New Music Video Red ONE - Witchdoctor by Little Red

[D'Arcy Foley-Dawson]

Red ONE, Zeiss lenses, 4k with some 3k 50fps stuff.

My first RED shoot.

Video is for Melbourne (Australia) band Little Red.

http://www.vimeo.com/1168992

DP is the very talented Stefan Duscio, who I think is also a member of this board. All gear, plus on-line and colour grade by the awesome rental/post house Lemac, in Melbourne Australia.

Not too happy with the Vimeo compression - original upload was 240mb - kind of expected better results. Any suggestions?

cheers,
D'Arcy

 

[Rainer Fritz]

really nice... loved it...

 

[C.H.Haskell]

Yeah I enjoyed this, well done. I really liked the natural looking light ambience...great track.

Interesting location and story behind it...nice work.

 

[Andrew Benz]

Yeah I enjoyed this, well done. I really liked the natural looking light ambience...great track.

Interesting location and story behind it...nice work.

Same thing here for the same reasons mate... very nice.

Cheers

 

[NormLi]

Very very nice... very filmic. Good job!

 

[Vigen Vartanov]

Very Nice.

 

[fred boyadjian]

I'm not crazy about the song but I must say that the overall look of the image is really good ! Very natural, just like I like it !

 

[David Birdy]

Great job!

Looks like film to me!

Dave

 

[Luca Immesi]

Very cool work. Did you use super 35 Ultra Prime Lenses?

 

[Radoslav Karapetkov]

Great, really filmic, I agree.

And the quality looks fine for Vimeo, but you could try encoding with h264 [cause it says DivX there].

 

[Luis Otero]

Very well done. Extremely filmic look! Congratulations...:sorcerer:

 

[Matthew Chuang]

great clip mate! any chance we can download a copy? I like collecting good clips shot on the red.

 

[Cal Brunker]

Love the vibe of the whole thing! The grittiness and texture are awesome.

Cal

 

[Andrew Benz]

great clip mate! any chance we can download a copy? I like collecting good clips shot on the red.

Hey Matt, you can download it from vimeo. Look on the right side of the page just under statistics... you can download from here if you are signed in to the site. The Download IS much better to watch.

D'Arcy, I would like to hear more about your process. I think at every turn you made great choices and I would love to hear more about it, more about you, the story, your crew and talent. It's too good not too... Your "little tarts" or is that "wayward girls" did an amazing job and it takes several viewings too take it all in and process the nuances. Actually... everyone was perfect.

I hope we get some kind of discussion here from the creative and technical team behind this... I can only guess at things from my pov and you don't want that.:wink:

Cheers,

Andrew "12 years of Catholic School" Benz

 

[D'Arcy Foley-Dawson]

D'Arcy, I would like to hear more about your process. I think at every turn you made great choices and I would love to hear more about it, more about you, the story, your crew and talent. It's too good not too... Your "little tarts" or is that "wayward girls" did an amazing job and it takes several viewings too take it all in and process the nuances. Actually... everyone was perfect.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who left nice comments. Andrew I feel a bit silly saying this but I only just read your post (I've been taking a much-needed break from the computer the past few weeks) so please forgive the absurd lateness of my reply!

I think it's safe to say most - if not all - filmmakers dream about having their work appreciated for it's "nuances", so thank you again.

I'll try to be brief with my answers, as I have a habit of waffling.

I actually scored this gig because the band are very close friends of mine. I went to high school with all of them (except the drummer Taka, who's from Japan). They're a terrific band and are generating a lot of buzz in Australia, where they are filling clubs and tearing up the festival circuit. So obviously I was grateful for the opportunity (which mind you wasn't a given, I had to compete with plenty of other hopefuls and pitch a treatment to the manager!)

The thing is, I was at their very first gig, some three or four years ago, when they played to a few friends in an empty bar. I've since watched them develop their sound, their image, their live set. But the one thing that has really set them apart from other good bands in the local scene is the girls: all the cute young girls love them. (There's a thing on YouTube called Insight - it lets you look at the demographic breakdown of your channel and videos. The LittleRedTV channel's viewers are an astonishing 70%+ female!) So when I sat down to come up with a concept for the video, I wanted to incorporate this idea, as something representative of the band and the kind of music they make. (The track 'Witchdoctor' is actually their darkest song, and not very representative of their sound, and there's a long and complicated explanation as to why it was chosen as the single but I can't go into it here.)

