Norfolk students develop, perform and record music videos

On a cold February afternoon, 20 dancers from The Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk twisted and turned as they performed a music video on the plaza of the Icon Norfolk Apartments building. GSA film students stood behind the cameras and shot.

They conceptualized, created and shot the music video for Jake Clemons’ song “Born Like Me”, which was released on Wednesday to celebrate June 16.

Clemons, a 1998 GSA graduate, has played tenor and baritone saxophone in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band for 12 years. He is the nephew of Clarence Clemons, a Norfolk native and longtime saxophonist in Springsteen’s band until his death in 2011.

The song is available for streaming starting in 2022. Clemons wrote the song following the 2020 deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police; the lyrics reflect racial violence, the need to stop racial injustice and people uniting in peace.

The song features Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Allison Russell and former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

However, the music video is the work of GSA students.

“I wanted to think about how to give this release a visual aspect, and in some fantasy I wanted to be able to promote this school, which I’m very proud of and grateful for,” Clemons said in an interview.

GSA students from every department participated in this event. Music students composed the intro and ending. Theater and film students organized the shoot and controlled the cameras; students represented the song’s recurring lyric, “I can’t breathe,” for example by wrapping themselves in cloth and representing drowning.

Viewers may recognize several locations, including the top of the Dominion Tower parking garage, the Interstate 264 overpass near Harbor Park, and the dark flow of the Elizabeth River, which forms the background of many scenes.

Ava Harlan, then a high school senior, was the first assistant director and created interview sheets and scheduled shots.

“We have had many opportunities at GSA so far, but this is definitely the biggest,” she said, standing on the set in downtown Norfolk. “It’s really just a dream.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, [email protected]