A few weekends ago, my band Scary Bear Soundtrack filmed the music video for our song Beaver Pond Forest. We've been doing this in collaboration with Toni Van Eeden of Pale Afrikaan, a South African film maker who has been a pleasure to work with.
Here is a teaser for the music video:
The song is about a forest located in the South March Highlands, north of Kanata, one of the great spots in the wilderness where my friends and I used to hang out when we were young teens. It recently won the People's Choice Great Public Space award in the Great Places in Canada competition. It's an old forest that is home to over 600 species, including over a dozen species at risk of going instinct, as well as interesting archaeological discoveries and sacred aboriginal sites. The area has now been slated for destruction by developers wanting to expand the suburbs, and a big chunk of the trees near Beaver Pond Forest has already been cut down. Various groups have been formed to try to stop this development.
It was this sad occasion that inspired me to write this song about my childhood stomping grounds, but we've at least been having fun shooting the music video, which we're hoping will increase awareness about this beautiful wilderness area. The music video was shot in the South March Highlands, featuring a corporate zombie band (us) and a massive food fight between young friends having fun. Filming was a really unique experience, as we used the forest as our green room, dressing room, and film set. We hung our wardrobe on trees as hangers and sat on the forest floor between scenes.
The music video is now in the editing stage. Watch for its release this autumn! Meanwhile, you can enjoy these photos that Toni took during the film shoot.
preparing for the shoot - making the kind of necklace that I wore during my teen years.
making spaghetti for the food fight...
film shoot schedule
Toni, the filmmaker
me, trying to look like me ten years ago
after the food fight
