Today’s article from our Digital Resident Patrick Samuel is exploring the creation of his music video for ‘Tomorrow Today’.
To support the release of his second album, Patrick dreamed up a wonderful music video which featured his emotional support dog. Here he is to tell us if there’s any truth to what they say about working with animals in show business!
What inspired you to write Tomorrow Today?
When I was working on Distant Star, I focused on relationships, as much as I did on autism. The two are so linked together because I started to realise how much my autism has always affected my connections with others. One thing I kept coming back to was a past relationship with someone who always said they only loved me in the present moment.
The song is written from the perspective I had back then, that whilst they may go off and be with other people at any time, “I know you love me today”. At the time, that was good enough for me, despite the uncertainty of a future and the anxiety this would cause me.
The production is quite lush and there’s a lot of focus on the acoustic guitar, which I was just learning to play at the time. I wanted it sound epic, but there’s something that’s also inherently forlorn about it, which tied in with the overall theme of the album as well.
How did the story with your dog fit into the video?
There are times when it’s important for a music video to reflect the lyrical content of the song, but I really didn’t want to go down that route with Tomorrow Today. I thought to do something entirely different and put the focus on Chase, my emotional support dog.
Chase is a Belgian Malinois, he’s trained and certified and he provides me with daily support by engaging me in activities when he detects low mood or distress. He provides sensory stimulation with his soft fur and can act as a weighted blanket when I’m overwhelmed. He’s quite independent, but his daily routine is also part of my daily routine and that helps give my day focus and stability.
I wanted the video to tell a story about a boy who’s looking for his lost dog, played by Chase. The boy would visit familiar places putting up posters as he searches for him and eventually, they would be reunited. The rest of the video follows them on an adventure day together in nature and ends with them sitting together at the end of the day, watching the sunset.
What was filming with Chase like?
It was his second music video appearance so far, but he’s been in short films before and he’s comfortable in front of the camera. Chase is easy to motivate as he’s always ready for action and adventure.
We began filming in some of the parks in north London such as Broomfield Park and Firs Farm, before taking the train and heading to Richmond Park, where the second half of the video plays out. He thoroughly enjoyed the day out and all the attention he received from onlookers as we filmed, even making friends on the train as well.
There’s the moment when we’re reunited, and he runs up to me and looks directly at the camera as if to say, “Did I do it right?” and it’s such an adorable look that we kept it in the video. He’s easy to work with, but I’m not sure if he’d say the same about me!
What kind of responses has the video had so far?
I was lucky to be able to present it on the big screen at my local theatre, not just once, but three times! The first time was at an autism conference and Chase came on stage to introduce the video with me, and the other two times were at launch events to promote my solo exhibitions.
At all three of those events, the responses were overwhelming, people love seeing Chase on screen and in person, and afterwards there are often questions about how you can get dogs trained to work with people with autism, so he’s helped to open up a lot of discussions on the subject.
WATCH: Tomorrow Today
Digital Residencies is part of Drake Music’s covid-secure artistic programming and is supported by the Arts Council England Culture Recovery Fund. It is a self-directed online residency for Disabled artists.
