Violetta (Violet) Jackson has big dreams. None of which happen to include sitting in detention for a week straight for a lab disaster that wasn't even her fault. That's all thanks to Will Hawthorne, his friends (one of whom she unfortunately used to...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The rest of spring break was consumed in putting the music video together before the posting deadline on Sunday.
We spent every day holed up in Will's garage, and although our original agreement was only to use the space three days a week, Will doesn't seem to mind. I still have full shifts every other day this week, but I biked over right afterward, even if only for an hour or two toward the end of the day, to help Ryder, Olivia, and Danny with editing.
Danny was in charge of all audio-visual effects and was the most familiar with the editing software which he had on his laptop. Olivia had taken over the song production, mixing the tracks and helping Danny in fitting together the video clips and snippets of the recorded song so they blended seamlessly; as well as directing us on the additional shots we took. Ryder, due to his parents still being furious with him, wasn't able to come over every day, but we do a few shots of him pounding away at his drums, Olivia shredding her electric guitar, and Danny on the keyboard to add to the video. Will's garage turned out to be the perfectly-sized space to set up the backgrounds that we were going for: a dark, shadowy vignette for the first half of the video; a blazingly bright place for the second half. We add the shots of me lip-syncing to the song, which feels very strange at first and also took many tries, but looked natural enough once I got the hang of it and Danny matched up the audio perfectly.
When Saturday rolled around, the final touch-ups were made, and we all played back the video for what felt like the millionth time, we all agreed that it was ready. The audio and video quality were good. Our message was clear. It was time to post it.
"Berklee's Battle of the Bands requires all participating bands to post their music video no later than Sunday, 13 March, at 11:59 pm. The Battle of the Bands judges will give their votes by the following Sunday, 20 March." Olivia reads out the contest guidelines from her phone as we all gathered around the recording desk in Will's garage. "Videos are assessed according to: one, originality of lyrics, two, audio and visual quality, three, effective communication of theme, four, stylistic representations, and five, number of views and attention garnered. Bands are encouraged to promote their video as much as possible in the week of judging in order to put their work out there for the world to see." Olivia looked up, glancing around at all of us.
"So...we have a week to make our video go viral." Ryder is fiddling with one of his drumsticks half-heartedly, looking right at Olivia, aghast.
"Virality isn't the only thing they're looking for," Danny reminded us, but even his expression was uneasy as he turned back to his laptop, saving the music video for the fourth time in a single minute.
Will, who took to his usual spot leaning on the doorframe by the entrance to the house, glanced at me. He had been in on some of our meetings, though never for the whole time that we were there, appearing and disappearing as he pleased. I stopped involuntarily jumping at his sudden interjections somewhere around the third day.
Making the music video was one thing. Promoting it myself was another, and the thought of it made me want to crawl into a corner somewhere and hide.
Soon enough, Monday rolled around again, and I found myself back in the hallways of Oak Point High. We had posted the music video on Sunday and officially submitted our video for the judges' evaluations. Olivia sent a text to the ECHO group chat, making my phone buzz.
