Several years ago, my five siblings and I made a music video! It was a submission to a contest put on by Nashville singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson for one of his songs, "Rest Easy." Here's the story.
Upon seeing the contest announcement, we decided to enter, though we barely knew a thing about filmmaking. We first brainstormed and did some research; then, after some planning and storyboarding, we began to film our entry video. We shot, edited and produced for a solid month. When we were done, we were completely spent.
We were not impressed with the final product; we had no high hopes for our video. What a shock it was, then, when we found that our video had made it through eliminations to the qualifying round! Several days later, we were shocked again when the three finalists were announced, and we had come in 2nd place! It was an amazing and exciting time, and it felt good seeing our hard work pay off.
It was hard work, but it was also a lot of fun! These were some of the highlights of the filmmaking process:
We had fun in our attempt to reenact the album art for Light for the Lost Boy ("Rest Easy" is from that album). My youngest brother Jeshua was the "lost boy" wandering the woods behind our church-house. There were lots of mosquitos where we were shooting, it being summertime, and for some reason they chose to swarm poor Jeshua! He was such a trooper. Then, using After Effects, we tweaked the lighting and color to bring it as close as we could to the album artwork.
Album artwork for Light for the Lost Boy
A still from our video
One of the coolest parts was editing the transition from the woods to the bedroom, toward the beginning of the video. If I remember correctly, that transition wasn't something we planned. We stumbled upon it while piecing together the film! That transition strengthened the story we were trying to tell.
Here's what Mr. Peterson said about our video:
"This video made me happy because not only does the director, Jebi — who I think is also the main character in the video, right? — show a lot of promise as a filmmaker, I loved the way the boy in the woods was symbolic of what was happening in the main character's heart. Beautifully shot, Jebi."
It was a special time, because my five siblings and I made good memories. We got to work together at something, and see it to its end. I could not have made this prize-winning music video without the help and insight of those five dear friends of mine. And we each learned so much about the filmmaking process.
Most of all, we wanted to make clear what the song is talking about: resting in the love of God — resting in Jesus. For those who trust in the Lord Jesus, the work is finished; what was required of us by a holy God was satisfied at the cross. By grace and grace alone are we called children of God. Unmerited (unearned) grace!
So, anyway, here's our video: