CHICAGO — Asian-American singer, instrumentalist and model Jennifer Zhang (www.jenniferzhang.com) recently released a new music video for her single Flying High. Shot over two days back in October, the video was directed and edited by Zhang, and is aimed at promoting East-West relations.
Zhang plays the dizi and the guzheng at the beginning of the song, which then transitions into English vocals and modern beats. She initially appears in traditional Chinese fashion before taking on a more stylized pilot’s uniform in preparation for her flight. She is accompanied by Chinese dancers as she performs.
“The sequence represents my journey and the connection between the East and West, the elements of who I am,” says Zhang, who partnered with the Heritage Museum of Asian Art for the early scenes that feature an ancient canopy bed and museum space. She also collaborated with the Illinois Aviation Academy, which provided a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle jet for the shoot, as well as hangar space.
Zhang says she had a small crew for the shoot, many of which were students from the film school at Columbia College Chicago.
“I financed it myself, but the student association helped,” she explains. “The president recruited the DP and lighting people.”
The video was edited by Zhang, who used Adobe Premiere, running on a Mac. While she claims she is not an editor by trade, she has learned a lot from cutting her own YouTube videos and watching online tutorials. Beyond editing, she will also add titles as well as perform color grading and mixing.
The music video is available now on jenniferzhang.lnk.to/flyinghigh and on various global music platforms, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Deezer, Tidal and Amazon.