Once the video for Sleep Alive’s “Lights, Camera, Action” was released. I put together this quick look at the behind the scenes of how we made the video.
The filming for this video was completed in under 8 hours at two different locations on a very hot summer day in June 2010.
As some of you may know, before I got my start in television and film I had been an independent and studio musician from the time I was 15 years of age.
In 2010 I decided to get back into music to fulfill that creative outlet that I had left behind to pursue my television career. I wanted to try and write, direct, produce, and edit music videos for the project, Sleep Alive, that I was involved in for some fun. It was a chance to combine my two biggest passions and see what I could do on a weekend with some friends.
The treatment for the video was written in a couple of days prior to filming. I had imagined a situation in which a couple are meeting up for their first date. I felt that everyone has experienced the nervous jitters, combined with the excitement, and the prospect of possibly starting a long term relationship based on the first impressions of an evening out on a first date. This seemed to be a universal theme for most people and I wanted to explore how I could visually describe such an abstract sense of emotions.
To open the video I envisioned a couple sitting in an empty movie theatre so the focus was strictly on the cast. It would establish the couple in the “reality” sequences of the video. Using a film strip transistional motion graphic element, I decided to cut between the “reality” sequence, and a “daydream” sequence. I literally wanted to “cut” to a “subconsious day dream sequence” in which the couple are sharing a day dream about how this first date is playing out between them as they sat in the theatre. So as the couple is really only experiencing watching a movie in the empty theatre, their minds are experiencing this very intense meeting in an empty resturant that is far more grand. Those “love at first sight” kind of emotions are enhancing this mundane typical experience to feel extraordinary. The unique aspect is that they are experiencing this together unbeknownst to the other person.
Being a music video, I wanted to intersperse performance elements of the band. I utilized the movie screen area in the theatre for the performance. The performance piece signified the “viewers” point of view. As the viewer you are watching this video because you want to see the band. To tie this into the video I decided to merge all three worlds. You never see what movie the couple is watching as they desperately try to contain themselves on the outside while sitting in the theatre, while meanwhile in their minds they are experiencing a very intimate event. The frontman of the band is the only one who is part of all three worlds (reality, daydream, performance). I wanted to use the performance to act as the main male characters subconsience that would speak to him to try and ground him from having these “delusions of grandeur” about this first date and how enamored he was with his date. My hope was to have the performance come screaming out of the screen at him to almost snap him back into reality and just focus on the date at hand. (Basically “Hey asshat, stop thinking about what could be and focus on the date so you don’t blow it with this chick!”) For the final chorus a little “movie magic” happens and his subconcious comes out of the silver screen screaming at him, thus snapping him back to reality resulting in the video ending with the couple silently sitting in the theatre watching the movie, all the while neither of them realize that they had just shared a very intense day dream in a couple of split seconds.
(Basically it’s like Inception, but not at all, and this came out way before that movie…obviously I day dream a lot, and apparently it always has to do with movies, music, and beautiful women. Sue me.)
The budget for this video was under $2000.00 and we shot in each location for free. A couple of days of scouting, and begging, allowed us to get into the resturant location (Bocado – Worcester, MA) and the theatre location (Elm Draught House Theatre – Millbury, MA) before these businesses opened on a Saturday afternoon.
Tom Guilmette (Director of Photography), Tasha Barker (Actress/Model), and myself arrived at the swanky tapas lounge, Bocado, at 10 AM. I had already scouted the location and had a mental storyboard of the shots. We had 2 hours to shoot, so Tom got his gear set, while Tasha and I discussed the scenes and changed. I wanted the resturant scenes to have a modern look and feel with a sense of classic “rat pack” swagger for the characters. We shot in four locations within the resturant. The kitchen, the main dining room, the service area hallway, and the mens bathroom. Tom and I have worked together numerous times and we were able to understand what we were both looking for when we composed the shots. A series of dolly moves in the dining area with a wide lens gave a great sense of depth to room. Tasha and I completed out scenes in just about an hour, and then Tom and I scrambled to pack up the gear and head to the next location.
Once at the movie theatre the other members of Sleep Alive (Eric Mitchell, and Justin Wilson who formerly was the drummer for Atlantic recording artists Reveille) began setting up their instruments and the PA for playback. While this took place in front of the screen, Tom and I prepared to shoot the shot sequences with Tasha and myself that would take place in the rows of seats in the theatre. Using an 8 foot jib arm and a Canon 5D MII, Tom and I filmed Tasha sitting alone in the theatre, then our meet cute, and then the side shots for the special effects reveal. After that, it was 11 takes of performance, and then the cut away, over the shoulder shot of Tasha’s head for the secondary special effects reveal shot. We wrapped by 4 PM.
Once I sat down with the footage for the edit, it was clear sailing to construct the first line cut, but then I had to attempt to design and animate the special effects reveal of the performance character screaming out of the screen at the reality character. Using Adobe After Effects, I masked out the performance character from a side view shot and superimposed the layer over the reality shot. I then used a series of particle glows, film warping, lens flares, color grades, and Twitch (a program by Andrew Kramer…the guy is a God amongst men when it comes to this kind of stuff) to execute a projected film image composite. For the second shot, which is over the shoulder of Tasha and you can see the performance character film projection head on, I used a similar technique, but had to reconstruct all of the elements of the shot in photoshop, other than the video composite character. I constructed a new background to block out the existing movie theatre set that contained all of the bands equipment and all of the lights for the shoot, and then I masked out Tasha’s head so it did not get effected by the original lights, and made this a flat image. I reconstructed the shot in After Effects in 3D space and composited the shot. I was pretty happy with the result.
Overall it was a great experience and a lot of fun to spend the day with some friends being creative.
This is the promotional trailer that I cut together to promote the upcoming Sleep Alive video for “Lights, Camera, Action”.
The shots used were from the raw video files and production first cut. This was cut together very quickly and treated to get the word out virally for the upcoming video release.
This DVD Trailer was featured on www.dropkickmurphys.com and on itunes during the weeks leading up to the release of the Live On Lansdowne DVD release in March of 2009.
I directed, produced, and edit this trailer.
In 2008 I was very fortunate to direct, produce, and edit the Dropkick Murphys Live on Lansdowne DVD. After I completed the production of the DVD I was asked by the Dropkick’s to put together a television commercial to air nationally for the promotion of the DVD release in 2009. This is the TV ad that ran nationally in February and March of 2009. All of the footage used in this commercial was filmed by my production team. I was responsible for the writing,producing, and editing of this spot which aired on MTV, VH1, and Fuse networks in the US.