Music video filmed at Bluffs

Jessica Stuart – Winter Warm

By Ashley Ashbee

When you see folk-jazz musician Jessica Stuart gazing awestruck over Lake Ontario by the Scarborough Bluffs in the music video for her new single Winter Warm, her expression is no act.

She had heard of the Bluffs before going there to film, but hadn’t predicted just how beautiful they would really be.

“I still don’t have the geography down in my head,” she says of the rural otherworldliness of the Bluffs and its contrast to the close proximity of the stretch of Kingston Road where Jessica had performed at the Birch Cliff Market a couple of times.

Jessica, who grew up in Vancouver, a city where natural wonders are plentiful, appreciates places where nature is connected to the city, but is also “hidden and majestic.”

Filming “Winter Warm”

Freezing on day of filming

Jessica and the film crew didn’t have to work around passers by during their Bluffs film shoot.

There were none, probably because it was about -15 degrees Celsius that day (-24 with the windchill).

Jessica says she was glad for the desolation because it supports the lonely theme of the song, in which her character pines for summer and warmth – or a lover?

You would never know it was so cold watching Jessica strip down to a light sun dress in the video with not a goose bump to be seen.

Actually, some takes couldn’t be used because her teeth were chattering.

It wasn’t just the weather that posed a challenge.

In the scene where Jessica walks through a field of those tall stick-like things, she stayed in character despite her legs being pricked and blood spreading beneath her tights. Those shots, of course, were not used.

Jessica Stuart playing the koto

Playing the koto

Jessica says she doesn’t mind putting her body through such challenging conditions, but she wouldn’t do that to her koto, the Japanese stringed instrument you see her playing in  the video in a cozy, home-like bar.

The video’s director and her manager both suggested she play the koto on the beach, but Jessica said no. The freezing temperatures and sand would likely seriously damage her instrument.

Cameron House March 15

You can see Jessica perform unscathed when her band the Jessica Stuart Few and another band, Bull Kelp, launch their upcoming albums with band The Donefors in a special show at the Cameron House back room in Toronto on March 15.

It is highly recommended that you order tickets online in advance of the show due to limited capacity of the venue. With your $15 pre-ordered ticket, you get a copy of the album!  Door price is $15 for a ticket, $20 for a ticket and a copy of the album.

You can also listen to Jessica on CBC Radio One this Saturday or next in an interview with Garvia Bailey on the program Big City, Small World. The show will air between 5 and 6 pm.

In the meantime, watch our beautiful Bluffs captured cinematically in the video for Winter Warm.

Follow Jessica on Twitter and Like her Facebook Page