The other consideration going into the concept was the requirement that it be a 'performance' video - of course, since it was their first real video (I also did an ultra low-budget one for them a year before) for their debut album, it was necessary that they be presented as a band, playing their instruments etc. for the sake of potential fans. Since I've grown quite tired of straight-up performance videos, and wanted to stretch my wings a bit, I decided to try and make the video a hybrid of a standard performance and an interesting narrative or stylish hook to counter the inherent boredom of just watching someone play a guitar.

The original treatment had the band playing in one apartment, located inside a block of apartments. As they play, we cut to cute young girls in neighbouring apartments, who can hear the song through the walls, and are hypnotised, zombie-like. In their zombie state they lack the ability to think normally, but are compelled to move towards the source of the sound. So instead of walking out the door, they simply try to move in a straight line towards the sound, which inevitably means getting stuck trying to walk through the wall. This would meanwhile be intercut with shots of 'normal' people (ie. not cute young girls) in other neighbouring apartments, who can likewise hear the music, but aren't in any way interested in it. I thought the image of people trying to move through a wall as if it weren't there would be very compelling, whilst the idea that their music was a sort of 'dog whistle' for cute young girls was suitably cheeky and clever.

Then the weeks of pre-production began. Working with my good friend Adam Krongold as Producer, I looked at a lot of locations and auditioned a lot of girls (many with a background in dancing). Finding just the right girls was very difficult, because although we had many great applicants it was hard to put together three who seemed to 'play off' each other in interesting ways.

I also made the decision that there must be three girls because it needed to be clear that their appeal was universal (to the specific demographic, of course). Typically music videos have one 'main girl' which implies an isolated relationship with the band (or just the lead singer as the case usually is!) Three also provides for more visual variety.

I was very pleased to secure Stefan Duscio as DoP. Stefan is not only a very talented cinematographer, he's also very easygoing and I find it very easy to communicate ideas with him. He'd already had quite extensive experience working on RED, which was a major bonus.

The real turning point came with securing the location. I was fortunate enough to get my dream location at a dream price. It was a completely disused building, owned by a company with plans to turn it into artists' studios and performance spaces. In the meantime they hire it out to film crews and photo shoots, and were very good to us. I was also told that the building used to be an actual school for wayward girls, a long time ago, and that many people believed it to be haunted. In fact one of the property stewards actually claims to have seen a ghost girl there!

As the shooting date approached and the wheels were all set in motion, I kept thinking about the location's haunted status. Being someone who's 'open' to the possibility of ghosts (or at the very least intrigued by the idea), I grew very excited about the (for lack of a better word) energy that this would bring to the production. I know that might sound silly, but I like to engage with a project on more than just a sterile, business-like level. I also got off on warning cast and crew that the place was haunted!

One night I was looking over the stills Stefan had taken on our recce, and it struck me that the location was absolutely gorgeous the way it was, and would lose it's magic if we were to try and transform it into apartments where people live. Much to the disappointment of our wonderful Production Designer Amelie Scalercio, who had already put in a lot of preparation, I decided to re-tool the concept. I incorporated the building's history, turned the girls into slutty ghosts, and dropped the other 'neighbours'. I felt that the idea that the band were now intentionally trying to summon horny ghosts was simply irresistible, as was the idea of ghosts who struggle to walk through walls. This simplified everything from a practical standpoint, but presented the problem of setting up the now much more complicated premise for the audience. Hence the opening scene with the gardener, who was played by a very good friend of mine Richard Stearne, an incredibly talented performer.

Whenever I work with Richard it's very much New Wave, improvised verite etc. etc. Basically I rehearsed with Richard for a couple hours, explaining to him the feel of the character, the information that needed to be communicated, and the kind of language the gardener would use. But possessing a unique ability to play with words, Richard came up with 'womb-babies' and 'bad karma sutra' when the camera started rolling. He uses strange combinations of words and phrases to add a sense of absurdity and force the viewer to pay attention, and I feel it's a great way to set up the video.

As for the girls, I also rehearsed with them individually and as a group. Together we came up with a small routine for each girl, trying to achieve a 'separation' of character and creating for me the material that would glue the video together.

