Shinedown 24 Hour turnaround

SHINEDOWN

“ENEMIES” MUSIC VIDEO

SET UP:

Brent called me and said they (shinedown) needed a video asap. Like how asap? like really really quick. He told me they had a day off coming up and that was their only window. Closest city was Connecticut. Right away I said lets do a performance video. Quick, easy, powerful, the band just going for it. Brent wasn’t felling it. He said think about and call him back. I had some idea about a guy waking up in a cabin and getting flash images of locations around the cabin and finding the bodies buried of his friends. In the end he realizes he was the one doing the killing. Something like that. Brent wasnt feeling that either. Then we settled on some crazy car chase video. Then we scratched that. I then mentioned going back to a performance video. I mentioned a small detail and it sparked something. I said lets have the band all facing each other, like a band rehearsal. And that was the spark. Brent said lets not have it a band rehearsal vibe but a band meeting. And the idea rolled from there. Worst band meeting ever. In my head it was done. Easy. I remembered thinking that I was amazed The Foo Fighters hadn’t done this video concept.

PRODUCTION:

Find a VFW Hall. That odd old school banquet room that bands play in, reunions are held and veterans chill. Older the better. I wanted a room that Kubrick would of used in The Shining. The Shining became my muse. Wide angles, creepy intro vibe and uncorrected colors. But from there its just a musical. Its Moulin Rouge meets The Shining. Meets Kill Bill. Meets Shinedown. Something like that. So we flew in to JFK, drove to Connecticut, slept in a motel, woke up, drove to location and waited for the band.

CREW:

Lean and mean. Myself, Alfred Tomaszewski(Producer), Andy Patch(DP) and Jamie Toney(fight Coordinator). We hired 2 local make up artists, a grip and local DJ who dropped off some sound equipment and speakers. Thats it.

GEAR:

Canon 7D/5D, Doorway Dolly and 2 lights which can be seen in the video. One over the doorway entrance and the other by the coffee maker. The speakers are on the table by the door entrance being played through a little mixer from an Ipod.

STORIES:
A very straight forward fun shoot. However, when we did the coffee maker hit, it all went wrong. We came down on the wrong part of the break away glass and it pretty much was a baseball bat to Brents head. A hematoma the size of an orange was raised instantly. I mean like 2 seconds after the hit. Thankfully Brent was only slightly phased and our fight coordinator was an MMA fighter so he told us all would be fine. The large bump on his head at the end of the video is real.

THATS A WRAP:

I jumped on a plane the next morning, edited the video on my laptop and sent Brent the edit that evening. He made a few changes and that was it.

BTS: Zach from the band was the only smart enough to think having some behind the scenes footage would be a good idea. MVP?

FEEL FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS