Holi Festival Like You've Never Seen it Before!
So yeah, the Holi Spring Festival of Colors. Arsen saw it in a movie once and was telling me about it. It's customary for celebrants to throw perfumed and colored powders at each other. Social class doesn't matter, anyone may participate. It sounded rad! Then we watched the movie together and it totally looked rad too! (Oh wait, technically that means he's seen it movie twice. I apologize for lying to you earlier!) Arsen says he'd like to go to celebrate Holi in India. So would I but I'm broke. Next best thing? Holi in New York! Arsen couldn't come with me that day because he had to work. I felt bad because he's the one who introduce me to Holi but there's always next year.
The 24th Annual Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill
Of the many Holi celebrations in New York I chose to attend the Phagwah parade in Richmond Hill. After the parade everyone gathers in the park to throw colored powders at each other. The park is big and wide; perfect for Holi! I originally planned to go with my trusty Nikon but after looking online at past events I wasn't so sure I'd be bringing anything new to the table. Holi is celebrated all around the world and many fantastic pictures have already been taken. I didn't know what I was getting into and frankly I wanted to be free to enjoy the event. Also, my camera isn't weatherproof! What to do? I brought my weatherproof GoPro instead!
The GoPro camera is amazing: small, has HD resolution, mounts anywhere, and is rugged. From indie skaters to blockbuster Hollywood filmmakers, everybody uses one now. I literally see it everywhere, it's so neat! When I got one they hadn't yet rose to such dominance so it’s nice to see such a strong confirmation that I backed the right horse. Once you know what it is it's hard not to notice them mounted on a car for a bit on Conan. (Or mounted on the cars of every reality show ever, ha ha!) Strapping a GoPro to my chest solved all my problems: nothing to carry, capture footage of the Holi festival, no worries about powder damaging camera equipment. I was ready to go!
I'm glad I brought the camera because I'm not good at moment-by-moment recaps. I had a lot of fun. It was a new experience and environment but I felt welcome. I did a lot of dancing. The camera did affect my own behavior but others were curious. I handed out some business cards. I had it rolling the whole time and was somehow able to cut the footage down to a two-and-a-half-minute music video. Ha ha, check it out.
M.I.A. "Bucky Done Gun (Master D RMX)" — Unofficial Music Video
Footage is from the 2012 Phagwa Parade and Holi Spring Festival of Colors in Richmond Hill, Queens. Please enjoy. -Credits- Music: http://soundcloud.com/dj-masterd Video: http://go.mystady.com/holivdo
Well, obviously it's unofficial, obviously. Duh. Yeah, I thought it'd be fun to make a music video. I wanted a track that invoked a carnival/festival feeling. Something energetic! I think DJ Master D totally nailed it. M.I.A. "Bucky Done Gun (Master D RMX)" is available on DJ Master D's SoundCloud profile. There's a lot of great tracks on there, check 'em out! What I didn't know when I was editing the video is that the original music video for M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gone" uses a color motif. What a happy coincidence! Oh, by the way my music video uses only a portion of the track. The entire thing is 3:48.
So, editing the video in iMovie was a real pain in the ass. There were many things I wanted to do that were simply impossible. iMovie is not for precision editing; the smallest clip you can have is 5 frames. I like the way it turned out but this wasn't my original vision. As soon as I can afford it I'm getting Final Cut X. I misspoke. I can afford Final Cut X but it'd be irresponsible of me to buy it seeing as how I'm unemployed at the moment. Yeah...
Happy Holi!
New York photographer, party mammal, and Internet troll for hire. Alain-Christian is an OG who’s been blogging for over 20 years dating back to the early days of AOL. He loves sharing his offbeat opinions on pop culture, bestowing his tech knowledge, and making arts.