Working on a very very small budget, we only shot for one day and I spent about two weeks editing it myself. We were helped immensely by Lemac, an equipment hire and post-production house in Melbourne Australia, who did a conform and grade of the RED material.

Well I should probably leave it there as I've said quite a lot, probably far too much! Hope that satisfies your curiosity though.

Cheers,

D'Arcy "eight-years-of-Catholic-school-plus-five-years-of-Protestant-school" Foley-Dawson

 

[Andrew Benz]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who left nice comments. Andrew I feel a bit silly saying this but I only just read your post (I've been taking a much-needed break from the computer the past few weeks) so please forgive the absurd lateness of my reply!

I think it's safe to say most - if not all - filmmakers dream about having their work appreciated for it's "nuances", so thank you again.

I'll try to be brief with my answers, as I have a habit of waffling.

I actually scored this gig because the band are very close friends of mine. I went to high school with all of them (except the drummer Taka, who's from Japan). They're a terrific band and are generating a lot of buzz in Australia, where they are filling clubs and tearing up the festival circuit. So obviously I was grateful for the opportunity (which mind you wasn't a given, I had to compete with plenty of other hopefuls and pitch a treatment to the manager!)

The thing is, I was at their very first gig, some three or four years ago, when they played to a few friends in an empty bar. I've since watched them develop their sound, their image, their live set. But the one thing that has really set them apart from other good bands in the local scene is the girls: all the cute young girls love them. (There's a thing on YouTube called Insight - it lets you look at the demographic breakdown of your channel and videos. The LittleRedTV channel's viewers are an astonishing 70%+ female!) So when I sat down to come up with a concept for the video, I wanted to incorporate this idea, as something representative of the band and the kind of music they make. (The track 'Witchdoctor' is actually their darkest song, and not very representative of their sound, and there's a long and complicated explanation as to why it was chosen as the single but I can't go into it here.)

The other consideration going into the concept was the requirement that it be a 'performance' video - of course, since it was their first real video (I also did an ultra low-budget one for them a year before) for their debut album, it was necessary that they be presented as a band, playing their instruments etc. for the sake of potential fans. Since I've grown quite tired of straight-up performance videos, and wanted to stretch my wings a bit, I decided to try and make the video a hybrid of a standard performance and an interesting narrative or stylish hook to counter the inherent boredom of just watching someone play a guitar.

The original treatment had the band playing in one apartment, located inside a block of apartments. As they play, we cut to cute young girls in neighbouring apartments, who can hear the song through the walls, and are hypnotised, zombie-like. In their zombie state they lack the ability to think normally, but are compelled to move towards the source of the sound. So instead of walking out the door, they simply try to move in a straight line towards the sound, which inevitably means getting stuck trying to walk through the wall. This would meanwhile be intercut with shots of 'normal' people (ie. not cute young girls) in other neighbouring apartments, who can likewise hear the music, but aren't in any way interested in it. I thought the image of people trying to move through a wall as if it weren't there would be very compelling, whilst the idea that their music was a sort of 'dog whistle' for cute young girls was suitably cheeky and clever.

Then the weeks of pre-production began. Working with my good friend Adam Krongold as Producer, I looked at a lot of locations and auditioned a lot of girls (many with a background in dancing). Finding just the right girls was very difficult, because although we had many great applicants it was hard to put together three who seemed to 'play off' each other in interesting ways.

I also made the decision that there must be three girls because it needed to be clear that their appeal was universal (to the specific demographic, of course). Typically music videos have one 'main girl' which implies an isolated relationship with the band (or just the lead singer as the case usually is!) Three also provides for more visual variety.

I was very pleased to secure Stefan Duscio as DoP. Stefan is not only a very talented cinematographer, he's also very easygoing and I find it very easy to communicate ideas with him. He'd already had quite extensive experience working on RED, which was a major bonus.

The real turning point came with securing the location. I was fortunate enough to get my dream location at a dream price. It was a completely disused building, owned by a company with plans to turn it into artists' studios and performance spaces. In the meantime they hire it out to film crews and photo shoots, and were very good to us. I was also told that the building used to be an actual school for wayward girls, a long time ago, and that many people believed it to be haunted. In fact one of the property stewards actually claims to have seen a ghost girl there!

