TEN

Hello all,

Long time no blog! 

No good reason not to write, just haven’t been in the mood I guess - ha! 

I’m glad most of you like the new video. It was a lot of fun to make. 

This is the first video I have written the treatment for. Usually it’s an idea the director and I collaborate on, and then they write it up into treatment form. 

This one for some reason came to me in flashes. I wrote two separate treatments. We ended up choosing this one we shot… but the other was a fun idea too. I will include both original treatments so you can see how I wrote it and then compare it to the video Peter was able to shoot on a limited budget. 

I was happy to try a video that is unlike any I had shot before - and one that had a sense of humor, while tackling an emotional issue. A sense of humor is so important in love - especially during conflict - and I was glad to include it in the video. I also liked that while it was completely silly to be boxing an oversized stuffed heart, I like the metaphor the boxing heart represented. It was like fighting my own heart, or could be interpreted like I was fighting love itself, or fighting the heart of the man I’m with. I like that it’s open to philosophical interpretation, all wrapped up in a silly package that you can take as deep as you want, or accept it at a surface level as a merely absurd and whimsical boxing match. 

I like to layer things as much as I can so hopefully a person can watch or listen over and over and get as much or as little as they want. It was fun to write two completely different treatments for the same song and I’m glad I can share with you the ‘video that never was’ in the second treatment. 

So what else is there to talk about…I’ve been writing a lot of songs. Been listening to a lot of pop radio and writing pop songs… I promise my next blog will be my favorite pop play list. There’s a lot of great music out there and I have been enjoying listening to lots of music lately… 

Ok, what else…Chicago.

I had fun meeting some EDAs and though I was really nervous to close a country music festival solo acoustic, the crowd was very nice and I really enjoyed the show. It’s always unnerving hearing a rocking band on stage and seeing the crowd standing up and rocking out, knowing I will be walking out there with nothing but my guitar and my songs and my voice. It’s a very naked and vulnerable feeling, but I am always humbled by the power of being honest on stage and how kindly people respond. Music has always been a great teacher for me, and I love being an eternal student.

I guess that’s it for now.  Kinda boring blog… I guess all my creativity has been going into songs and not into blogs! As with everything, everything changes with time. Soon a bounty of blogs will be flowing from my pen… er… keyboard…

Feel free to ask questions you want in the comments and I will try to answer them in my next blog. 

Don’t forget to vote for the video on GAC and CMT websites, and as always request “Ten” at country radio! I really feel it deserves to be a hit! Also, “Satisfied” is going to Hot AC radio, so you can request it at those stations as well. Your help really helps!

xxj

CURRENT VIDEO TREATMENT (click HERE to see the video)

This comical and light hearted video starts out in reality.. A dark one....As the track plays, a fight is taking place in the kitchen... A couple is filmed in slow motion, as fingers are pointed and faces are distorted with slow motion yelling and anger. It is like watching a tornado in slow motion

A dish is picked up and is hurled into the air, and just before it crashes against a wall (missing its target) we cut to our singer

It is a tight shot on her face as the first lines are spoken (or maybe we are on the second half of the verse now) it is an extreme close up that pulls out, is she standing up? A bright light shines on her. The camera begins to pull out, and we see her hair is laying out straight from her head.... She must not be standing up... The camera pulls out more to reveal, indeed, she is laying down on a black mat. She is wearing a tank top... It pulls out more and we see a referee is bent over, slapping his hand on the floor, counting out 'ten' in slow motion, as Jewel stares at the camera dreamily, in sharp contrast to the extreme distress of the referee who must be screaming loudly. The camera pulls out more and we see Jewel is wearing boxing gloves, and athletic shorts and lace up boxing boots

Just before the ref gets to ten, (and we get to ten in the first chorus) Jewel stands up and begins to pump her hands in the air. She shakes it off, and plays to the crowd, as the bell is rung again, and the ref calls her in to the middle of the ring to shake gloves before commencing the fight. We see the glove of the adversary reach in and bump gloves with Jewel, and we follow the arm, to see who it belongs to. It is revealed that Jewel is boxing a giant stuffed heart, wearing white tights with skinny legs and knobby knees.. Perhaps oversized shoes.... 

Maybe a ring girl walks by, scantily dressed... Maybe the stuffed heart checks her out, and I see this, and it incites me to rage.

