Absolutes.
God, It Just Feels So Good.
A few days later our manager decided to spring it on us that our next single was Vivi Said and that the label wanted us to do a new video for it. Fortunately, our director wasn't a total asshole, and had worked with several pretty amazing bands, including Flyleaf and Anberlin. The way I figured, we'd have an interesting video at the least. Maybe it wasn't going to be a smash, but, I'd probably enjoy it.
It was a day off of tour for all of our respective bands and while most were out exploring the city, we were carted off to a site for the shoot. We ran through a few concepts, before Jace brought one up that caught my attention. "I'm sorry, Jen, but, couldn't we use you as the protagonist, instead of other people? Make the video raw and real that way? We could see if the guys in the other bands would want to join in. . . "
I immediately knew what he had rattling in his brain. I didn't like it much, but the concept at least, was solid. Why not? "Alright. I'll call Alex, Jack and company."
A few hours later, we started the shoot. The best part was we could actually sing the parts while we worked, and I could get physical with my environment. We filmed the first scene relatively easily, mostly just tooling around at a nearby park with the guys mocking me and me walking away (while secretly trying not to laugh because they were really just being ridiculous).
The second scene we filmed was quite a bit harder, and I had to ask a quick question before the director said action. "Can I scream? Like, not fake it, but scream? And break things?"
"Go nuts." He replied, and I wandered off, grinning.
"Vivi said it once, but Vivi said it best.
The only point of anguish is to put you to the test."
I 'stormed' off into the bathroom and slammed the door then leaned over the sink and screamed. It wasn't that high pitched bullshit. It was from the diaphragm and loud and anguished and long, almost a howl. My fingers dug into the connection behind the porcelain of the sink and I wrenched it, torquing my body until it moved from the wall, the wall itself cracking, a loud grumbling sound that reverberated through the room. I let go, and flung out my hand, sending it crashing into reflective plate glass that served as a mirror, watching it fall into pieces, crash into the sink. The pipe that was connecting the sink to the floor had popped loose, and I grabbed it and plowed it into the sink with as much force as I could muster, and felt porcelain give under the force of my first blow. On the second, the sink exploded sideways, fragments of glass and porcelain scattering everywhere. I dropped the pipe, and fell back against the door, chest heaving, a loud cry of "FUCK!" escaping my lips as I tried to catch my breath, my hand reaching up to cover my face as I shook.
The second he yelled 'CUT', Jace was at my side, wide eyed. "Are you okay?!"
I looked at him. "Ten years of not being able to scream and I get all of that pent up frustration out in one take. I think I did good." I was grinning. He laughed and pulled me to my feet to hug me as tightly as he could muster.
"You're out of your mind, Vivi." He mumbled. I only smiled. Vivi was a reference to me, but a lot of people overlooked it being a possible nickname for me, because they didn't really look past Jen in my first name. Jen automatically became my name. Jace called me Vivi in high school, and we figured Vivi Said would be a fun way to hint at who the song was written about.
Jack, Alex, John, Kennedy and a few other recognizable faces were at my side a few seconds later, all wide eyed and concerned. Jack was the most adorable, his eyes widest. "Are you okay?" Everyone seemed to be asking the same question at once, and I nodded, reassuring them that I was fine. Ten years of repressed emotions came out in that take. I was feeling a lot better than I was used to.
'Vivi never cared for being second best,
But she was never seen as more than a cut below the rest."
The next few hours went by in a blur, and most of it I don't remember. Some of it was spent with a strange older guy fake screaming at me, the guys pulling some shenanigan that would normally have made me mad, and chowing down on food and goofing off. At the end of the day, we had a rough cut of a video and some very interesting footage to post on youtube.
We had outtakes from the making that we were posting to show people we weren't this uber-serious band, and that we joked around a lot more often than people gave us credit for. Oh, and we really enjoyed frisbee. Everyone was involved, even the guys who came that weren't in our band. We all played a game of Ultimate, with the director even joining in, and we all ended up doing something or another that made it onto the gag reel, including my space-case deer-in-the-headlights "what?" when John came up behind me and stood there for ten minutes until someone started laughing off camera.
Jack tackled me at dusk while I was wandering around the giant field in the middle of the park, sending us both to the ground with muffled grunts. "What's the big idea?" I asked, stifling laughter. He was one of the most random people I'd ever known, and I kind of enjoyed that. Maybe more than I should have.
". . . nothing. Just saying hi."
"That's how you say hi? How do you say goodbye? Wait, no, don't answer that; it might be something weird like in Scary Movie 4."
"Huh?"
"Remember the aliens? Hello was urinating on you; goodbye was a kick to the crotch."
"God. You're even nerdier than I thought. I like it." He was laughing at me. This was good. It had been my intention to make him laugh, even though that was all I remembered from the whole movie.
