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Novo Amor shoots underwater music video in Indonesia, highlights ocean pollution
In a recently released music video for 'Birthplace', which was entirely shot in Indonesia, Welsh singer-songwriter Novo Amor highlights the world's growing problem of plastic in the ocean.
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The video begins with images of a tranquil underwater scenery showing the beauty of marine life before encountering a floating plastic bag. (Shutterstock/File)
W
elsh singer-songwriter Ali Lacey, or commonly known by his stage name Novo Amor, released a music video recently for his song "Birthplace" taken from his debut solo album of the same name, set for release later this year.
Shot entirely underwater, the video features British freediver Michael Board, who now lives on the island of Gili Trawangan. According to theculturetrip.com, it took Board 250 freedives to create enough footage for Novo Amor's music video.
Board held his breath for up to three minutes for each shot, while he also had to perform other tasks underwater, including swimming with sea turtles, snakes, eels and giant manta rays.
The crew spent 35 hours underwater to capture the footage. Locations for the music video include Amed Beach in Bali, which was chosen for its calm waters, as well as Komodo Island in East Nusa Tenggara, to capture the pristine coral reef.
The video begins with images of tranquil underwater scenery showing the beauty of marine life before Board encounters a floating plastic bag. He then looks up to see piles of trash floating above him.
Gone were the colorful corals and schools of fish in the bright, clear sea, and in their place were murky waters, clogged with wrappers, bottles and cans.
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Directed by Sil van der Woerd and Jorik Dozy, the music video aims to highlight the growing problem of plastic in the ocean, which Lacey also believes to be an issue that needs to be dealt with urgently.
"By not tackling the problem, we're heading toward oceans that, by 2050, may contain more plastic than fish. The problem threatens our marine life, our entire food chain and our whole ecosystem," Lacey said, as quoted by theculturetrip.com.
Toward the end of the video, from the empty waters suddenly appears a whale-shaped heap of plastic waste, which eventually swallows up Board.
Local children were involved in the making of the bamboo whale sculpture, which they helped to cover with collected plastic and in exchange were awarded school books for their effort.
"The whale refers to the story of Jonah and the whale, in which Jonah is swallowed by the whale and in its belly repents and cries out to God in prayer. If we as humanity don't change, we will become like Jonah, stuck inside the whale's belly, stuck in an ocean of waste," said Dozy, who together with van der Woerd, approached Lacey with the idea for the video.
The singer says the video perfectly captured the essence of "Birthplace", noting that the song is about being enthralled by a memory and strongly grasping at it without letting go.
"To recognize a need for change, but not move on or take control of one's actions is an unhealthy attitude in any situation. I feel like this is reflected in the video, where our lead character - essentially standing in as humanity - becomes surrounded by the self-inflicted and continuous damage to our world, our birthplace," Lacey said. (liz/wng)
