On a recent warm Sunday afternoon, the editors of Flask and Pen were invited to attend a pre-production meeting for the upcoming Michelle Mangione What Is A Saint video. We joined Mangione and crew at a coffeehouse in Santa Monica, California and listened as they began the initial stages of developing the video for the title cut of her recently released What Is A Saint CD.
While observing the process and listening to the discussion about the scripting of the video, the editors of F&P noted the realization of how important the lyrics of this beautiful song are as they relate to our world today.
Are you ready to be someone
To a stranger of less fortune
Would you offer up your smile just for the love of it
What is a saint to you?
But even more astounding to this writer is, this being the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and the ties this song has to that anniversary. We’ve all seen, read and heard many pundits reflecting on Woodstock and what importance it may have had on our society. The words and music of the time spoke of who we were as a nation. The events of our world and those who performed were our voices of change.
One of the prominent voices, performers and Woodstock Participants was Grace Slick. Recently Slick has devoted most of her time to creating beautiful visual art, but she took some time away from her art to co-write What Is A Saint with Mangione. Together they’ve created a voice that speaks to all of us and how we view our world and those we encounter daily.
The song lends itself to the making of a powerful, yet entertaining video. Those involved seem to realize what a gem they have to work with and there seems to be a really good vibe associated with this group.
Quite a bit of pre-production necessities were locked in at this meeting. The shoot location was established. All positions such as Director and DP etc. were filled. Additional pre-production, rehearsal and shoot dates were set. The script is off to a good start and should incorporate some beautiful, yet subtle, random acts of kindness.
We will keep you informed as to the progress of what promises to be a very special video.
Flask and Pen will be following the progress of the What Is A Saint video throughout the process until completion.
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I am eager to follow along!