Jerry Makos and Tik Jaidee’s relationship has spanned seven years — and a local production company has captured it all in just 11 minutes.
The couple was selected for a free LoveStory video — which you can see here: http://bit.ly/1qCZDgg — by PersonalCast Studios, who joined forces with PGN for the Valentine’s Day contest. PersonalCast is the brainchild of Susan Cohen-Dickler and Jan Dickler, the co-founders and executive producers of Banyan Productions, the company behind such reality-television programs as “A Wedding Story” and “Ambush Makeover.”
With their LoveStory initiative, the filmmakers interview couples through Skype or FaceTime from the comfort of their own surroundings about their relationship and their partner. They then splice the interviews together, and weave in photos and music to help tell their story.
Music was an integral part to Makos and Jaidee’s story. In their contest entry, they described the intriguing moment Jaidee, a Thailand native, hummed an entire repertoire of American classics and the pair bonded over their passion for music. It was a story they both re-told on film when their interviews were conducted in February.
“The theme of music was huge, which is why we focused on it and show that, despite the language and cultural differences, this was a universal bond for them,” Cohen-Dickler said.
Specific songs the couple talked about were fused into the film, along with others representative of the type of music they’re both fans of.
“We matched them with songs that they hummed during the interviews to help make that point and then stuck with that era,” Cohen-Dickler said. “The is always not to just have it be background music but have it propel the story. Your choice of music and lyrics, or even just the sounds, can be used as a storytelling technique.”
Engish is not Jaidee’s first language, which presented a unique challenge in the interview, which was conducted by Dickler. Dickler spoke with Makos first to get the full picture of the couple’s relationship.
“It was a little more difficult to communicate with Tik but we got through it and made the questions a bit more simple. Jerry laid the groundwork so we could be very specific with Tik,” Dickler said. “Even though Tik doesn’t speak English too well, you could feel how emotional he was telling his story about meeting Jerry and about their relationship.”
That emotion was also evident in Jaidee’s response to the video. In an email to the filmmakers, he wrote:
“Wow! Thank you so much. Brilliant job! I do not just like it, I love it!”