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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2021 · yaledailynews.com
THROUGH THE LENS
S
tanding in my closet, I let go, submerging each lyric I sing with my memories, pain and anger. In front of me stands my microphone, taking in each vocal inflection and mapping them out onto a spectrogram. Twelve months ago, I was in Hartford, competing in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella with my group, Cadence. Twelve months ago, I was performing in front of a crowd. Now, I sing alone. This is the reality of a cappella during a pandemic. But how do you perform as a group when you are scattered all over the world? How do you produce a video without it falling into the category of something mundane? How do you bring together ten different pieces of footage in a way that doesn’t resemble the appearance of just another lifeless meeting over Zoom? Music is art. It is nothing short of beautiful. And something beautiful does not deserve to be reduced to something prosaic. Filming this video has been nothing short of a challenge. I have spent hours sewing, staging, adjusting lighting and focus, recording take after take, all in an effort to tell a story. Our song, “over the rainbow”, tells of being trapped in a dark place and capturing the essence of that is my goal. The song alludes to the Wizard of Oz and a descent into darkness. As I turn myself into the witch, I reflect on what that means to me personally. I let the lyrics play on repeat in my head, a broken record spinning ‘round and ‘round, focusing in on the truth behind the words. I like to film and edit at night when I have full control over the light and the color. There is a power behind each shadow. In the daylight, the contrast blinds, but at night it glows. After I have finished filming, I find the act of removing my makeup to be both relieving and melancholic. While on my gap year, my extracurriculars are the few things tethering me to Yale. When this video is done, a cappella will calm down again and I will be left feeling empty. And while I look forward to the respite to come, I cannot help but wonderwhat will fill the newly-opened hole in my calendar. ZOE BERG reports.
