ALLENTOWN, Pa — For so long, Easton-based drummer Chris Cummings said, he's wanted to do video versions of his music.
"But gigs always have gotten in the way, because you’re always preparing music for someone else,” said Cummings.
Now, a video Cummings made of his song "Dreams" is a semi-finalist at the second annual Allentown Film Festival competition this year.
It's among submissions from filmmakers from 48 countries that include more than 750 feature films, documentaries and music videos.
Of the more than 160 entries that reached semi-finalist and finalist status, almost half are by local producers.
The festival takes place April 6-14. Films also will be shown.
Cummings' video for “Dreams” is the opening of a longer documentary and will screen on April 7 at the 19th Street Theatre in Allentown.
Cummings, 54, a telecommunications manager by day and father of four with his wife, Bonnie, spends a large part of any given evening in his happy place — teaching drum lessons, writing songs and composing percussion parts, and playing drums live or recording remotely for a steady roster of other music artists.
A heart full of determination
Determined to end up with a visual product that looked professional but didn't cost a ton of money, Cummings decided to do it himself.
“What could I do with no budget?" Cummings, in an interview from DrumBooth, his 650-square-foot home studio, said he asked.
"Could I put up something as visually compelling as those who do it for a living?”
“Adjacent to me being ill, I started taking stock in all the people that checked up on me and those that didn’t. Maybe petty? Maybe so, but it’s also about seeing other things happen around us, the dichotomy around us, especially during an election year."Chris Cummings
He said the video for his original tune "Dreams" needed to tell the song's "cradle to grave" story. Cummings said the song is a reflection of a lot of things he was experiencing in 2021 after facing metastatic melanoma for the second time.
“Adjacent to me being ill, I started taking stock in all the people that checked up on me and those that didn’t," he said.
"Maybe petty? Maybe so, but it’s also about seeing other things happen around us, the dichotomy around us, especially during an election year.
"I’ve never played the pity card. I only told the people closest to me that I was ill. Me disappearing for over a year didn’t register on some people’s radar. That’s reflective in that song.”
Putting the pieces together
Since his first idea was cost-prohibitive, plan B was a documentary-style film designed for a single showing in a gallery.
He said positive feedback from friends in the business, fellow lifetime musicians, set things into motion.
Cummings said he got to work and wrote the video in completion.
He said he set up and recorded the overhead drum shots as well as interview segments with an off-camera friend and musician Carter Lansing in Lansing’s barn in less than an hour.
He used royalty free stock images to depict family life, the working world, music, joy, disdain, people being alone and together.
"It was a good learning experience for me, because I was never really interested in any of that."Chris Cummings
But Cummings said the project went on the back burner when he got sick again.
He said he worked on it as he could, usually while everyone in the house was asleep.
Editing the videos took the longest, he said. "Dreams" alone took 45 nights of work.
Part of that effort was finding the right clips that made sense and related to the song's story. The other part of it was loading, editing and dealing with the different file formats.
"It was a good learning experience for me, because I was never really interested in any of that," he said.
After the cancer treatment, he finally finished.
'If you're lucky, you get a little more'
Photographer Lisa Lake, who owns a commercial design studio in Emmaus, understood Cummings’ creative vision.
"Chris is an absolute powerhouse of creativity, blessed with a multitude of talents," said Lake, who has photographed for Getty Images. She helped edit the visuals.
Bob Giovanetti of Crystal Pig Recording Studio in Alpha, New Jersey, mixed and mastered the audio.
Actor Jim Meskamin narrated. Writing mentor Lynn Alexander helped with editing.
"Music always gives you back exactly what you put into it. Sometimes if you're lucky, you get a little more."Chris Cummings
Cummings in February entered both the short and long films in Allentown Film Festival and found out in early March that the short was a contender.
“I was shocked that they selected it,” he said. “I don’t care if it wins. I’m just so happy it’s going to be shown along with the other creators. Visually, it’s my favorite of the actual videos.’”
Cummings has played with jazz legends Gene Perla and Bill Washer, and with singer/songwriter Dave Goddess, as well as groups the Dan De Chellis Jazz Trio, Dave Goddess Group, Lisa Bodnar and Whistlegrass, and his own Chris Cummings Trio.
These days he finds himself occasionally gigging when invited, planning for his next album, and hanging at metal concerts with his youngest son, Emmett, who played guitar on "Dreams."
Cummings attributes his eclectic tastes in music to his dad's lean toward country western music, his mom's love of show tunes and his older brothers' rock 'n' roll collections.
Just as inspirational are Cummings' students, though, whether they want to learn one song or 100.
"Music always gives you back exactly what you put into it," he said. "Sometimes if you're lucky, you get a little more."
