As you might guess from the photo above, I’ve been working on something a little crazy.
Last month I re-released my book Party Girl and I really wanted to make a parody video to celebrate. If you’re not familiar, this is a parody video. Basically, it’s when you take an existing music video and re-shoot it yourself with your own lyrics. Since we have our own video team at Chic HQ, I kept thinking, surely I can make one of those! So I thought and thought about what I could do that would play on the idea of a book and then one day when I was running one of my favorite Beyonce songs came on my iPod and I thought… That’s It!
We planned out the video for months and everyone at the office worked on it in some way. From finding a location that looked like the original, to choosing a similar wardrobe, to hair extensions, singing and even the creation of my Beyonce-style hat, it was a total group effort. I worked with a choreographer for a month on re-creating Bey’s signature moves and I begged and cajoled until the uber-talented Chelsea Colwell (our uber-talented production coordinator) agreed to record the song for me.
The day of the shoot, hair and makeup took nearly three hours. I didn’t eat all day long because I was so nervous. I had to dance in front of a crew of guys I’d never met, wearing, basically a bathing suit. I may or may not have done a large shot (or two!) to gather up the courage necessary to pull it off. I messed up my dance… a lot. I kept forgetting the parody lyrics I wrote and sang Beyonce’s original version over and over which meant we had to re-shoot each scene over and over.
When I watched the footage for the first time (by myself, in the safety of my own bedroom) I cried like a weenie because I thought I looked awkward, ridiculous, and to be honest, chubby… let’s just say, Bey looks a lot better in a leotard than I do! For a solid day I honestly considered scrapping the whole thing even though I’d invested tons of time and money on it already. I kept thinking about what people would say. I mean, it’s Beyonce and that’s a heck of a person to try to emulate! Also, I’m not a dancer and I didn’t get anywhere near pulling off that choreography as effortlessly as Bey. I watched take after take feeling more and more terrified. I was positive that if I put it out in the world people were going to make fun of me, my booty and my dancing skills. I worried and worried and debated it for hours. And then I realized something important… I have no control over what other people think.
Oh sure, I hope people like it. More than that, I hope they love it. I hope they play it a hundred times a day and share it with all their friends. I’m a people pleaser to the end, and I can’t help but want everyone to like me and my work. But like I’ve discussed before, it’s impossible to please everyone. Better to just create something you think is cool and not listen to the negative comments. I would rather put myself out there in the world and show people that I had the courage to try something wild, then sit at home and wonder what might have been.
And so, tomorrow (my birthday!), I’ll post my first ever parody video. It’s called Book on Top, a play off Beyonce’s song Love on Top and I hope you dig it. I hope it makes you smile and laugh and that you think it’s cool enough to share with your friends on social media. But at the end of the day, to me, making this video isn’t about reviews or likes on Facebook or even Beyonce. Making this video is about courage. There I am, a mother of three with thighs that jiggle and stretch marks hidden under my clothes, daring to step outside of my comfort zone. No matter what anyone says or thinks I made something I thought was cool and I put it out into the world. Maybe only twelve people will watch it and maybe every one of them will think it’s terrible… but at least I had the guts to try something new. Having guts doesn’t make me Beyonce’s level of cool, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s pretty darn close. xo, Rachel
