We chat to Rebecca Goodeve from Leigh on Sea, who has produced a fabulous video (below) comprising a wonderful mixture of friends, family and West End stars to sing Greenday's 21 Guns from the musical American Idiot, to help raise money for the NHS staff and volunteers caring for COVID-19 patients.
First of all we LOVE the 21 Guns video but let’s talk a bit about you to kick off. We have seen you performing with LODS, can you remind us which shows you have done with them?
I’m so glad you loved the video! I’ve been a member of LODS for almost 3 years now. My first show with them was ‘Copacabana’ in May 2018, followed by ‘Spring Awakening’ where I had my first taste of a principal role, and then the super fun ‘All Shook Up’! We were rehearsing for Madness’ ‘Our House’ The Musical before we all had to go into lockdown. We were actually supposed to be on the Palace Theatre’s stage last week (6-8 May) so I think the entire cast is feeling a little bit down and missing each other. However, LODS have just announced that we will all be back on stage in October and able to perform the show! We all made a fun announcement video for that too!
I’m so glad you loved the video! I’ve been a member of LODS for almost 3 years now. My first show with them was ‘Copacabana’ in May 2018, followed by ‘Spring Awakening’ where I had my first taste of a principal role, and then the super fun ‘All Shook Up’! We were rehearsing for Madness’ ‘Our House’ The Musical before we all had to go into lockdown. We were actually supposed to be on the Palace Theatre’s stage last week (6-8 May) so I think the entire cast is feeling a little bit down and missing each other. However, LODS have just announced that we will all be back on stage in October and able to perform the show! We all made a fun announcement video for that too!
What is your usual job and have you still been able to work during lockdown?
I’m a Film Colourist and run my own studio in Old Leigh called Author Colour. My job is to effectively tell the story of someone’s film or commercial through the colour, it’s such an enjoyable career! I get to work really closely with my clients and can enhance exactly what the viewer thinks and feels when watching something. It’s quite a technical job as I have to know everything from pre-production all the way through to post-production. Work has been an issue during the lockdown as filming isn’t allowed in so many countries. The whole industry is suffering but this down time has allowed me to catch up on my admin I guess! It also gave me the time to work on Sing To Salute’s ‘21 Guns’, it’s the second time I’ve ever produced anything, it’s really hard work! Hats off to people who do this full time, but perhaps it would get easier the more experienced you are.
My first project I produced was the ‘All Shook Up’ trailer for LODS, that really got the buzz for the show going early and was so exciting to be able to pull off something super professional for an “amateur” dramatics society.
I’m a Film Colourist and run my own studio in Old Leigh called Author Colour. My job is to effectively tell the story of someone’s film or commercial through the colour, it’s such an enjoyable career! I get to work really closely with my clients and can enhance exactly what the viewer thinks and feels when watching something. It’s quite a technical job as I have to know everything from pre-production all the way through to post-production. Work has been an issue during the lockdown as filming isn’t allowed in so many countries. The whole industry is suffering but this down time has allowed me to catch up on my admin I guess! It also gave me the time to work on Sing To Salute’s ‘21 Guns’, it’s the second time I’ve ever produced anything, it’s really hard work! Hats off to people who do this full time, but perhaps it would get easier the more experienced you are.
My first project I produced was the ‘All Shook Up’ trailer for LODS, that really got the buzz for the show going early and was so exciting to be able to pull off something super professional for an “amateur” dramatics society.
What gave you the idea for doing the video?
There are many videos like this out there already, if anything, maybe too many. But I had seen the Hamilton and Dear Evan Hanson videos and was really inspired. I have so many talented friends I just knew we could pull it off and make it sound and look incredible! I thought perhaps there are a few people out there at the moment who are twiddling their thumbs a little, nothing helps me more than having a project to focus on and thought others may feel the same – turns out this was the case! After mentioning it to a few clients I had worked with previously they were asking if they could come on board and offered their services! This just took the project to the next level! I really cannot thank Sam Palmer (editor), Glenn Oxenbury (sound mixer) and Lee Watson (graphics) enough for all of their help. I certainly could not have done this without them.
Did you have people in mind to sing in it when you decided to go for it?
I had a few people in mind who I obviously knew could sing as I perform along side them in LODS but it was important to me that this project was super collaborative so I reached out to a few other members from societies and people I studied performing arts with at college etc. All of a sudden the scale of the project had grown into something massive! I really did not expect the amount of interest we received! We ended up with over 70+ people in the group but sadly some people had to drop out and others didn’t quite meet the deadline (I was a little strict there – sorry!) So in the end we ended up with an amazing 47 performers and a crew of 5! People range from West End stars, ex-West Enders, professional actors, am dram societies, musicians, family members and friends – some of whom are actually working on COVID-19 wards.
