Best Day of My Life in Lake County, Illinois

By: Jonathan Jones 06/02/2014

Vacations and weekends are a time for family fun, thrilling adventures, relaxation and experiencing the best days of your life. And all of that is right here in Lake County.

Today, we launched our "Best Day of My Life in Lake County, Illinois" music video. The video features a sampling of fun activities residents and visitors experience in Lake County every day, such as riding X-Flight at Six Flags Great America, enjoying the waterpark when staying at KeyLime Cove Indoor Waterpark Resort, the friendly staff at the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort, seeing a play at the Lincolnshire Marriott Theatre, outdoor natural beauty at Independence Grove, seeing local dog celebrity Nugget the French Bulldog at Lakewood Forest Preserve dog park, boating at the Chain 'O Lakes, Charter Fishing on Lake Michigan, dining at a 50s style drive-in - Miller's Dog 'N Suds, art galleries in Downtown Waukegan, shows at the Genesee Theatre, a day at the beach and so much more. Watch the video below:

This project started several months ago. My boss and I have talked about doing something similar since Grand Rapids and Six Flags Great America have released lip-dub videos in recent years. Finding the right song was harder than I had originally imagined, but once I heard the song "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors, I was sold. Granted, I had never heard that song before I started researching songs for this video. Since then, the song has been played everywhere.

[caption id="attachment_3014" align="alignnone" width="467" caption="Justin Yates performing his cover of American Authors' "Best Day of My Life" for Visit Lake County"][/caption]

We searched through the many local musicians in Lake County for the style we were looking. We then found Justin Yates, who has been great to work with and also had many connections to help us along the way. He informed us of music producers Dustin Bennett in Lake Forest. I can't speak enough for his talent, facilities and professionalism. While viewing one of Justin's music videos on YouTube, we noticed it was filmed by Rob Scallon and after a quick search we found out that he is also a musician. We brought Rob on board to help with the filming. And with him being a professional YouTuber, he could help us through the YouTube waters. While filming, Rob launched two videos of his own, one of which reached a million views on YouTube. You should definitely visit his YouTube channel as he is quickly becoming a YouTube star.

[caption id="attachment_3016" align="alignnone" width="467" caption="Filming "Best Day of My Life in Lake County, IL" at Waukegan Municipal Beach"][/caption]

With our team in place, I began developing the storyboard. My idea was to think as BIG as I could and cut down from there. I searched for local celebrities in Lake County, social media enthusiasts and people who love the community. That's when we found Nugget the French Bulldog on Instagram and got the Chicago Bears involved. From there, we selected locations and Lake County is such a big and diverse county and we tried to include as much as we could.

[caption id="attachment_3015" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Filming "Best Day of My Life in Lake County, IL" at Mickey Finn's in Libertyville"][/caption]

This was a great experience to create, direct and see my vision come together. I hope everyone liked the video. Please share it with your friends!