SVG creating its own version of ‘Happy’ music video

St Vincent and the Grenadines will soon have its own version of the “Happy” music video to share with the rest of the world.{{more}}

A team of local videographers, dancers, and willing members of the public have teamed up to put together their own visual version of the catchy song, performed by Grammy nominee Pharrell Williams.

SEARCHLIGHT caught up with the production team last Sunday during a video shoot in Bequia, where project manager Alexei Crichton indicated that the video should be ready for viewing by early next month, and said that the idea for the video came from the latest video craze.

“When the song came out, it was released with a 24 hour video, and I noticed a trend where other countries are submitting their own remakes of the video showcasing their tourism, their lime life, their night life, artistes and their people on a whole… so we said that definitely this could be an opportunity to showcase St Vincent, our scenery, our parties, our peoples, our tourists, our nightlife and our limelife….”

According to Crichton, his team, which includes local videographers and photographers and editors, the likes of Orville “Ruff” Samuel, Young Fross, Jamal James, Calvert Jones and Jeremie Tronet, have spent the last two weeks filming footage for the production, which they hope to wrap up by next week, after a few more film sessions are completed.

“Apart from Bequia, we did sessions on the mainland. This is the first one we are doing outside St Vincent.

“We did a dance session last Thursday through the streets of Kingstown, where we had about 30 dancers dancing through Middle Street. We had some dancers in the “Iron Man” compound, and we had all of them do routines coming down Back Street.

“We will be going to Mopion Island this weekend coming up; also we plan to hit Union Island and Tobago Cays, and we are looking at hitting the leeward and windward ends, of course, and just getting some good scenery some good vibes.”

Crichton also added that huge interest has been sparked by the initiative, which prompted the creation of a Facebook page (Happy St Vincent) that allows fans to follow the progress of the video.

“We have some surprises in terms of persons that we will be working along with…. It is something different and exciting, it’s definitely something to look forward to. We are putting a lot of our free time in it and we can’t wait ‘til the video is out to see what we come up with.

“We’re just as anxious to see the final results and hopes it makes others happy,” Crichton said.

The song “Happy” is the lead single of American singer and producer Pharrell Williams’ second studio album GIRL.

It was featured in the movie “Despicable Me 2,” for which it received a Grammy nomination, and topped the charts in 24 countries.

When first released, it was accompanied by a 24-hour music video, and this was followed by groups, schools, embassies and countries following suit and producing their own covers.