Navid Bahadori (
@brokenyellow ), Producer on the making of I Was Only 19 Music Video:
We didn’t fully grasp the iconic weight of the original song until we committed to making a music video for The Herd’s version.
To honour a song that meant so much, we knew the film clip needed the same authenticity the original radiated. That meant involving the veteran community from the beginning. Through the Elefant Traks family we connected with John Schumann from Redgum, who led us to the Vietnam Veterans Federation in Granville, Sydney, and to Vietnam veteran and military adviser Graham Walker. They were an extraordinary group dedicated to helping their war damaged mates, and they guided us with generosity and honesty.
With their help we sourced proper uniforms and weapons, learnt tactical movements and tried to understand the emotional reality of soldiers in Vietnam. We held drills and rehearsals down at an oval in Balmain, using golf clubs as guns. We filled backpacks full of rocks so the actors felt the true weight of what the soldiers were put through.
The metaphorical weight was also keenly felt, at no time more so than in the final scene, when our lead actor, a fine young actor named
@ianjmeadows , stared gallantly into a mirror, tears welling in his eyes but not as many tears as those that flowed behind the cameras. All of the crew stood arm in arm with Graham and other military veterans present during that final moment.
When the clip was released, veterans around the world embraced it. They reposted it, mixed it with the original track and shared millions of views and thousands of messages. Their candour was the clearest sign that the thing we pursued from the beginning, authenticity, had been felt. Tix for the TSNS 20th anniversary tour are on sale now. Link in bio