It wasn’t just the singing that was important to me for this video, I really wanted to include someone who could do British Sign Language (BSL), I spoke to a lot of people but learning the song within such a short time frame was proving hard. MC Geezer from Deaf Rave pulled through and managed to interpret the whole song for us! There are some really lovely special moments in this video and I hope everyone involved can keep it forever and be really proud of what they were a part of.
There are many videos like this out there already, if anything, maybe too many. But I had seen the Hamilton and Dear Evan Hanson videos and was really inspired. I have so many talented friends I just knew we could pull it off and make it sound and look incredible! I thought perhaps there are a few people out there at the moment who are twiddling their thumbs a little, nothing helps me more than having a project to focus on and thought others may feel the same – turns out this was the case! After mentioning it to a few clients I had worked with previously they were asking if they could come on board and offered their services! This just took the project to the next level! I really cannot thank Sam Palmer (editor), Glenn Oxenbury (sound mixer) and Lee Watson (graphics) enough for all of their help. I certainly could not have done this without them.
Did you have people in mind to sing in it when you decided to go for it?
I had a few people in mind who I obviously knew could sing as I perform along side them in LODS but it was important to me that this project was super collaborative so I reached out to a few other members from societies and people I studied performing arts with at college etc. All of a sudden the scale of the project had grown into something massive! I really did not expect the amount of interest we received! We ended up with over 70+ people in the group but sadly some people had to drop out and others didn’t quite meet the deadline (I was a little strict there – sorry!) So in the end we ended up with an amazing 47 performers and a crew of 5! People range from West End stars, ex-West Enders, professional actors, am dram societies, musicians, family members and friends – some of whom are actually working on COVID-19 wards.
It wasn’t just the singing that was important to me for this video, I really wanted to include someone who could do British Sign Language (BSL), I spoke to a lot of people but learning the song within such a short time frame was proving hard. MC Geezer from Deaf Rave pulled through and managed to interpret the whole song for us! There are some really lovely special moments in this video and I hope everyone involved can keep it forever and be really proud of what they were a part of.
Rebecca and her team putting the video together
Why 21 Guns?
‘American Idiot’ is in my top 10 albums of all time so when I went to see the musical, to say I was excited was an understatement. ’21 Guns’ was SO stunning live, it really stuck with me and I’ve wanted to perform it ever since. It’s an absolute ensemble powerhouse. I felt we needed to choose a musical theatre song as a dedication to everyone who would either be performing in a theatre right now of sitting in the auditorium waiting for the show to start!
As 21 Guns is the highest form of military salute you can give someone it seemed fitting as we were releasing our rendition on VE Day 75 and support our NHS heroes via our Just Giving page singtosalute.co.uk
You must have been thrilled to get some West End performers from involved?
More than thrilled! If there is anything I’ve learnt in life it’s all about who you know, and in this case, we happened to know Ashton Moore – he was an absolute legend with helping us out. He reached out to a people who used to be members of local societies such as Sharon Rose (Hamilton), Ben Tyler (Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera) and Biancha Szynal (Matilda, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Bring It On). In addition I started to drop messages round to actors on Instagram, literally my life motto is “you don’t ask, you don’t get”! And I happened to get a reply from the fab Glenn Adamson (Bat Out of Hell, American Idiot) and Chris Tyler-Wood (American Idiot, Spring Awakening). Everyone involved was beyond amazing, it was a pleasure to be able to (sort of) perform along side such talented individuals.
Was putting the video together complicated? How long did it take?
Very complicated! After gathering everyone’s videos and vocals we only had 3 days to edit everything! So commenced the 3 very, very long days and nights!
We received the final audio mix from Glenn Thursday afternoon so Sam could finalise the edit but this was not as easy as it sounds… the challenge was to make the video as dynamic as possible and as we had such a big “cast” (if you like) full of so much talent, we had to try and give everyone a fair amount of screen time but of course, some people absolutely rocked out in their videos and were thoroughly entertaining to watch and others just sang to camera which was lovely. I was worried my ’21 Guns’ Editor would never grade with me again as he’d seen my horrible ‘no sleep’ stressed Producer side instead of my fun colourist side ha! I had a vision of what it needed to look like in my head and needed to portray that, that’s always a difficult part – especially doing it remotely but we spent days on Google hang outs and over the phone and what he handed over to me at the end at 3:30am on Friday morning was basically perfection! It’s one of those things that could have been tweaked further and further but you need to draw a line… I started the colour grade and my exhausted self left Author Colour at 7:20am that morning! Just about made it home in time to release the video for our deadline. That was cutting it fine!
