I've officially joined the Local Little Monster Blogger contest. The competition is seeking bloggers to compete for the chance to go backstage at a Lady Gaga concert and shadow official Monster Ball blogger Dannielle Owens-Reid. To enter, you must upload a video explaining why you deserve to win.
Having total confidence in my writing abilities and skills as a music journalist and also loving the shit out of Lady Gaga, I knew I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. My major leveraging point is that I’ve already written about The Monster Ball and my review is published on a credible media outlet in Indianapolis. My selling point is that I will be able to do it bigger and better if I can see the Monster Ball from backstage, rather than from miles away in the nosebleeds as I did last year.
Convinced that if enough people can see my previous work they will understand how much I deserve this opportunity, I quickly realized I would need something special to get noticed. Sitting in front of a point-and-shoot camera and gushing about my love for Lady Gaga simply won’t cut it for a contest as important and with as much potential as this one. Without hesitation, I contacted Jeremy Wallace a.k.a. Jace.
Jace reached out to me months ago when I blogged about the alpha.live video for “Light Up” that he directed. He thanked me for the kind words about his work and we friended on Facebook. Having seen numerous examples of Jace’s top quality work with Heavy Gunners and other Indianapolis artists, I knew he would give me the professional look I needed for this video.
After I pitched it to him online, we met in person a few days later to develop a concept. We walked away with an idea that would ultimately morph into multiple incarnations and ideas before the final product was complete. After our Friday meeting, the plan was to meet in one week to film the video. With the loose concept idea, Jace would go to the drawing board and tighten the details of the shoot. Meanwhile, I activated plans to get Gagafied on the day of the shoot and lined up a space to film in.
Just as there was no question that Jace was the perfect fit for my production needs, I knew no one could style Danielle Gaga for the video as well as my Indy fashion guru Kaitlin Elyse. After a phone call detailing the situation, we met on Thursday (the night before the shoot) to finalize my outfit. The next day, I met Kaitlin at Allure Salon in Carmel where she gave me black leggings, a black cami, a ridiculous slate-colored jacket with spikey, Gaga-esque shoulders, and a jeweled belt. Allure owner Melissa Milward Ingersoll made every inch of my hair stand on end- gathering sections, spraying them with hairspray, teasing, strengthening with a flat iron, and pinning to my head in large, rolled curls. I estimate the final product to have been over a foot tall; I had to slouch two inches in my car to have full clearance.
After hair, Melissa also did my makeup. To keep the costume Gaga-inspired, rather than a Gaga imitation, she opted to keep one eye’s shadow significantly darker and bigger than the other side. The end color (a custom blend of pure pigment) matched the color of my jacket with exactness. Kaitlin brought her MAC Viva Glam Gaga lipstick - the perfect finishing touch. A large, black, flashy bead-and-feather necklace, borrowed from Allure’s boutique, was added to decorate my neckline
I raced to Irvington to meet Jace and his partner Nathan Karamanski. Together, they are Circa:Forever. We met in the basement of Bookmama’s, a space formerly named The Underground 9 Studio; also the location of the photo shoot for the Zaptown Grey Granite article I wrote in April of 2010. We used the red brick hallway with steps in the background to do the entire filming.
Next, I realized that I am a writer for a reason. Simply put, I have no camera swag. Rather than having me speak directly to the camera, we captured footage in the hallway and then labored over a voice recording device for what felt like hours. Nate tried his damnedest to get me excited, but no matter how hard we tried I never sounded genuine.
Exhausted and already pushing it to arrive on time to other gigs (me, to report on a Cage The Elephant concert; Nate to shoot the Beta Male CD release party at Radio Radio), we decided one more round would be necessary. We met again four days later to finish recording. I left work at lunchtime and met the guys downtown dressed as normal Danielle, the music blogger. We filmed me typing and writing in my notebook in various locations and then completed the last stage of the recording process in Nate’s studio. With clean, natural vocal recordings, Nate had everything he needed to work his magic. Less than a week later, the final product was ready to release to the public.
Originally we had less than three weeks to film, edit, and upload a video. It seemed unfair to me that I rushed and met a tight deadline to be considered for this contest, only to find the organizers would extend the deadline by nearly three more weeks. Consequently, I am currently playing the waiting game- not wanting to garner attention if I can’t convert that attention into a vote at the same time.
Watch it below. If you like what you see and want to give me your support, click the “Support Danielle” link on the right side of the video here: http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a66a2ef46d93fb2c2d1656b2cd96a264/191. It’ll connect to your facebook and send you a reminder when the polls are open. Otherwise, just wait until March 29th when you’ll see me blowing up your Twitter and Facebook feeds with a request for your vote.
P.S. You'll never believe how fun it was stopping to get gas on east Washington street at 9 p.m. on a Friday with that hair and outfit. It was an old skool gas station too, so I had to go inside to pay. "Heeeeey baby! You bringin' the big hair back!" o.O
