The very first song that Devon ever learned to play and sing with his ukulele was 'You Are My Sunshine'! After he had learned the chorus for the song, we went searching for more lyrics... and we soon discovered that this song is a rather sad break-up song! Well... we talked about this and we decided to write our own lyrics for a brand new version!! We were inspired by the Beatles song 'Hey Jude' where Paul sings, "Take a sad song... and make it better!"
Since it was nearing autumn, thoughts about the coming apple harvest were in my mind and I suggested that we write a song about a little boy who plants an apple seed... cares for his growing tree... and enjoys the fruits of his labour when his mom bakes him an apple pie!
The year before, Devon had dressed up as Steve, from the video game Minecraft, for Halloween! I asked Devon if he would like to use his costume so that we could transform him into Steve and then have the video portion of his song take place in Minecraft!!! Devon did not hesitate with his answer!!!!
We had a lot of fun building some of the 'sets' that were used in this video.... We had to build a garden for Steve to walk through so that he could plant his apple seed. We had to build a character to be mom and we had to build a kitchen so that mom could bake an apple pie!!!
Filming this video was a challenge... and a lot of fun!
When you are playing Minecraft, you can have two players. When you do this, the image on your TV screen splits into two parts. I explained to Devon that we can use the second player to act as our film camera because the 1/2 screen always shows what the character is looking at. So... we would set up the second character in an area and leave the character stationary (for the most part) and then, on Devon's screen, he would move Steve around doing whatever it was he was doing at the time... walking, swimming, planting an apple, etc. I would then use my phone to record what was seen on the second player's screen.
On a few occasions, we had Steve remain stationary and we had the second player character on the move to create the visuals for our video. One example to keep your eyes on the lookout for, is when Steve is standing in his garden while the 'camera' flies in a circle around him. The image that we used to create a DVD cover for this video is a photo from this part of the film.
These were very tricky to film and took many attempts! Some of the outcomes were hilarious! In the one scene where the camera (the second player) zooms just over Steve's shoulder as it makes it's way to see the apple tree filled with spring blooms, the second player would crash into Steve... or crash into the tree!!! Devon and I would crack up.... delete that recording... and try again!
We filmed Devon's 'transformation' into Steve in the fall of 2020. Then we got really busy with life and this project didn't get worked on for many months. In the spring of 2021, we thought that we would finish this project for a Mother's Day present! Joanne loves it!!!! And I hope all of you do, too!
Please enjoy...
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