Almost 200 Keene State College students filled the Mabel Brown Room on Wednesday, March 11, for the annual Music Video Night.
The event was organized by KSC Productions Professor Lance Levesque, who also served as executive producer for all of the videos.
The music videos were created by film majors at KSC, and finally completed after weeks of hard work, according to some film majors.
Patrick Byrne, Chris Oblon and Keelan Brown, all first-year film majors at KSC, were three such students who had a role in some of the music videos that were showcased that night.
“Working on the music video was a truly unique experience,” Byrne said.
He continued, “It took a great deal of work and commitment.”
According to Byrne, the entire project took about a month to complete.
Colton McCracken / Equinox Staff
Byrne added, “The hardest part was working around everyone’s different schedule.
He said another challenge was working on spending as little of their own money as possible.
“We also had to spend a lot of our own money on props, costumes and equipment,” he explained.
“Seeing the finished product was amazing. Not only was it enjoyable, but a huge relief to know that everything was finished,” Byrne said.
Oblon, who helped to create, produce, direct and even star in one of the music videos, considered the night a huge success.
Oblon said, “I think it was a pretty impressive turnout.”
Brown, who attended Music Video Night with the crew members of his video, agreed with Oblon.
“The event itself was huge a success,” Brown said.
Byrne said, “The night was a lot of fun and it’s definitely an event I’ll be attending in the future.”
Of the hours leading up to the event Brown said, “Our entire crew was nervous the entire day. None of us had ever had our work showcased at an event like this before.”
While the night highlighted the music videos, there was also a huge emphasis on all of the students who were involved.
“When we arrived, we had our pictures taken by student photographers. I felt like a celebrity,” he said.
“The Mabel Brown Room was packed with people who eagerly watched the six music videos,” Brown said.
Brown said that on top of spectators being able to watch the music videos, there was also commentary from the producers after the video.
Brown explained, “After each music video was shown, the producers of that video would go up on stage and say a few words about the filming process.” Many film majors agreed that it was a great experience to be able to show their work to fellow KSC students, faculty and staff.
“As film majors, we love to show our work,” Oblon said.
He continued, “That’s what I love best about making films — getting to see the audience’s reaction to a video that I’ve put my heart and soul into.”
“Money, time, blood, sweat and tears, so much has gone into making this video and seeing people react is the best part of it,” he explained.
Although the three film majors agreed that making the videos took a lot of time and hard work, they also said they enjoyed the experience.
Brown added, “Even though the entire process was for a class, it didn’t feel like school work at all. The project was very mentally and physically taxing: having late night meetings, lugging heavy equipment across town, and having to edit and re-edit over and over again.”
He continued, “Despite all of this work, I enjoyed every second of it and wouldn’t change my field of study for the world.”
“It got to a point where I was kind of doubting filmmaking, until I came to college. When we showed our first projects, it all came back to me – all the excitement of showing off something that I put so much effort into. The same thing happened with the music video night,” Oblon explained.
Oblon said, “It reminded me that this is why I do what I do. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
Jill Giambruno can be contacted at jgiambruno@kscequinox.com
