25 Random Things about Instant Videos

1. Growing up, the main way I got exposed to pop music was through music videos. I just loved watching Video Hits on CBC after coming home from school. And I loved the late night Good Rockin' Tonite with hosts Terry David Mulligan and then Stu Jeffries. I would stay up many nights watching one music video after another.

The Instant Video project makes sense when I think about all those late nights...

2. I almost never know what the song or what the concept is for the video until minutes before hand. This spontaneity defines the Instant Video for me. Having even small plans for videos almost always fail.

3. We started this project in September. We're almost halfway through a year's worth of videos now with Instant Video #25.

4. I want to go further with the videos. I'm getting an itch. I'm responding to my own worst critic. I want to experiment more within the Instant Video construct. I want to conceive special projects and self-contained stories. I want to take it as far as it can go.

5. It's a chronological project. With each new video the number increases. Yet, listening to the playlist on YouTube, I often like to randomize the autoplay. Listening to the final playlist would be the ultimate end-result of the entire project. YouTube even provides a way of embedding a playlist player: see below.



6. After twenty-five straight weeks, we are going to take a wee pause from the project to regenerate...a little spring break. Not to worry, we'll be uploading some lost rare gems from the Instant Video vault from years past for those that can't go without their weekly fix.

7. One of the working titles we had for the then unnamed Instant Video project was Post-It Video, in part, to reference the post-its that Tammy writes and sticks to the wall after a new one is done.

8. Making the videos can be exhausting and I'm feeling a little burnt out.

9. Making them keeps me going. Keeps my chops up. I'm always thinking of ways to make them different. Always working. Must. Get. Some. Rest.

10. Only two Instant Videos were shot outside of Peterborough. Most of them are shot right in our living room. We re-arrange our couches every week.

11. We get by with a little help from our friends...big strong light, microphones, other gear used in Instant Videos are mostly from other people. :-) Thanks!

12. An idea for the next phase of Instant Videos is to invite collaborators for key projects. There are areas of art, costume design and choreography that could be explored in future projects.

13. We are also working on an idea to create a narrative serial out of the Instant Videos - a "high concept video playlist" inspired by David Lynch called Songs for Dark Highway. Some funding would be awesome.

14. Then again, there's something simple and perfect about them already. Maybe I'm just getting restless for no good reason. But I ask myself, what do I want to see? Two seconds. That's all I get to catch your attention.

15. The clapboard was shown in two videos: Sweet + Sour and Rolling Stone.

16. If a singer sings in the forest does anybody hear? In other words, do we care if anybody is watching? We'll leave this collection for history to discover. During our growth, feedback keeps us going. Science says the object changes just because it is being observed. I want to focus on keeping it together. Just by watching, the audience influences the progress of this creative challenge. I promise to be frank and diligent in my reporting. This is part of it.

17. I almost spent that $10 bill we used in Money at Walt Disney World in Florida last year.

18. I don't want to stop making the Instant Videos completely until we reach 100 videos and 1 more for good measure.

19. I wonder what the kids will think of these videos when they grow up.

20. The longest video so far is 4 min. and 46 sec. - SHOCKER.

21. The shortest is 1 min. 56 sec. - The Gravity Song

22. The only song in 25 Instant Videos that Tammy didn't write: The Girl from Ipanema.

23. There have been only three videos shot with a hand-held camera: Full Force, My Waves and Is it Alright?

24. The biggest heart in a video so far: Start Over Again.

25. I feel like celebrating. Whoa! 25! It's been a blur. A big learning experience. A big block of time. And a lot of content. Where will it go from here?



He Listens
by Tammy Lin Foreman

I wish I couldn't see
the way they always look at me
they want my body I can tell by their eyes
crawling over my skin like flies
I want to wear my blue jeans boy size
with a straight line drawn from my chest to my thighs
and no dips and curves along the way
maybe then they will hear the words that I say

but I don't mind the way he looks at me
his vision slides so softly (softly)
from my eyes, to my lips and to his hands
ride his body to the grave 'coz he understands and

he listens
to what I have to say