The Slaight Music Video Program will be revealing this year’s pairings at a launch event next week and expects 2023 to be its biggest year to date.
For the past three years, the Slaight Music Video Program has acted as a bridge between the film and music industries in Kingston, pairing up local production companies and filmmakers with emerging musicians to create music videos which are premiered at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. This project is a collaboration between Tourism Kingston and the Kingston Canadian Film Festival (KCFF).
While artists have always been able to benefit from the contest via a music video free of charge and a premiere at the KCFF, new to the contest this year, the program is now able to provide artists $1,000 in compensation. Developments like this and the success of the program in the last two years has led to more bands than ever before applying for the 2023-24 edition.
Musicians submitted their applications over the summer and the selection process took place over the month of August. The KCFF announced on Sept. 11 that 10 teams have been created. The pairings have officially been selected and musicians have signed their contracts as of Sept. 12 at 5 p.m. With more submissions this year than ever before, there are sure to be some interesting pairings.
“It seems like a natural fit to connect to these film and music scenes and encourage local production, and at the end offer a professionally made music video so that artists could share them and share it with the world,” Moira Demorest, music commissioner with Tourism Kingston, stated.
The pairings will be unveiled at The Broom Factory on the evening of Sept. 21, an event that’s free to attend by reservation.
The videos will be premiering at the KCFF, spanning from late February into early March. Until then, KCFF and Tourism Kingston will be sharing some behind the scenes content while the videos are produced.
“I think that it’s a really special Kingston program that we should be really proud of,” states Demorest.