A few minutes later, everyone was on the field again, clustered together in a huge group stretched out on the ground, staring up at the sky. We stayed like that for a while, just talking, all of us, getting to know each other better, playing word games, being human. I think we didn't want it to end, which was why we stayed there so long, content with the day, with ourselves and with each other. Little did I know the shenanigans we'd face when we returned to tour.
It was a day off of tour for all of our respective bands and while most were out exploring the city, we were carted off to a site for the shoot. We ran through a few concepts, before Jace brought one up that caught my attention. "I'm sorry, Jen, but, couldn't we use you as the protagonist, instead of other people? Make the video raw and real that way? We could see if the guys in the other bands would want to join in. . . "
I immediately knew what he had rattling in his brain. I didn't like it much, but the concept at least, was solid. Why not? "Alright. I'll call Alex, Jack and company."
A few hours later, we started the shoot. The best part was we could actually sing the parts while we worked, and I could get physical with my environment. We filmed the first scene relatively easily, mostly just tooling around at a nearby park with the guys mocking me and me walking away (while secretly trying not to laugh because they were really just being ridiculous).
The second scene we filmed was quite a bit harder, and I had to ask a quick question before the director said action. "Can I scream? Like, not fake it, but scream? And break things?"
"Go nuts." He replied, and I wandered off, grinning.
"Vivi said it once, but Vivi said it best.
The only point of anguish is to put you to the test."
I 'stormed' off into the bathroom and slammed the door then leaned over the sink and screamed. It wasn't that high pitched bullshit. It was from the diaphragm and loud and anguished and long, almost a howl. My fingers dug into the connection behind the porcelain of the sink and I wrenched it, torquing my body until it moved from the wall, the wall itself cracking, a loud grumbling sound that reverberated through the room. I let go, and flung out my hand, sending it crashing into reflective plate glass that served as a mirror, watching it fall into pieces, crash into the sink. The pipe that was connecting the sink to the floor had popped loose, and I grabbed it and plowed it into the sink with as much force as I could muster, and felt porcelain give under the force of my first blow. On the second, the sink exploded sideways, fragments of glass and porcelain scattering everywhere. I dropped the pipe, and fell back against the door, chest heaving, a loud cry of "FUCK!" escaping my lips as I tried to catch my breath, my hand reaching up to cover my face as I shook.
The second he yelled 'CUT', Jace was at my side, wide eyed. "Are you okay?!"
I looked at him. "Ten years of not being able to scream and I get all of that pent up frustration out in one take. I think I did good." I was grinning. He laughed and pulled me to my feet to hug me as tightly as he could muster.
"You're out of your mind, Vivi." He mumbled. I only smiled. Vivi was a reference to me, but a lot of people overlooked it being a possible nickname for me, because they didn't really look past Jen in my first name. Jen automatically became my name. Jace called me Vivi in high school, and we figured Vivi Said would be a fun way to hint at who the song was written about.
Jack, Alex, John, Kennedy and a few other recognizable faces were at my side a few seconds later, all wide eyed and concerned. Jack was the most adorable, his eyes widest. "Are you okay?" Everyone seemed to be asking the same question at once, and I nodded, reassuring them that I was fine. Ten years of repressed emotions came out in that take. I was feeling a lot better than I was used to.
'Vivi never cared for being second best,
But she was never seen as more than a cut below the rest."
The next few hours went by in a blur, and most of it I don't remember. Some of it was spent with a strange older guy fake screaming at me, the guys pulling some shenanigan that would normally have made me mad, and chowing down on food and goofing off. At the end of the day, we had a rough cut of a video and some very interesting footage to post on youtube.
We had outtakes from the making that we were posting to show people we weren't this uber-serious band, and that we joked around a lot more often than people gave us credit for. Oh, and we really enjoyed frisbee. Everyone was involved, even the guys who came that weren't in our band. We all played a game of Ultimate, with the director even joining in, and we all ended up doing something or another that made it onto the gag reel, including my space-case deer-in-the-headlights "what?" when John came up behind me and stood there for ten minutes until someone started laughing off camera.
Jack tackled me at dusk while I was wandering around the giant field in the middle of the park, sending us both to the ground with muffled grunts. "What's the big idea?" I asked, stifling laughter. He was one of the most random people I'd ever known, and I kind of enjoyed that. Maybe more than I should have.
". . . nothing. Just saying hi."
"That's how you say hi? How do you say goodbye? Wait, no, don't answer that; it might be something weird like in Scary Movie 4."
"Huh?"
"Remember the aliens? Hello was urinating on you; goodbye was a kick to the crotch."
"God. You're even nerdier than I thought. I like it." He was laughing at me. This was good. It had been my intention to make him laugh, even though that was all I remembered from the whole movie.
A few minutes later, everyone was on the field again, clustered together in a huge group stretched out on the ground, staring up at the sky. We stayed like that for a while, just talking, all of us, getting to know each other better, playing word games, being human. I think we didn't want it to end, which was why we stayed there so long, content with the day, with ourselves and with each other. Little did I know the shenanigans we'd face when we returned to tour.