Music Video “Irresistible” Underwater…

(Click the image to see our music video on You Tube)

As I was saying in an earlier blog, this year is a music video year for our band Neon Venus. Besides new music videos to be shot throughout 2008 and 2009, I’m going to be posting some of our older music videos that we have been shooting since 2003, as well as some promotional music videos that were shot before 2003.

This music video in particular was shot in 2006 and it features a lot of underwater scenes. The scenes were shot in Las Vegas in our own pool in Paradise Palms. I was able to do these underwater scenes because I was once part of the national synchronized swimming team of Puerto Rico.

MY HISTORY WITH SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING
It was a complete thrill being an athlete and being so young and
traveling in the middle of the school year to Central American Games, or
Pan Am Games or any competition that was supposed to strengthened us a
national team. The best part of being in the national team is that we
qualified to be go to Olympics Games when the team event of synchronized swimming was in the process of becoming an official event of the Olympics. So we qualified to go as
an exhibition team along with other international teams. My recollection
was that this exhibition was for the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
Unfortunately, we were told that our country didn’t have money to pay
for the traveling expenses of our trip, and that was that! I don’t recall the details or the struggles that
synchronized swimming had to through to become an official sport in the
Olympic Games. I was too young then to ask about important details and
now I’m not in touch with any of the people who managed our team.
In order to provide you all with better information about synchronized swimming, I just went to the internet and grabbed some information about the
beginning of the sport and it’s general history. And here
it is:

Synchronized swimming became an Olympic event at the 1984 Los Angeles
Games, with solo and duet competition. They were replaced by competition
among eight-member teams in 1996, but the duet event was restored to the
Olympic program in 2000.

History of Synchronized Swimming:
http://swimming.about.com/od/2008olympicsynchro/ss/synchro_history.htm

http://swimming.about.com/od/2008olympicsynchro/ss/synchro_history_2.htm

http://swimming.about.com/od/2008olympicsynchro/ss/synchro_history_7.htm

The 2008 Games will maintain the same synchronized swimming program as
the last few Olympics, with medals to be awarded in team and duet events
at the Beijing Water Cube.
—-

AN ENCHANTING SPORT

I was always fascinated by my sport and by it’s beauty.

At any rate, I wanted to do some movements above water for this video,
but we didn’t have a crane to hold a camera above the water or
anything fancy to help us accomplish this feat. So we simply mostly went
underwater. But the movements still borrow from my synchronized
swimming days.

ABOUT DIRECTING AND BEING IN YOUR OWN MUSIC VIDEO

Peter and I have been a videography team for all of our music videos.
And I can truly now attest for how darn difficult is to be behind the
camera and in front of a camera.

I can use my background in filmmaking (Master’s Degree in
Telecommunication Arts from the University of Michigan), but still, it
makes a world of difference being in a video and directing it, as opposed to just
being in it as talent.

Somebody must give a huge medal to Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, and
every single actor/director who has manage to do a great job at doing
both acting and directing simultaneausly. It’s quite a grueling job, but I suppose, that
if you have the talent and a calling for it, one day it does become easier
and maybe even completely enjoyable.

The good thing though is that now I’m starting to get used to do both, and I think is going to show in our upcoming music videos for 2008.

SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING IN MOVIES

Esther Williams was the goddess of the synchronized swimming as far as
I’m concerned…and she made the sport famous through her movies.
For those of you who don’t know her, she was a beautiful movie star
who
glamorized synchronized swimming. Here’s what wikipedia has to say
about Esther:
“The scene most people associate Esther Williams with is the famous
and often spoofed grand water ballet finale in Bathing Beauty (1944).
Several moments, such as the swimmers who dive past one another in the
pool, the moment where Williams is received as a queen, then dives and
reappears above water, surrounded by several other swimmers who form a
circle around her, became iconic.
from the trailer for Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
Many of her MGM films, such as Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and
Jupiter’s Darling (1955), contained elaborately staged synchronized
swimming scenes, with considerable risk to Williams. She broke her neck
filming a 115 ft dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for
the film Million Dollar Mermaid which landed her in a body cast for
seven months. She subsequently recovered, though she still suffers
headaches as a result of the accident. Her many hours spent submerged in
a studio tank resulted in her rupturing her eardrums numerous times. In
her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid (1999), Williams detailed
several other occasions in which she nearly drowned shooting her
oxygen-defying stunts, since she rarely used a stunt double.

MAKING MORE VIDEOS WITH WATER BALLET IN THEM!

I hope to make another underwater video video soon.

I would love to see more movies using under water scenes and synchronized
swimmers.

_______________________________

A DREAM COME TRUE

My best memory of being an athlete is that as a child I used to watch
openings for Olympic Games every four years. From my living room it seemed like one of the best things
that anyone could do. You get to travel with people from other
countries and get to walk around a stadium and all kinds of incredible
events happen around you.

I used to watch the TV enthralled by the idea of
being an athlete.
And I wished I could be one. But then I also thought to myself that it
would be impossible. I mean what sport? And well, how do you get from your living room to an olympic stage?

That’s when a miracle happened.

I used to look out the balcony of my apartment and my mom and I noticed
this girl who used to walk her dog. Her name was Melba Santos.
I don’t know exactly how it happened, but I think I waved at her one of the days she was sitting downstairs and then I
went downstairs to meet her.

She was an absolute little angel, and we became very good friends.
And well, she was an athlete in the synchronized swimming team of Puerto
Rico!

One day, her mom took me to the pool to show me what synchronized
swimming was.

Melba and her friend Wanda showed me a little bit of their duet routine.
I could not believe my eyes, it was the most beautiful thing I had
seen. Water ballet in the water, I was amazed. And as I tried to
repeat what I just saw, I sank pretty quickly!
I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to do these things on the
water.
I mean it just seemed impossible!

But Melba (her mom’s name was also Melba) had just cast a spell on me, and I wanted to learn the sport.

She took me to one of the national coaches of synchronized swimming, who
also was in charge of a local team in San Juan. I started my classes,
and unfortunately, there was one little problem, I didn’t know how to swim! I
held to the side of the pool everyday obserbing the other girls come and
go as they did their laps. I would copy what they were doing and slowly make it to the other
side of the pool. Everyday this story repeated. Until one day I could
do two laps, the next day three, and then the rest is history and another
miracle happened the day I was accepted into the national team. And
what a great day it was, especially for someone who learned to swim at
eleven years old. But miracles do happen, so always, believe! (especially when there are angels in the midst).

Lissette

About Lissette’s band Neon Venus

Our first music video (this one is in Spanish for our song ‘Beso a Beso’

About Lissette (poetry style)

Songs and Videos:
our myspace website
our videos, our youtube website

Billboard, Rolling Stone, VH1 and AOL link:
Billboard.com (Neon Venus bio)
Rolling Stone (CD compilation to benefit tsunami survivors)
VH1 and Neon Venus
AOL Music and Neon Venus

Buy Music:
Buy Neon Venus CD ‘The Birth of Neon Venus’ at CD Baby’
Buy Neon Venus CD ‘Slip Into Rhythm’ at CD Baby’
Buy Neon Venus CD ‘Irrestible’ at CDBaby
Neon Venus and Itunes
Napster and Neon Venus
Amazon and Neon Venus