose Nieves. Side Note: It's later I realized it would have been so much better to have some hot stripper babes on each side of me, but I had to make due.

In the end, this was a fun project and you notice it from watching the video. I could not keep a straight face while I was doing this. Each time you see me bending over and flopping my long hair to the ground, I'm actually trying to disguse that I'm laughing so hard. Several things were making me laugh. Vince and Jose kept making faces at me, I would watch in the control room as the video crew were watching what was being fed as the background video. The short Kaboom! segment would play and everyone would laugh and Mitch was cracking a big smile yet I had to pay attention to anything he had to signal to me. Watching Pat try to keep a straight face through it all and seeing people out in the hall and looking towards the studio with a perplexed look on their face was not helping to keep matters serious in any way. All in all, the whole class had fun doing this. I'm glad I could make it fun yet productive.