Happy Birthday, Schubert!

Here it is! Happy Birthday, Schubert! Our journey into cinematic filming style continues with this new release - Schubert’s Erlkonig transformed into Happy Birthday!

So I (Clare) have always wanted to try having a story for our music videos. Since I was feeling unwell and took two weeks off, I had a little more time to think about what to do for the upcoming video. (I know I should have been resting, I know….but I couldn’t help it after sleeping for days and doing nothing!) So I started planning what we could do for this piece! Since Scott based it on Schubert’s Erolkonig, I thought it was a bit challenging because how could we present the visuals in a bright and positive way in celebration of Schubert’s birthday while not ruining too much of the original Erlkonig?! The idea started forming when I thought about in the original, the bass triplets represented the running horse. Since we can’t have access to a running horse, how about we run instead?! But what are we running for?! Away from the Erolkonig?! How about we turn Erolkonig into a positive figure instead of taking away children’s lives?! So one idea after another, it started coming together. I quickly wrote some things down. And since I had more time, I tried drawing a storyboard for the FIRST TIME!

We discuss the storyboard about how we would film it, and where to film it. We went to three different forests to check what might be the most appropriate forest. We wanted to present a real nature kind of feeling, so we wanted to avoid well-paved trails. When we came to this forest, we both thought “This is it!” It was beautiful and exactly what we were looking for! Everything in the forest was covered in green moss, and it just seemed magical!

On the day when we were filming, there was heavy fog. But it was as if the universe was helping us, when we got to the forest, the fog became lighter, which gave this mystical feeling. We also only saw one family during the whole time filming, the rest of the time it was as if we had the whole forest to ourselves! It was about -1C and we ran around in the forest for about 3 hours, which I consider very lucky! The filming process was very smooth and efficient!

The post production took a lot longer than usual, also because I had to learn some new things along the way. There are of course things that I can improve on, but we are both very happy and excited for the result! This is definitely a very special film to us! We think it is very interesting, and it definitely opened a new door to our future videos!

"Once upon a time, The Meeks Duo was running through a forest to deliver a birthday cake to Franz Schubert. Legend has it that a cake monster lives in this forest. If he catches you with a cake, he will offer you money in exchange for the cake..."

Check out where we filmed Schubert’s door here! 😂 Sorry, Schubert….