UW-Student Colton Boettcher is the producer, director and editor of the recent YouTube sensation, “Lady Gaga – #HairMusicVideo – It Gets Better.” Boettcher, Madison’s LGBT community and the It Gets Better Project put together the music video because “hair is about being yourself, being true to who you are; as the song exemplifies, ‘you are the spirit of your hair, it’s all the glory you bare,’ YOU are your #hair.”
How did you come up with the elaborate plot for the video and transform your vision into life?
The plot almost writes itself with this song. Hair is about being yourself and who you want to be. The storyline is very similar to my experiences in high school. Having a crush on boy, not knowing if he liked me, and wanting to bring a boy to my High School prom! We took a long time developing the details of the video, hoping to captivate the emotional response we received!
What was it like to see the video blow up so quickly and be acknowledged by Lady Gaga, the Huffington Post, E! Online and so many others?
It’s every little monster’s dream to have Lady Gaga acknowledge something you have done for her; and that was one of our goals. However, we did not expect to attain that goal as quickly as we did. It was just over 19 hours after the video was released on YouTube that Lady Gaga posted it on her Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ account. The national attention for the video is not only amazing for the video, but amazing for the It Gets Better message. The It Gets Better Project has our video featured on it’s YouTube Channel and Web Page now, which we are extremely excited about.
What has been the most memorable response you’ve gotten from viewers of the video who’ve been bullied or recently came out?
After Lady Gaga tweeted the video, I received a phone call from a young boy. He was very nervous and was crying on the phone. He asked me if I was the person that made the music video, and I responded yes! He went on to tell me that he told his parents he was gay on Christmas Day and that since, they had kicked him out of their house. He is now staying with a friend, and told me that our video made him realize that what he is going through right now is only the beginning of his life, and then he thanked me. That is probably the most memorable response. There have also been endless comments that have nearly brought me to tears — they are mostly about how this gives them hope, courage, and a new outlook on their situation. I’ve also had a number of my own friends come out to their family members because of #hairmusicvideo. Which in itself is amazing!
Have you learned anything about yourself or others through this experience?
A major theme all of us working on the video are sure about, is that hard work and dedication pay off! This project took just under six months, and everyone in the video has been with the project since day one.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I hope that, with this video, we can start to normalize homosexuality in the eye of everyone. To every gay woman or man, kissing someone of the same sex IS normal, just as a heterosexual person kissing someone of the opposite sex is normal. We are all really excited for the day that a gay kiss is NOT a big deal, and that when people see it, they are filled with the same emotion as a heterosexual couple kissing.
If you or someone you know is being bullied, you can contact Boettcher via Facebook message (http://www.facebook.com/coltonboettcher), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/coltonboettcher) or reach out to one of these organizations. Remember, it DOES get better.
It Gets Better Project:
Website: itgetsbetter.org
The Trevor Project:
Website: thetrevorproject.org
Phone: 866.488.7386