I’ve been aware of Azul Barrientos for at least a decade. She’s one of these fixtures in the community art world who is universally loved and respected. I had worked with her once for an online music magazine sort of project that seems to have fizzled.

So, I at least knew she was aware of me. When she contacted me a couple of years later to ask if I would like to make a music video with her, I was thrilled. She has been working on an album for a while, now. And she wants a video to aid in the promotion of it. That particular project (album and video release) is slated for September 16.

However, while we met and brainstormed over music video ideas, Azul learned of the impending deadline for the Tiny Concert contest. The deadline for the first phase of their selection process. She asked if I’d like to help her put a quick video together. Of course, I said. She had two songs in mind and counldn’t decided. So we shot them both. We did it in her home. The audio was captured by the onboard microphone of my C-100, but it sounds solid enough. When we were about to post the video, both Azul and I, several hundred miles apart, finally decided to read all of the entire rules of the contest. This is when we learned that there needed to be a desk (however we might interpret that word) somewhere in the video. A re-shoot was unlikely. I was in New Orleans, she in San Antonio.

I came up with a creative cheat. I put my cameras on my motorized slider, and had it dolly in over my shoulder as I sat at my desk editing the music video. A bit meta. But it was better than nothing. I think it came out well. The video of the second song we shot can be found below.