Alright, where were we? Ah yes, the day of the shoot.
Welcome to the light show
On the day of, Wade came over early to start tracking bass for our album. We thought we’d get all his parts done before leaving. BOY, WERE WE WRONG. ANNNNNYWAYS, later in the afternoon on the day of the shoot, we all head out to the shooting location, diving in two vehicles. Beth and Matt went directly to the shoot location with all the gear, and Wade and I went over to our local music store, Long & McQuade, to rent a few things for the shoot. While we had the laser and smoke machine already, we were worried it wasn’t going to be enough. We wanted this video to be VIBRANT and CAH-RAZY colourful so one laser was not gonna cut it! ⚡
We got the store and ended up renting another heavy duty laser/disco light (this thing was insane, looks like a laser canon ????), a Bluetooth speaker to blare our song from (cause you need it LOUD!), and a few floor backlights, each with 4 lights that changed color in time for the music. We were set to go. From there, Wade and I drove to the shooting space and met up with them we got to work. Take it away Beth!
Setup, Sushi, and Sharks
Hello, it’s a me, Bethany! It’s my turn to talk (I know, I always have something to say 🤣)
We got access to the building we were shooting in at 5pm but since we were shooting the video in June, the sun doesn’t go down around here till almost 10 PM so we had time to kill.
Sidenote: We had actually been tracking some of Wade’s Bass lines since about 10:30 AM, so we’d already been going hard in the music paint. I’m pretty sure by the end of it, Wade was debating quitting 😅
Anywayssss, we got things mostly set up and decided to chill and have sushi (as you do) and play some Animal Crossing to pass the hours till sundown. But, as is the character for me, I forgot my Switch at home ???? I was on the fence about making the 45 minute round trip there and back just for my game (but let’s face it, is Animal Crossing JUST a game?), but conceded and agreed to pick up our sushi on the way back so it wasn’t a completely frivolous trip 👍🏻 We sat around a table, DEVOURED our sushi, and went on a RedBull-fueled shark hunt.
Smoke Machines + Fire Alarms = Bad Times
When the sun finally started to go down, we thought it would be a good idea to test the fog machine and see how long it would take to fill the room. Little did we know, fog machines actually set off most common fire detectors. Within 2 minutes of having the fog going, the fire alarm BOOMINGLY goes off, sending us all into a minor panic. We stood around half freaking out, half laughing as we anticipated the red trucks and alarms to surround the place at any moment. The building we were in was actually quite old, so luckily the alarm was local (which I only found out after a few winded sprints up and down the spiral staircase from the alarm panel and back) and didn’t send the firefighters over 👨🏻🚒 We decided it would probably be best to unplug all the fire alarms in the place, just in case more fog found its way through. This seemed to solve the problem, but had there been a real fire we would have been in big trouble (don’t tell anyone) 😶
For actually shooting, we started first with our photos and still shots before going onto the music video. Not only to test the lighting and environment but also cuz we knew after shooting 10 takes of the same song over and over again, we probably wouldn’t be in the mood to take a bunch of photos at 1 AM ????. We wanted to do some more “live” shots along with some of our usual posed ones. It’s fun to do posed shots, but you lose some of the spontaneity and vibe that taking live photos gives you. So we turned on our weekly jamming setlist, CRANKED the volume, and let Matt go to town taking pics. It was probably one of the most fun shoots we’ve done cuz we were just rocking out and getting in the mood for the music video.
Next week, we are handing it over to Matt for a special guest post. He is going to cover his process of shooting the photos and video! 🎥
Up Next…
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