A school project turns into a passion

When presented with the task of creating a music video for the final project in Video Productions class, Becca Kilday had no lack of inspiration. She created a music video to “Soldier, Poet, King” by The Oh Hellos and the final product was professional level.

Before the process of filming could begin, Kilday needed to create a plan. She found the song on TikTok and after listening to it multiple times, she had a clear image of what she wanted this to look like in her head. One of Kilday’s hobbies is doing cosplay, so creating these characters and outfits was something she was very used to. After she got armor at a renaissance fair to be used in her video, the filming process was ready to begin.

Kilday used the little spare time she could find to go out and film the video. Originally, she thought filming would take a large amount of time, but over three days and about three hours each day, she was able to finish. To get her full idea filmed, she headed out to a local RI spot, Big River, in West Greenwich. To film the video, she used her own personal drone with automatic controls. The automatic controls enabled her to focus the drone on an area to film while she would be on the ground acting out the scene. The result became the true embodiment of a one-woman play.

“I put so much into it but I was always happy… I never got tired of it”

Becca Kilday

The actual filming was far from the end of Kilday’s task. She next needed to edit all of the footage in order to fully realize her vision. She described the process of editing as “pretty smooth” due to the solid idea of what she wanted the video to look like as a whole. The one scene that took up a lengthy amount of time was the last one. It shows all three characters walking in the woods altogether, with her playing every character. In order to pull off this scene, she used a green screen put together by two different greens, one on the top and the other on the bottom. She needed to edit all characters together and make the background look cohesive. It took her about 5 hours to edit the last 5 seconds of the video. Once she finished editing, the music video was put together and posted on YouTube, and the long process was finished.

“I didn’t talk to anyone in class, I just sat there and edited”

Becca Kilday

“I put so much into it, but I was always happy,” she said. “I never got tired of it.” The creative process for her became a consuming passion, taking priority even over normal social interaction. “I didn’t talk to anyone in class,” she said. “I just sat there and edited.”

When looking back she describes this video as being her favorite project she’s ever done. Her passion for this video shows when she talks about the project and when you watch it.