Our First Music Video!

"One cold October morning your name made the news...." (From Maggie's Song")



 I wrote "Maggie's Song" two years ago to share Maggie's legacy, to offer up a loving  tribute to her parents and family,  and to start a conversation, possibly, about Teen Dating Violence. 

Maggie was a 19-year-old sophomore from Plainwell, Michigan, attending Kalamazoo College in Michigan in 1999. Her life ended in a relationship violence incident on that campus on October 18, 1999. Since that time her family has devoted her memory to raising awareness of relationship violence prevention. Many of Maggie's friends, as well as her family, have taken up this cause.

I met Lana last summer and we hit it off. Lana is a film student at a private college here in Connecticut, whom I met through Susan's My Avenging Angel Workshops, (Susan is Maggie's Aunt, the workshops-helping to give women the life after abuse that her niece would never see.)  Lana and I decided to film a music video for "Maggie's Song!"


I met with Lana and her assistant Jonathan in June, and we began taping in July. They've had other projects but combined on this video we've worked oh, I'd say, 75?? hours already! We're using professional equipment (rented from Lana's college) and we have been putting full days into each taping, through interviews and live shows as well as what we did last Friday-we headed to Lana's college campus for to shoot the final scenes--- I must have played "Maggie's Song" fifteen times:)

 To give the film makers more choices, we shot at six different locations on the campus:

"time stood still..."

• the water fountain (above)
• a clock tower,
• on an open field in center of the campus,
• in the middle of a crowd of students walking to and from class,

• at the "green screen," a basic screen where scenes could be shot with any background desired programmed in with the help of a computer.
• college dorm, because Maggie was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend is his dorm room.  

Before the shooting, I had to draw up a detailed scenes list, so that Lana and Jonathan could share in my vision and would have a better idea where exactly to shoot the scenes. I brought along a few changes of outfits-- hello...DIVA!! (Well.... not really.)They were mostly black or purple! No makeup crew, or hair/nail stylists....

One of the scenes I wanted most was an image of busy college students.
Since Maggie was a college student murdered on campus, it was important to capture the college environment, what better way than playing and singing in the middle of a crowd of students on their way to and from class? PS-- We didn't know what to expect or how the students would react. I had to play and sing  as they passed and crossed in front of me, then look both ways, cross the street when no cars were coming! We did this all in  four takes each side of the street and the students were respectful! I think this will be one of  my favorite scenes.:)

Who do we blame when love turns to hate? How do we stop it before its too late? (From "Maggie's Song")

Of course, I want the four minute video (the song is four minutes long) to hold the viewer's interest. And of course, there will be little statistics about dating violence throughout as this is meant to spread awareness as well.

But, I must say, what was my favorite wardrobe item??

A Maggie's Hat!
I chose to wear this in some scenes as another tribute to Maggie. These warm, hand-knitted hats were designed to be knitted and sold in order to raise money for Maggie's Foundation, to be set up also in Maggie's memory.

Image of Maggie's Hat,  hanging from a tree branch in this shot. You can see a part of the water fountain.

You'll see snippets of the video as I get it, on our facebook page as we progress, and we will be setting up our own video channel, to broadcast it on. Stay tuned.... and as always thank you for your support of this important work. ♥♥♥

Remember Maggie: RememberingMaggie.com (1980-1999)

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