On October 22nd, I was in Stoke-On-Trent for a music video shoot with Free Running Films. Having worked with them before, it was an ideal and comfortable situation in which to contribute effectively to the production while also learning from it.
The band was Akkadian, a 'Blackened Death Metal' band from Northampton; reflecting the extreme style of music allowed for some very stylised lighting.
I found many aspects of the shoot inspiring, including the use of various gels to create swathes of expressionistic colour around the location. Behind the band, we utilised Red gels to create an aggressive but eery backlighting and cast the entire back wall in crimson. For front light (both key and fill) we used Full CTB gels to create a stark contrast and a greater separation between the musicians and the wall behind them. Our primary lighting equipment consisted of several 800W Redheads, although we supplemented this with several smaller lights.
In terms of camera work and shot choices, we used a wide angle lens from a close distance in order to give many of the shots a barrel distortion effect. The camera was mounted on a Flycam, giving fluidity to movements and allowing sweeping cinematic pans and crane-like movements. After some wide masters, we covered each band member in close-up, with a slightly longer focal length in order to prevent too much of a warped image.
The location itself was also particularly inspiring; an old disused warehouse provided an eery and aesthetically pleasing look, although such locations tend to be popular for 'metal' genres of music. The many floors gave a variety of interesting rooms and layouts, with striking yellow walls in places creating very inspiring surroundings. There was a great deal of junk lying around all over the place, while broken windows and cracked walls, floors and pillars showed a sense of destruction and disrepair. Though we shot primarily on one floor, after wandering the other areas I found myself generating ideas in my mind, and would definitely consider such a location for a shoot of my own, circumstances permitting.
After this shoot, the next opportunity to work with FRF will probably be on another music video in January, this time for a post-punk band.
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