"Dollar and a Dream" music video Q&A

Hi everyone! Welcome to the new Clarendon & Leray blog! We will be posting Q&As, updates, behind the scenes stories and much more, so stay tuned!

Our first blog is a Q&A for the Dollar and a Dream music video... we hope you enjoy it!

Video details

Video: Dollar and a Dream

Song producer: Matthew "Clarendon" Strohhacker

Song writers: Matthew "Clarendon" Strohhacker, Christopher "Leray" Roxas

Video director: Matthew "Clarendon" Strohhacker

Camera crew: Karena Maitland, Matthew "Clarendon" Strohhacker, Christopher "Leray" Roxas

Q: What was the inspiration behind the lyrics of “Dollar and a Dream?”

Matt (Clarendon): A lot of emotion and passion went into writing this song for me. It’s an obvious love song and those feelings really come through in the lyrics and delivery. One concept I really wanted to shine through in this song is regardless if the relationship is a romantic one, a friendship, a work relationship or any other type of a relationship, that the two people band together to grow each and every day in the right direction. It’s about having a vision and a goal and working as individuals and with that other person in a collaborative way to reach that goal and never give up on it. The takeaway is that when you have a goal and a vision, you never fear not reaching it; you know that with hard work and passion, you’ll get there.

Chris (Leray): At the time of penning the lyrics, Matt had his verses done, so I just filled in the blanks! “When your dreams start calling and it feels like you might go insane. Well take your last dime and follow away!” I think it really just means what it says. If you have a dream, go for it no matter what it takes!

Q: How did that translate into the concept behind the music video?

Matt (Clarendon): I was scouting some different locations and came across the Mansfield Reformatory and immediately fell in love with the concept of filming the video there. Going back to the inspiration behind the song, I think if you DO have that fear of failure and not reaching your goals in life, you’re imprisoned. I want the world to see that you can break out of your prison, relinquish that fear and follow and reach your dreams. The prison escape scene at the beginning shows that struggle of mental imprisonment. The contemplation throughout the first verse, screaming in the prison cell, being separated and contained are meant to show that internal struggle and that realization that you have to look past your fear in order to truly run after your dreams. Once out of the prison, I continued to have various scenes of running and imprisonment, because that fear will always chase you throughout life and you can’t let it overtake you, you’ve got to keep your eyes on the ultimate goal and not allow that fear to catch up to you. The love scenes and the scenes of Chris and I in the video are meant to show that growth and the collaboration I mentioned in the previous question. Escaping the prison to perform with Chris and to grow love and a relationship (the couple scenes) were the two ways I wanted the overarching concept of the song to shine through. I wanted the concept of a romantic relationship and a friendship and working relationship to show growth and working towards goals in various aspects of life. The ending, with the slow motion walking away and holding hands scene, shows that final push as one unit overcoming that fear of mental imprisonment and looking towards the future.

Q: Who came up with the concept?

Matt (Clarendon): I developed the video concept for the song while driving around rural Ohio and seeing some of the amazing and real scenery it has to offer. The prison, fields, railroad tracks, cemetery, brick wall and abandoned house worked perfectly with the scene I was aiming to portray in the video. Chris and I finalized some ideas on the fly during the filming process with improvisation, which gives the video a great sense of reality and rawness.

Q: Where was this video filmed?

Matt (Clarendon) and Chris (Leray): The Mansfield Reformatory (Ohio State Reformatory) in Mansfield, OH was used for the prison scene. Shots from fields and cemeteries were taken in Chatfield, OH and Attica, OH, the brick wall scene was shot in the small town of Bucyrus, OH, the railroad scene was shot in Chatfield, OH, the abandoned house was in Attica, OH and the abandoned gas station scene was shot just south of Sandusky, OH. All of the scenes were shot in rural, central Ohio.

Q: Is there anything unique in the video that you want your viewers to know about?

Matt (Clarendon): A good portion of the video was shot completely on the fly (improvised) and the entire video was shot freehand with no equipment except the camera. We used natural daylight, no artificial lighting in the prison scenes to capture the amazing natural lighting on location. To the note on improvisation, when driving between locations, we saw a train and I literally threw the car in park and jumped out to film the scene running next to the train.

Chris (Leray): This film was shot entirely in areas of central Ohio. Some people might recognize that the shots in the first half of the video were done at the Mansfield Reformatory, the same site where movies like ‘Shawshank Redemption’ were filmed. There were areas in the prison where we all felt ‘cold spots’ and just very odd sensations. The site just had that aura and haunting feeling. It’s all great filming scenery, and Matt had a field day capturing it all!!! All of the filming was completed in the span of one day!

The part towards the end where I’m singing into the ‘microphone.’ Well, the microphone happened to be some broken beam-type thing (I don’t even know what it was) that was lying in the rubble of this abandoned house. It makes for a pretty convincing microphone, I think! Also, every part where I had to walk forward (i.e. on the train tracks and in the cornfield), I must’ve tripped about 30 times!

Q: How long did it take to film this?

Matt (Clarendon) and Chris (Leray): The film was completely shot in a single day! We got to the reformatory in the morning and shot all of the prison scenes and then worked our way west and north, filming in the other locations, finishing up right before the sun went down.

Q: What was your favorite part to film?

Matt (Clarendon): I had so much fun filming in the prison, that scene was incredible and the reality and history of the location left me with such an awesome feeling. During the scenes where I’m in the prison cell with gold bars, that was actually the cell that Lil’ Wayne shot the video for “Go DJ”, which was an honor and privilege to use that spot to create our version of the story of that location and scene that a living legend used. I loved shooting the scene of Chris at the abandoned house and walking down the railroad tracks, the scenery is unmatched and Chris’ improvisation by the abandoned house gave a lot of character to that scene.

Chris (Leray): Throughout the film in general, I love how Matt was able to capture the beauty and eeriness of the surroundings. I can’t really think of a favorite part in particular, but if I had to pick one, I would say it would be in the beginning of the video where it’s panning to different sections of the prison. They were just amazing shots!

Q: When can we expect a new video?

Chris (Leray): We are planning on releasing a video for every song on the album to make a full listening viewing experience for all of our fans. Expect the next few videos to come out late winter and early spring.

Check out the full video for Dollar and a Dream below!

#musicvideo #dollarandadream #clarendonleray #clarendon #leray #video