Wow! How much have you raised so far?
So far Sing To Salute have managed to raise £765 so we’re really close to our target! Just another £235 and we’re there, would mean the world to me if we could totally smash our goal. So please spread the love far and wide! 💖
Do you have any other projects planned for during the lockdown period or indeed in the future once lockdown has come to an end?
Not just yet as work is starting to pick up again but we do now have this huge virtual theatre group, if a cause comes along to reunite, you can count on us to be there! I have a few song ideas ready and it’s going to be bigger and better than this one! I can promise you that.
Do you have any personal ambitions for the future?
I just can’t wait to get back on stage with LODS! ‘Our House’ is going to be such an amazing show, Andrew, the Director, is THE most creative guy I have ever met and Dave, the choreographer, is a dancing genius. It’s serious fun and a feast for the eyes! I guess a personal ambition is to one day be cast as a lead, but I’m sure the right show and role will come along one day.
‘American Idiot’ is in my top 10 albums of all time so when I went to see the musical, to say I was excited was an understatement. ’21 Guns’ was SO stunning live, it really stuck with me and I’ve wanted to perform it ever since. It’s an absolute ensemble powerhouse. I felt we needed to choose a musical theatre song as a dedication to everyone who would either be performing in a theatre right now of sitting in the auditorium waiting for the show to start!
As 21 Guns is the highest form of military salute you can give someone it seemed fitting as we were releasing our rendition on VE Day 75 and support our NHS heroes via our Just Giving page singtosalute.co.uk
You must have been thrilled to get some West End performers from involved?
More than thrilled! If there is anything I’ve learnt in life it’s all about who you know, and in this case, we happened to know Ashton Moore – he was an absolute legend with helping us out. He reached out to a people who used to be members of local societies such as Sharon Rose (Hamilton), Ben Tyler (Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera) and Biancha Szynal (Matilda, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Bring It On). In addition I started to drop messages round to actors on Instagram, literally my life motto is “you don’t ask, you don’t get”! And I happened to get a reply from the fab Glenn Adamson (Bat Out of Hell, American Idiot) and Chris Tyler-Wood (American Idiot, Spring Awakening). Everyone involved was beyond amazing, it was a pleasure to be able to (sort of) perform along side such talented individuals.
Was putting the video together complicated? How long did it take?
Very complicated! After gathering everyone’s videos and vocals we only had 3 days to edit everything! So commenced the 3 very, very long days and nights!
We received the final audio mix from Glenn Thursday afternoon so Sam could finalise the edit but this was not as easy as it sounds… the challenge was to make the video as dynamic as possible and as we had such a big “cast” (if you like) full of so much talent, we had to try and give everyone a fair amount of screen time but of course, some people absolutely rocked out in their videos and were thoroughly entertaining to watch and others just sang to camera which was lovely. I was worried my ’21 Guns’ Editor would never grade with me again as he’d seen my horrible ‘no sleep’ stressed Producer side instead of my fun colourist side ha! I had a vision of what it needed to look like in my head and needed to portray that, that’s always a difficult part – especially doing it remotely but we spent days on Google hang outs and over the phone and what he handed over to me at the end at 3:30am on Friday morning was basically perfection! It’s one of those things that could have been tweaked further and further but you need to draw a line… I started the colour grade and my exhausted self left Author Colour at 7:20am that morning! Just about made it home in time to release the video for our deadline. That was cutting it fine!
Wow! How much have you raised so far?
So far Sing To Salute have managed to raise £765 so we’re really close to our target! Just another £235 and we’re there, would mean the world to me if we could totally smash our goal. So please spread the love far and wide! 💖
Do you have any other projects planned for during the lockdown period or indeed in the future once lockdown has come to an end?
Not just yet as work is starting to pick up again but we do now have this huge virtual theatre group, if a cause comes along to reunite, you can count on us to be there! I have a few song ideas ready and it’s going to be bigger and better than this one! I can promise you that.
Do you have any personal ambitions for the future?
I just can’t wait to get back on stage with LODS! ‘Our House’ is going to be such an amazing show, Andrew, the Director, is THE most creative guy I have ever met and Dave, the choreographer, is a dancing genius. It’s serious fun and a feast for the eyes! I guess a personal ambition is to one day be cast as a lead, but I’m sure the right show and role will come along one day.
Check out the video below and you can donate to the fundraiser here...https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sing-to-salute