I’m a big fan of YouTube, spending some quality time on there every day streaming a wide range of channels. Some time ago I decided to get more involved in video production, and one obvious series of music videos I needed to create would be all the tunes from my 1992 CD, Midnight In Zagreb. So it made sense to start at the beginning with the opening track of the CD; a medley of two tunes, Memories Of Zagreb (which I often play live to this day), and Adriatic Dreams. The audio can be streamed here in StringDancer.
Now, I wasn’t too interested in creating just a billboard music video… I wanted some movement, even a nice slideshow would do. Unfortunately, I have no surviving photos from the three-month 1988 trip to Croatia which inspired the CD. Since the medley track is almost ten minutes in length, the prospect of digging up a sufficient number of photographs to make a decent slideshow was pretty daunting. So I went scouting about for some actual live-action video footage I might be able to use, and soon ran across the work of Marko Vrdoljak, a gifted professional photographer and videographer based in (you guessed it) Zagreb, Croatia.
Marko’s work is dynamic and beautiful indeed, wonderfully edited… and clearly out of my league. I particularly liked a video called Pulse Of The City, which won awards at the 50th International TourFilm Festival, Lecce, Italy; the Zagreb TourFilm Festival, Croatia; and the ITF ’CRO 2012 in Solin, Croatia. It’s made of thousands of photos, timelapse and video sequences, capturing the positive energy of the city of Zagreb, Croatia, and showing Zagreb’s rich street and nightlife, culture and sacral heritage together with internationally known attractions, events and much more. A gorgeous work.
In my dreams, right? Not wanting to be presumptuous and ask if I could use his video, I figured he might nonetheless be willing to point me in the direction of some Creative Commons footage of Zagreb I might use for the medley.
So with fingers crossed, I emailed Marko, expressed my admiration for his work, shared the link to my CD page so he could hear the music, told him what I was looking for, thanked him for his time, fired off the email… and wondered if he’d even bother responding to an old guitar player he’d never met living in the hills of Brown County, Indiana.
To say I was pleasantly surprised a couple days later when I received a most gracious response from Marko, letting me know I was free to use all the sequences from his video, is an understatement. All he requested in return was proper credit, a link to his website and that of the Zagreb Tourist Board… and then he offered to send me the HD version of his video. What a guy! He made a new friend in the States, that’s for sure.
For those so inclined, a little techie-talk: Since Marko’s video was a tad shorter than I needed for the tune, I fleshed out the video with some beautiful photos of Zagreb I acquired online (crediting the sources in the video, of course). But these then made the video longer than the audio medley, and I didn’t want the credits to run off in silence. As luck would have it, however, I had reprised the Memories theme at the *end* of the CD, played much more solemnly on a solo classic guitar, so I tagged that track onto the end of the medley. That gave me the extra length in the video I needed to use all the photos, and nip and tuck the credits to flow nicely with the audio. All in a day’s work.
And so, for your viewing pleasure, I proudly present my new video collaboration, Memories Of Zagreb/Adriatic Dreams, with awesome videography provided by Marko Vrdoljak:
As you might expect, making videos is quite time-consuming. I’m hoping to get more productive and creative with video creations, and to help further that goal I have launched a Patreon page for those who would like to help support my new creative venture. Even a couple bucks a month from enough friends can make a huge difference in my ability to grow my studio, invest in gear, and spend time studying the art of videography to enhance my skill set. To those who pledge, you have my heartfelt thanks! ~~ JF
