03 Jun pieces of prophecies – the making of a music video
So last weekend, even though I was still recovering from what I’m naming the “Griffith Park Flu” (as I got sick right after the HUGE fire in Griffith Park near my house), I journeyed to San Francisco. Audiopharmacy was performing and they were going to premiere the music video I directed for their song “Prophecies.”
I actually finished the video a couple months ago, but rather than let it slowly leak out – Teao (the producer and ‘chief’ of the musical tribe that is the ‘Pharm) and I wanted to have a more coordinated strategy and release it in time with their album, ‘Spare Change.’ So we waited…
This wasn’t our first artistic collaboration. Back when we both lived off of Geary Blvd we made ‘Late on the 38’. This experimental short, much of it shot on the 38 Muni has done well, screening at the SFSU Film Finals and LACMA’s Young Director’s Night among others.
We had talked about doing a music video for a while, but life, work, and living in separate cities slowed the process. As they were finishing the album, the desire for a video was stronger, so during a trip to SF, Teao, Pasha and I worked on the concept for their song ‘Prophecies’… drawing from art by Sef and the lyrics of the song we settled upon an idea.
I shot a test of a motion effect and the guys in SF along w/ their artist friend Lucien did a picture test of one Sef’s drawings. I integrated these along w/ location scouting photos to create an animatic of the video, which you can watch here.
A few weeks later Angel flew out from Ohio and I drove up from LA and we shot the video. It was a good shoot, I learned a lot and we got most of what we needed. A month or so later, Teao came down to LA and we built a 2nd set in my studio. My studio apartment.
We black-wrapped all the windows and shot for a couple days. It got so hot in there with the foil on the windows, three 650 watt lights, three tv’s, computers and more running non-stop for hours. But we got what we needed.
Clovis & Liisa came over to visit the “set.” At some point we took a trip to CVS for beer, even dressed like this…in Hollywood we didn’t get more than a 2nd look.
After more editing and some help from Brad with the vfx’s and we had a video.
As a special treat for you guys I’ve done a breakdown on a VFX shot to show you the steps that went into making it. Watch it here.
Or if there is anything else about the video or production you’re interested in let me know…
The final video is below!
-Luke
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