Thursday, March 26, 2015

My birthday wish...

By the time most people read this, I will probably be somewhere, 30 thousand feet above sea level, en route my hometown of Lagos, Nigeria. I'm thanking God in advance for journey mercies. I also want to say a very big thank you to everyone who posts/sends a happy birthday comment, an IG picture, a tweet, a facebook message, an email, a whatsapp, a text... etc. I'm really REALLY grateful. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's not humanly possible for me to individually reply every single one. However, please know that I've read everything and I'm very, very grateful.

With that being said, as the birthday boy, I have one tinyyyy little request, if y'all would be so kind as to oblige me. Here it is...

I've made manyyy music videos in my life. Some great, some okay. Mostly, I try to make music & videos that are a little different; art that inspires or entertains or whatever. It just... causes you to feel something. A lot of times, I've been asked what my favorite video that I've ever done is... and I've never really been able to pick. That's because they all mean something to me, and I know exactly what I was thinking when we created them, and because they're all special to me, and different, I've never had a favorite. Until now.

Late last year, I attended a filmmaking class at NYFA, to hone my directing skills. My goal was to be able to at least have the option of directing videos myself when I felt like it (not that I wanted to become a full time video director, but still). My long term goal is to get into Directing, writing and producing films. In any case, I wrote, produced, and directed 3 videos while I was in film school. "Mercy" is my favorite of the three, and absolutely my favorite video that I've ever done.

It was my final film project in film school.. it was a lot of work, and I tried to push myself and the actors, like never before, to create something special; to tell a story that could speak to different people in different walks of life, and help make someone's journey a little better.

The problem with doing a video that's more inspirational, is, that it invariably never gets the attention/airplay in today's media space that say... a party video, or a love song, would get. I understand that... I love partying as much as anyone, and I've made a career of singing love songs... but I think there's room for something that's a little deeper, more thought provoking, and more powerful.

The "Mercy" video, in my mind, is my greatest work thus far. It's most powerful story I've ever told in a video, and it would mean a lot to me if more people just got to see it. It may never have the views of "Yes/No" or "Jasi" or whatever, but it's just as important.

So please... do this birthday boy a tiny favour of watching and sharing the "mercy" video. If I get it to 250,000 views, I'll be happy. If I get to 500,000 I'll be besides myself. Anything above that? God knows what I will do. Please watch it, share it, and let me know what you think about it in the comments here or on youtube. Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKgPgwgNEto

Thanks,
~ B.W. 

5 comments:

  1. Great post, impressive blog. Have a wonderful birthday. Hope your birthday wish comes true :)

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  2. Happy Birthday Mr. Olubankole Wellington. May your Birthday bring you as much happiness as you give to everyone who knows you, especially your fans, through your music, words and actions.

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  3. Happy belated birthday! The Mercy video touched me. It's so so nice; everything isn't always as it seems. Please keep singing all the RnB we love you more for it.


    Hi all,


    Please check out my blog, Wordsbykoko.blogspot.com


    Thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy belated birthday. Watching and reposting your video right away.

    ReplyDelete