By Stephanie Tipple
Staff Reporter

One of the first things that many people notice about the Northern Virginia Community College community is the variety of different talents that the students possess. This is why it’s no surprise that students in Professor Chris Stallings’ PHT 130 (Video Production I) class on the Woodbridge campus would come together with other students to help create the first music video for the band WorstKase Scenario, fronted by former student Dave Bausch.

The band, which was recently signed to an independent label, needed to create a new music video to promote their song, “Dangerous Girl.” Bausch, a NOVA tutor, reached out to Stallings, who felt that it would be a perfect project for his students in his PHT 130 course. In addition to his students, Stallings worked with 522 Productions, based out of the Alexandria campus, and obtained an Educational Foundation grant to provide “an at-cost service favor for the students.”

The band was previously known as Worst Case Scenario but changed their name after being signed.

Using a short film script that Stallings had on hand, the students in the course worked to fit the script to the song, “Dangerous Girl,” which is a story on how beauty is from within, not what’s on the outside. In the video, a “dangerous girl,” uses her sex appeal in a position of a flower vendor on a boardwalk to get the attention of male passersby, taking away the attention that the beautiful and personable female fish vendor would be receiving. This video theme syncs up well with the meaning of the song, which speaks to the power women possess with their sex appeal, and how this can be dangerous.

The cast for the music video, along with Bausch and guitarist Ian Spencer, included both professionals and college students. Shea Davies, an actress based out of New York City, played the role of the fish vendor with a “heart of gold.” Kim Irwin, a NOVA student, played the role of the dangerous flower vendor girl, and was made up by Tiffany Roop of TDR Artistry, the on-set makeup expert. In supporting roles, America Twiggs, the daughter of NOVA student Kellee Twiggs, and Jack Mourand, a local boy who auditioned for the PHT 130 class, came together to form a symbiotic cast that worked well on set. In addition to these main characters, there were other students who played the role of extras on set, helping to complete the video, shot at Tim’s Rivershore Restaurant & Crabhouse.

With a great deal of patience and some much needed sunblock to battle the balmy and sunny spring day, the cast and crew completed the video shoot in one day. Stallings made sure to involve all of his film students in the various processes of planning and post-production editing.

Looking back on the experience Stallings commented, “The most memorable moment for me is not wanting to eat seafood for weeks after the shoot, after watching poor Shea gut a fish over and over again as the insides rotted away in the warm sun.” Another funny takeaway from the shoot involved Stallings’ students in the planning phase. “The first prop we secured months ago were numerous buckets that were meant to be used as trash cans for the fish residue. The buckets were kept in a student’s vehicle for months, and every time we secured another prop, we always joked, at least we have the buckets too. Well come time for the production day and every student that was responsible for bringing something fulfilled their task, except for the student with the buckets actually forgot to bring those darn buckets, and we had to improvise,” Stallings commented.

For all those interested in viewing the music video for WorstKase Scenario, the video, “Dangerous Girl,” will be premiering on the Woodbridge campus on Wednesday, April 25 at 3 p.m., at the Spring Fling event. There were will be a crab pickin’ hosted by Tim’s Rivershore Restaurant & Crabhouse, and the band will play a live show.

Stephanie Tipple and Dave Bausch both work as tutors at NOVA’s Woodbridge campus.

By: Stephanie Tipple

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