Pursuit of a Video
by Steve Taylor
From Release Extra 1994
I suppose directing music vidoes is like being in the army. You travel to strange, exotic locales and shoot people.
Oh yeah, there is one other similarity -- somebody else pays for it all. So when my co-producer and cinematographer Ben Pearson first played me "Here In America" by Rich Mullins, we'd barely gotten past the first verse before I announced, "We've got to film this in Ireland."
Amazingly, Rich's record company said yes and even suggested that while we were at it, we go ahead and shoot a second video for "The Color Green." "Fine," I said, "but the Color Green" needs to be filmed in black and white."
Again, they said yes. This was getting fun. I started wondering how far I could push this, and briefly toyed with the idea of "Creed" would be split between Columbia, South America and Rich's hometown in Kansas.
And finally, to get that "Rich at home" look, I cunningly dreamed up the concept of filming Rich at home, using his one-room attic apartment for "Hold Me Jesus." That settled, we were soon off on another globe-trotting adventure, taking Rich Mullins back to his ancestral roots on the Emerald Isle. And quite an adventure it was, one that still brings a smile every morning when I watch the video with my bowl of Lucky Charms. In fact, I'd love to publish my complete memoirs of the trip, but I'm trying to convince the label that I can only write them on the French Rivera.
