PARABOLIC DELUSIONS Treatment
A promo for Danish band Pinkunoizu which went completely off-treatment before we'd even started pre-production. The basic idea remained but I simplified the narrative considerably. It was a really fun video to make and I'd had a sneaky desire to build a cardboard city for absolutely years so was thrilled when the band went for this idea. It took me about three weeks to make the city which is about 2 meters wide and a meter tall. I downloaded the stock footage from the Prelinger Archives which is an awesome, creative commons public domain resource. We shot using two projectors and I got my friend Gordon Raphael (The Strokes producer) to make a video of 'psychedelic colours' to project at the end. It was a re-freshing break to make a graphical video in-camera with no heavy post-production.
PORCELAIN Treatment
A video for Hamburg based Krakow Loves Adana, based on the Andy Warhol Screen Tests and shot on Super-8. I subjected the band to various off-screen physical and psychological stimulus and recorded their reactions. Essentially a series of portraits, there is also a performance element but no instruments are visible. It was decided not to go through with the intoxication idea but it was really fun asking the band confusing and intimate questions to make them feel uncomfortable and seeing how much pain they could take.
SPELL IT OUT Treatment
Massive amount of work in a short time, last minute animation disaster and a whole week to render! An awesome song that sparked this idea immediately. The video is a big departure from their usual style so I'm happy that they had the guts to go for something different. What more can I say except hail to Tron, Star Wing and my two superb actors!
BEST OF ME Treatment
This was a fun video to make. We had some initial difficulties in rousing enough people to form the 'crowd' but some camera angle tricks solved this and everyone performed really well. Shot on RED, I really wanted it to have that epic, cinematic feel seen in Raging Bull but with the grit of Fight Club and of course my own touch of humour. My thirst to make a video with animal costumes has now been quenched so that's one obsession I can finally put to bed.
JENNY ANYTIME Treatment
This video, for singer songwriter Sarah Maguire, was developed and refined considerably after this treatment was written. Almost all the scenes in the treatment were axed in favour of a much simpler single location shoot. It was felt that containing the narrative to a 50's jazz bar scene would allow for a much more effective translation of the lyrics. Plus there was no budget as we backed it ourselves so the thought of speeding off between multiple locations in one day was a tad adventurous.
My first music video shot with the Canon 5D and I must say I'm very impressed. It suited the carefully composed film noir style shots perfectly and the macro lens is insane. The shoot itself had a great atmosphere with the band playing continuously while we shot around them and Sarah looked fabulous.