Photo Courtesy of Vimeo
Most people would spend an overnight layover in an airport eating a slice from Sbarro and trying to sleep in a chair. Richard Dunn is not most people.
When the Georgia based lighting designer found himself in a last minute layover in Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport he decided to make the most of his time there. This meant filming a hysterical (and oddly appropriate) cover of Celine Dion’s somber 1997 hit “All By Myself”. The five minute long video depicts a depressed Dunn lounging around the airport with no one around him. As he sulks through terminals, walkways, baggage claim, and restaurants Dunn is reduced to belting the chorus at the top of his lungs to express his loneliness.
In order to make the video Dunn employed some MacGyver-like filmwork with nothing but his iPhone and a whole lot of luggage tape. On his Vimeo page Dunn commented that “I had a person behind a ticket counter give me a roll of luggage tape before she left. I then used a wheelchair that had a tall pole on the back of it and taped my iPhone to that. Then I would put it on the moving walkway for a dolly shot…I also used the extended handle on my computer bag and taped the iPhone to my handle. I would tuck different stuff under the bag to get the right angle. For the escalator shot I had to sprint up the steps after I got my shot so the computer bag didn’t hit the top and fall back down. Quite fun!” Hopefully his exploits didn’t bring the wrath of airport security down on him..
“All By Myself” was initially released as a single by Eric Carmen in 1975. The musical structure of the song is based off of Sergei Rachmaninof’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. After peaking at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was subsequently covered by many including Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams Jr., Tom Jones, Celine Dion, and now Richard Dunn. Dion’s cover is the only one with comparable success to Carmen, peaking at number 4 on the Hot 100 and number 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary list. Both singles went Gold after their release, though it is unknown at this time if Richard Dunn will be getting a record deal for his work.
The video can be seen in all of its hilarious tragedy on Vimeo.