Quarantined Family Does Perfect Shot For Shot Recreation Of Journey Video

The Heller family’s take on “Separate Ways” is like an updated version of the original Journey video

Desperate times call for desperate measures. For one quarantined family, this means recreating a Journey music video with your four kids so perfectly that it’s hard to tell where the original begins and this one ends.

Steven and Jana Heller’s family are physically safe at their home in Maple Valley, Washington. Mentally, they’re doing about as well as the rest of us and looking to fight the inevitable boredom that’s set in. What’s a family to do after all the puzzles have been done, board games have been played, and school-work completed? They re-create Journey’s 1983 “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” video shot for shot, of course. They dubbed the video the 2020 “Heller Quarantine Edition,” and it’s really something you have to see to believe.

“It was all my wife’s idea,” Heller tells USA TODAY. “She was trying to find a way to stave off the boredom so she decided, ‘Why not make a music video?'”

The couple got the kids to agree and since Heller already had some serious video production skills, all that was left was to study the video, find some sweet ’80s garb, get into character, and get started.

According to Heller, it took an entire Saturday to shoot but the results were nothing short of perfection. He clearly channeled all that is Steve Perry (down to the dramatic facial expressions) while his wife, among other roles, embodied drummer Steve Smith.

Sons Jackson, 14, and Asher, 12, and daughters Lily, 15, and Violet, 9, also joined the band. Lily did most of the camera work and Violet embodied the role as the video’s mysterious blonde in leather. “She has the most attitude of all the kids. She practiced that walk and that fierce look. She was made for that role,” Heller said.

The original video was set in New Orleans at Louisa Street Wharf but since travel is out, the family made do with their house as the backdrop and it worked. Heller edited the video the next day, posted on the family’s Vimeo account, and assumed it would only be viewed by family and close friends. But “Separate Ways: Heller Quarantine Edition” went viral after a Seattle radio station interview and the rest, they say, is quarantine history.

“We wanted to be able to 10 years from now, say, ‘Remember when we were stuck in our home and we did this crazy thing and it was so much fun?’” Heller told Today of the music video.

Here’s hoping this is just the beginning of their music video-making endeavours. Oh, and check out the original Journey video here.