Photo courtesy of “Camp Conn” music video.
Hot off his production of the music video for the Connecticut College anthem “Camp Conn” by sophomore rapper Daniel Irizarry, aka Cryptic, I sat down with sophomore film major Tommy Awender to discuss his process behind making the video.
The “Camp Conn” music video has been out on YouTube for just over a week now. You directed and edited it.
Correct.
How are you feeling about the whole process, reflecting on it now?
First thing I would say about it is that it took forever.
When did you start working on it?
I DMed [Cryptic] last year when he released “No Kodacks,” and I was like, “Yo would you want me to make a music video for you? Here’s some of my stuff if you want to check it out.” And he was already working on that music video and I didn’t really talk to him after that. Then this fall, maybe late August/early September, he DMed me and said “Do you want to make a video for Camp Conn?” and I was like “Yeah, yeah, I’m down.” I didn’t really know how it was going to go. I think it’s one of my better projects. I just wasn’t expecting the video to turn out like that to be honest. I’m not really sure why.
Were you not expecting it to be as challenging as it was?
I wasn’t expecting it to take as long as it did. When I originally talked to [Cryptic], we had originally planned to have it out by early or mid-October. So it really took from late August/early September to when it was released last week [on Nov. 1].
So what were some of the things that led to it taking as long as it did?
There were delays in when we could shoot. Some of the scenes we shot were done through the liberty of other people. For example, the scenes where it looked like a party. That was made happen by other people so, shout out to them. Shout out to Danny [Aschale ‘20] for making that happen. It just took a while to coordinate all the shots, kinda figure out what we’re really doing. And it also just took forever to edit. Obviously, there’s a lot of effects, color grading, quick cutting. It just took me a while to make it what it is. I probably could have released it three weeks ago. It just wasn’t where I wanted it to be.
So you mentioned the party sections of the video — was it challenging to find a place where you could shoot the video?
Yeah, and it wasn’t even just that, it was also difficult to actually shoot it. I was nervous shooting it for many reasons, one being I didn’t want to ruin my equipment. It was also just difficult to shoot in the space we were in. It was really tight. There were a lot of people there.
Was the task of choosing locations and getting people to be in the video all on you?
That was all [Cryptic]. If you would assign roles in credits, I was the director, editor, cinematographer, that kind of stuff. He put together all the shoots, he was the one who talked to people. I didn’t do any of that. We did collaborate on where we would shoot and the kind of style we were going for.
Were you only using your gear?
Yeah.
So you have a fair amount at your disposal.
I mean I guess. I used a Canon 5D Mark IV. I used a 24-70 F2.8 lens. I used a 50mm 1.8. I used a DJI Ronin S [(a gimbal stabilizer)] with some accessories like an external monitor and a handlebar.
So, when you were making this video, was there kind of a conscious effort to really make THE Connecticut College video? As in a video that someone with no outside knowledge of Connecticut College could watch and gain an impression of what the school is like?
That’s kind of a complicated question. I would say that initially that was not the goal. I’m not going to put words in [Cryptic]’s mouth but my understanding of it was that he was trying to make a song about Conn for students to listen to and enjoy and just kind of feel that school spirit. But I think once we started to realize that this video could be pretty special, it kind of became about really making it as good as possible for a larger audience. We did have a couple discussions in terms of what light does this paint the school [in]. Is this going to be good for the school? Is it unique about Connecticut College? The way we responded to that was to say that it is unique about Conn. There are things about the song that are uniquely Connecticut College. Obviously, the video has Connecticut College in it. It’s not really just about Conn though. I think it shows a little bit more, that students that go here can produce something like that.
Have you gotten any reactions to the video, on either the positive or negative front, that have impacted you in any way?
Well, I’m going to be honest, I haven’t heard any negative feedback. Nobody’s told me they didn’t like it. In terms of impact, I wasn’t expecting the video to receive the amount of praise that it got. I knew it was going to be one of my better works once I realized it actually could be pretty good, but I wasn’t really expecting the level of praise. People that I don’t really talk to that often, talking to me about it, saying how much they liked it.
Do you think there are future Cryptic collaborations in the works?
Yeah, we’ve talked about it a little bit. I don’t really have too much to add on to that. I think there might be.
Anything else you want to touch on?
I am thinking about submitting the video to some film festivals. I’m not really sure which ones yet. Just kind of an idea right now.
You can find the “Camp Conn” music video on YouTube under the channel “Thomas Awender”. •