A comedic fight begins, showing Jewel standing in an Irish fighting stance, her skinny arms not short on bravado- and the heart moving light footed with lots of fancy foot work, taunting Jewel. Silly punches are blown... Perhaps mocking some of the most famous boxing scenes from cinema... It’s closing, but sold in earnest... Perhaps the heart grabs Jewel’s pigtails at one point... Or Jewel jumps on the heart’s back, her face contorted with anger as she focuses her mock rage on this fluffy stuffed heart. 

For the chorus she goes down again.... A count to ten happens again... As we count along with the chorus.... This could be it... That last mighty blow delivered by the stuffed heart may have been her last... She looks like she’s in bad shape as we head to the bridge

The bridge can be delivered with her on her back... Deep thought and consideration.. What is she doing?! 

You can lose what you’re not thankful for- I don’t want that to happen to you and me... Better count my blessings....

As we count in the last chorus, it can be Jewel seeing the heart in a brand new light... The lighting gets soft focus and romantic, she studies the heart’s legs, and find them pleasing.... Sexy even... A glint twinkles as the heart seems to shine, as it shakes its head, as if it had long hair, it is milking a tight romantic shot for the camera... For Jewel... 

Jewel is moved and stirred by love and forgiveness, she decides she must...Stand... Up... 

The ref is counting... She struggles to stand.. Can she do it? She gets up but stumbles and falls back down... It is a melodramatic moment that takes Herculean effort- like something out of “Rocky” finally she stands and runs to the arms of the heart, they embrace... Perhaps they spin in a circle, hands locked, as the camera catches Jewel’s perspective, looking at the heart directly, and then the camera changed point of view, and we see what the heart sees- Jewel’s face, maybe a missing tooth as she beams with love.

On the outro we cut back to the kitchen, where the couple is fighting, the glass still suspended in mid air. The film rewinds dramatically, the glass flies back into the hand of the woman who threw it, the whole fight rewinds back to the beginning- the faces contort in reverse, and rests where it started... Two people at a table... About to make a different choice, and maybe not escalate the fight this time.... 



Side note- perhaps a better start is not in a kitchen, but a fight in a bedroom.... It can be an actor, or me and a husband fighting, get in bed mad, I drift off to sleep, and the bizarre boxing match begins.... The actress or I wake up at the end, and snuggle with our partner...

THE VIDEO THAT NEVER WAS

In this light hearted version of the video, Jewel’s performance footage will be intercut with a narrative told with the help of a 6-year-old boy and girl. 


These two tiny tots who will be dressed immaculately as adults, and they will be engaged in adult type fighting. 

The girl will be wearing a fashionable dress, and the boy a suit. 

They have come home from a night out at the theatre, perhaps. The boy in a sober manner takes off his jacket and lays it over the back of a chair. The girl begins to take off her earrings and her shawl... And the chill in the room is tangible. Something must have upset the couple before they walked in the house. ...

The girl can lip sync to the lyric, as though she is singing.

The kids go about undressing, the boy in an undershirt and boxers, with his dress shoes on still, his socks held up by sock suspenders. The girl is in a slip and jewelry, and is combing her long hair at her vanity, when the fight that has been brewing begins to erupt. 

The simplest thing starts it- perhaps he knocks over her perfume as he angrily reaches for something... Perhaps she is just spoiling for a fight. 

Soon we are in a full blown yelling match, and we see much finger pointing and veins bulging out on their necks as they yell. In slow motion we see their faces contorted with spittle escaping excitedly from their mouths as rage is unleashed... 

It is comical, because these are children, dressed as adults, behaving as adults do- but really it drives home how childish fighting is.... 

On the choruses we see them try to calm them selves, but then with the next verse, fighting erupts again.... 

On the bridge we see the two kids slam doors. The girl has locked herself in her bathroom... Shockingly, we see she turns back into an adult woman, and she cries, her head buried in her knees...

Out side we see the boy morph back into a man, as he stews, sitting on the floor on the other side of the door, just inches from his wife. A moment of clarity begins to take over and they realize they don’t want this to happen to them.... Perhaps they trade lip synching to the lyric... The man singing a line then the woman... 

            You can lose what your no thankful for
            I don’t want that to happen to you and me
            Better count my blessings

As the third chorus begins, the door opens to reveal the kids have now fully morphed into adults....We are dressed exactly the same as the kids were... My husband and I... And we begin to see what’s great about each other.... 

            One, you still move me
            Two three, you send chills right through me...

We each sing lyrics of the last chorus....And in the end, we chose each other all over again