As the shooting date approached and the wheels were all set in motion, I kept thinking about the location's haunted status. Being someone who's 'open' to the possibility of ghosts (or at the very least intrigued by the idea), I grew very excited about the (for lack of a better word) energy that this would bring to the production. I know that might sound silly, but I like to engage with a project on more than just a sterile, business-like level. I also got off on warning cast and crew that the place was haunted!

One night I was looking over the stills Stefan had taken on our recce, and it struck me that the location was absolutely gorgeous the way it was, and would lose it's magic if we were to try and transform it into apartments where people live. Much to the disappointment of our wonderful Production Designer Amelie Scalercio, who had already put in a lot of preparation, I decided to re-tool the concept. I incorporated the building's history, turned the girls into slutty ghosts, and dropped the other 'neighbours'. This simplified everything, but presented the problem of setting up the now much more complicated premise for the audience. Hence the opening scene with the gardener, who was played by a very good friend of mine Richard Stearne, an incredibly talented performer.

Whenever I work with Richard it's very much New Wave, improvised verite etc. etc. Basically I rehearsed with Richard for a couple hours, explaining to him the feel of the character, the information that needed to be communicated, and the kind of language the gardener would use. But possessing a unique ability to play with words, Richard came up with 'womb-babies' and 'bad karma sutra' when the camera started rolling. He uses strange combinations of words and phrases to add a sense of absurdity and force the viewer to pay attention, and I feel it's a great way to set up the video.

As for the girls, I also rehearsed with them individually and as a group. Together we came up with a small routine for each girl, trying to achieve a 'separation' of character and creating for me the material that would glue the video together.

Working on a very very small budget, we only shot for one day and I spent about two weeks editing it myself. We were helped immensely by Lemac, an equipment hire and post-production house in Melbourne Australia, who did a conform and grade of the RED material.

Well I should probably leave it there as I've said quite a lot, probably far too much! Hope that satisfies your curiosity though.

Cheers,

D'Arcy "eight-years-of-Catholic-school-plus-five-years-of-Protestant-school" Foley-Dawson

D' Arcy, I want to thank you so much for indulging my curiosity to the extreme about your wonderful work. No worries or need to apologize for you lateness or whatever... but I wont lie, I am very glad that you were able to take a break... that was very gracious of you and I greatly admire your approach/refinement of story, your crew and those multi talented wayward girls and their skills. Your friend who was tasked with the intro exposition was spot on in what he did with setting up the haunted school bit. Very quirky and quite effective in both respects. I loved it. Their body movement, wardrobe and hair/ facial expressions really brought these elements together for me. Ultimately, it was most believable. I was a great admirer how they were brought back "to life" through the music only to get a quick idea as to how to move again. The young ladies and their choices(your direction when they met a physical object like a wall making "earthly movement" fresh and new again. The way you had them explore that felling was brilliant.

If you are ever in the states I and if there was ever any thing that you need help with... I could do so. Now, I am working on a quixotic mix of high end corporate, music videos, TVCs, Pre pro on a Doc and things that I can't talk about in an open forum right now---but it is coming together very well. Your generosity and kindness to break down your process means very much for me... I have watched this video 2-5 time s a day and I dig it even more, every time.

signed,

Andrew "Twelve year of Catholic Schools and four years of the United States Air Force"Benz

PS-Please Keep in touch and give the talent and the crew my sincere thanks for making something so beautiful on so many layers.

PPS- Witch Doctor is one of my favorite songs now.

 

[Cail Young]

Nice work D'Arcy - is this the project we spoke on the phone about ages ago? Looks like it pulled through! When can we see it on Rage?

Cail

 

[D'Arcy Foley-Dawson]

Andrew, thank you once again for all your thoughts, I'm very pleased that you've taken so much from this video.

I would like to extend the same courtesy to you, should you ever find yourself in Australia.

quixotic

This is my favourite adjective! Where can I look at some of your stuff?

Thanks again,
D'Arcy

 

[D'Arcy Foley-Dawson]

Nice work D'Arcy - is this the project we spoke on the phone about ages ago? Looks like it pulled through! When can we see it on Rage?

Cail

Thanks Cail, and thanks again for helping me out on the phone way back when. Don't forget to let me know when your website is up and running, I'm very interested in what you're doing with RED.

Cheers,
D'Arcy