Former CHS grad nominated for HMMA for “Fireflies” Music Video

Independent singer songwriter, Abbie Thomas, has been nominated for a Hollywood Music In Media Award in the category of Independent Music Video. She was a 2004 graduate of Crawfordsville High School and most recently performed at the Strawberry Festival this past summer. Thomas was released from her full time employment in the spring of 2020 due to Covid-19 shutdowns, while she was 7 months pregnant with her and her husbands’ first child. At that time, she had been playing her original music at Northern Indiana and South Michigan wineries and breweries part-time. Because of the timing, she and her husband decided to sell her home, and use the funds to take a maternity leave, and then record her debut album, “Who I Am”. Three music videos were also budgeted for to set her up for a run at a full time music career.

“I partnered with some of Goshen’s finest and kindest to create the music videos. Elijah Durnell was one of two producers on the album; he knew my story, and my aesthetic, and he agreed to jump on board as Creative Director for the music videos (he also plays our “boyfriend” in the “Fireflies” music video.) David Perkins, currently a cinematographer for VALA Marketing in Elkhart, Indiana, agreed to film and on-set direct all three music videos.

The standout video nominated for an HMMA is “Fireflies”, a one-continuous shot music video filmed in downtown Goshen, Indiana. This song also landed Thomas an Acorn SingerSongwriter Finalist position in June of 2019 in Three Oaks, Michigan.

“This song is so personal to me, as is the whole album, but the video is something I’ll be proud of for the rest of my life. The cast and crew worked themselves to exhaustion to pull this together. We had a very tight budget and a tinier timeline, but once I told everyone on set some of the back story of the song – they absolutely nailed the emotions of the music.”

Elizabeth Swihart, an actress from South Bend, Indiana nabbed the role of the lead female. “While filming, I would have 10 seconds here and there to watch what Elizabeth was doing, and she had me crying in the middle of a take. She made me want to do better, and I think it was a trickle effect through the entire cast”, Thomas said.

The 12th annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) will be presented Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 5:30pm (PST). The HMMAs honors composers, songwriters, and music supervisors for their work in music for film, television, and video games.

The Hollywood Music in Media AwardsTM (HMMA) is the first awards organization to honor original music (Song and Score) in all visual media from around the globe. The HMMA nominations have historically been representative of the nominees and winners of the Golden Globes, Oscars and Emmys that occur months later. The Hollywood Music in Media Awards Media eligibility release period is January 1st to December 31st of the current year.

According to Executive Producer Brent Harvey, “We felt that to maintain our November date, while highlighting wonderful performances with talent participating from around the world, we needed to have a virtual, pre-recorded show. With this date, the HMMA holds its position as the first awards event of the year that recognizes music in film, and other visual media, prior to Grammys and Oscars.”

You can view the music video on Abbie’s YouTube account under “Abbie Thomas Music”. You can also view “Fireflies”, and Abbie’s other content on her website, Facebook and Instagram. The debut, full length album can be found on iTunes, Spotify and her website.

For additional information visit www.hmmawards.com and www.abbiethomasmusic.com.

For eligibility, submissions and voting info: https://www.hmmawards.com/submission-infovoting.