Alright. No shootists were involved. Although I suppose you could say I was a shootee.
We shot the video for “Fightsong” on Friday, March 13th (not being a superstitious lot). The video was a great chance for Paul Thompson and I to renew our Martini MacGuffin film collaboration. Paul shot my first video, for “The Prisoner”, and together we’ve made a few short films with him directing, and me throwing words together in a semblance of writing.
The “Fightsong” concept is pretty cool. The song’s a moody, apocalyptic love-song. In the video, we watch a relationship unraveling as a musician (that’d be me) succumbs to the trappings of success. Except that the scenes play like
Irreversible or
Memento, occurring in reverse. So we begin with me alone in my now empty apartment, and work our way backward through the relationship in crisis to happier days to when the couple first views the apartment together. The video’s being edited right now, but that’s what we’re going for, and I think we got it.
We had a lot of luck getting the video off the ground, and got to work with a bunch of great people and familiar faces. Juan Montalvo was our cinematographer, back after lensing our short
Quarantine. Album producer Marc Koecher joined my bandmates Scott Hannigan and Zack Mykula to round out the onscreen band. And Elena Vardon, featured in “The Prisoner” video, was a huge help, connecting us up with both the studio where we shot the film (Walnut Studio), and our gorgeous leading lady, Deniz Maria Reno. A great bunch of friends and newly cast strangers rounded out our cast, and the crew was capable, efficient and a pleasure to work with. Our art director Rahema Mohamed did a wonderful job creating the apartment, with much help and driving around from Carmela Versace.
The capper was the Red Camera Paul managed to lay hands on through David Woods. That thing is a **monster**, a magnificent, gleaming black beast with a resolution vastly superior to Blu-Ray. Geeks can feast on its specs
here. That camera alone will lend the video incredible cinematic depth and luster.
The shoot was long, brutal and loads of fun. Of course we blew out the power in the studio at one point, frying some fuses in a terrifying old-school circuit box. By fluke, one of our extras was an electrician’s assistant, and helped us to track down the right fuses to replace, which Carm, ever intrepid, had to source at 11pm on a Friday.
In the party and photo-shoot scenes, energy and exuberance were in abundance, fuelled by a little of the ol’ alkey-haul, natch! The people that came out fell right into the spirit(s) of the shoot, and had themselves a blast. Can’t thank them enough for being part of it.
The couple scenes played really well, too. It’s strange, falling into instant intimacy with someone you barely know. But Deniz was a beautiful trooper, and I managed my acting neophyte status the best way I knew, with fits of blazing dorkiness.
The band played great – so what if half of it was pantomime? One of the night’s many magic moments that stood out for me was a scene we shot in the wee hours, when the band was working out “Fightsong” as if for the first time. Scott hunkered on his bass and Zack took drumming notes (evincing the possibility of consciousness in a drummer!), as I played guitar and Marc the accordion. The accordion’s reedy sound drifted haunting over the strains of the track as we played together, gathered on the couch of my fictitious living room, and sang the song together. A perfect film moment, concocted, artificial, yet for a fleeting moment amazingly moving and real.
With the great contributions we got on Friday, and a generous dollop of luck, “Fightsong” will feel the same way.
