'Pure magic': Behind the scenes of Rose Cousins' new music video

A church on P.E.I., a choir made up of old friends, and Rose Cousins at the piano that was the idea at the core of Rose Cousins' new music video.

Cousins got in touch with P.E.I. filmmaker Jenna MacMIllan to turn her idea for her new song Grace into a reality.

The aim was to shoot the video in one take, MacMillan told CBC News, partly because of budget and time constraints, and partly because she loves the concept.

"We didn't have a ton of lighting," said MacMillan.

"The sun was actually our main source of light. The way the sun moves throughout the video was pure magic. It ended up just coming out at the exact times that I needed it to."

'A lot of poignant emotional moments'

The plan made the shoot more complicated, partly because MacMillan didn't want to over rehearse. In total there were two rehearsals and seven takes.

"There are a lot of poignant emotional moments that I was going for," she said.

"The song is so affecting that I knew that when the choir assembled and everyone could hear their voices and feel the moment in the space that we were going to get some golden moments."

In the end MacMillan cheated a little, splicing together two takes to give the video all the moments she wanted.

'Perfect small town story'

In a post on Facebook, Cousins expressed how thrilled she was to make the video in her home province, using all local talent.

"It is a perfect small town story of needing help and the community showing up to make it happen," wrote Cousins.

"The choir includes my mum and sister, a friend I've known since kindergarten, one of the first friends I made in University, several P.E.I. musicianfriends (including Kinley), a former CBC journalist, a retired theatre director, a friend's daughter."

Cousins said so far all of the videos for her new album have been made in the Maritimes.

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