So, the video was premiered last night to the delight of all involved. Now that the project is in the bag and viewable online (see below, or go to www.vimeo.com/channelC83 and subscribe!) we wanted to give a more detailed behind the scenes look into the production.
The Kindness of Strangers approached us to do a music video back in March. They have a new EP out and they were looking for a video to do some promotion work for it. We gladly met up with the TKOS guys and were delighted to see just how excited they were in doing a project with us.
I particularly liked a lot of the "end of the world" themes that were present in the song and we decided to really work with that. Our biggest source of inspiration was an episode of the Twilight Zone entitled, "The Shelter." We did not want to do a straight take off on the episode though. To make things interesting we abandoned the ending of the episode all together and the original black & white look. Instead we decided to go with an actual end of the world scenario. To change the visual up we decided to put our eggs in the basket of our Art Director (Michelle Lawless), our Director of Photography (Nick Kovacic) and our Gaffer / Colorist (Matt Riggieri). Our visual approach was to give the piece a technicolor look. We used a combination of set design, costuming, makeup, lighting, camera settings, and a little post-production magic to make it happen. The results are pretty crazy.
Before:
After:
Needless to say, we are pretty happy with the results.
So, after arriving at our concept and deciding on how we would execute our modern-meets-coldwar era-technicolor-hidef-end of the world scenario music video we had to figure out where we would shoot the project. Much of the story revolves around being in a bomb shelter. Coming up with a bomb shelter would prove to be a big challenge. What we ended up doing, through the gracious support of our friend Mason Booker, was building a bomb shelter set from scratch in a warehouse space that Mason had access to. Everything you see in that bomb shelter set was completely designed and fabricated through the hard work of Michelle Lawless and all of the crew who hammered, nailed, painted, and constructed it over the course of the four days before production occurred. Our other locations in the story were set in what would be the "band's house." My cousin, Leslie Rollins, and her family very generously hosted us for our second day of shooting where we would film the dining room scene, the kitchen scene, and the stairs. The outdoor location was shot at the Lloyd family residence down the street from the Rollins' house.
The shooting days were really incredible. The first day spent on the bomb shelter set went long, but it was a great time had by all. We had lots of awesome equipment that we had never used before. My personal favorite was the Pixie Crane with the fully mechanized head that we used to get all of the overhead shots in the video.
The second day of shooting that took place at the Rollins' house was also a great time. At last count there was something like 23 vehicles parked in front of the house. One of the best shots we pulled off was courtesy of our friend Andy Schwartz. Andy is a steadicam operator. He did the shot moving from the stairs and into the kitchen; really good stuff that ties our opening sequence together. My other favorite shots from the second day come from outside of the Lloyd residence where we got the battering ram shots. In fact, there is one take that bums me out that we did not use because it was really good; just no room left.
At the end of the day, tons of fun was had by all and I can say that I am really proud of the outcome.
Thank you all for your support and involvement.
Most importantly THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!!!
Watch it here if you would like, but I highly encourage everyone to check it out on our Vimeo channel.
Don't forget to subscribe here and on vimeo: www.vimeo.com/channelC83
The Kindness of Strangers - "Hold, Heavy Earth" from C83 Productions on Vimeo.
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