"Hello again. The song we've already done a video to, has another part to it - the non-ballad version, that will be released back to back. If you're around in the next month or so, I'd love to shoot something for this with a very dark dramatic theme (opposite of our ballady beach shoot)." - Elena Goddard 8/20/2019
The fact that these things ever even see the light of day still amazes me. I know I'd read someone else mention something similar about putting out personal work, but good lord the time, effort, and resources going into this kind of nonsense is mind-blowing. This is the third music video I've done with [Elena Goddard][1] now and by far my favorite, but unquestionably the most difficult one to pull off. Literally to the VERY last minute before she had her YouTube channel premiere we were running into problems.
WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY: Elena Goddard
DIRECTOR/DP/EDIT: me
CAMERA ASSISTANT: Kyle Vines
MAKEOUT BUDDY: Elias Abraham
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Lillian Maslen
Originally we'd talked about shooting something much more simple in a graffitied bathroom we'd found in a bar on our side of Brooklyn. It'd probably have been easier to go in that direction, but nooooo... I figured we should go for something more.
Her song is about loving someone but knowing the time wasn't right and that she'd need to let them go. I had her find a makeout buddy and figured we could film with the two of them a bit, get some singles of her in the places they used to frequent, and then land some takes of her performing the song. That was the plan at least. Here's the lookbook/treatment if you're up to check it out.
The first reference Elena sent over was the Break My Broken Heart video by Winona Oak and she liked the idea of colored lighting. I knew we'd be short on time, crew, and we'd not have access to power at our locations, so for sure we'd need battery-powered lights. This past year I've had a few chances to work with the Astera Titans and knew they'd work for the colors we'd want plus they're battery-powered.
Elena isn't signed to a label so she's footing the bill for these projects. We had my camera and lens package and a $400 budget. I rented a car that doubled as our picture car and a means to get gear around, two 4' Astera Titans and some misc. grip from Lightbulb Grip & Electric, plus a couple of Gold Mount batteries and a Smoque filter from a buddy of mine named Dave Adams. I was also able to snag Kyle Vines again to AC on the project at a crazy discounted rate. I swear one day I'll be able to have him pull focus so I don't embarrass myself with soft footage making the edit.
Originally we'd talked about shooting something much more simple in a graffitied bathroom we'd found in a bar on our side of Brooklyn. It'd probably have been easier to go in that direction, but nooooo... I figured we should go for something more.
Her song is about loving someone but knowing the time wasn't right and that she'd need to let them go. I had her find a makeout buddy and figured we could film with the two of them a bit, get some singles of her in the places they used to frequent, and then land some takes of her performing the song. That was the plan at least. Here's the lookbook/treatment if you're up to check it out.
The first reference Elena sent over was the Break My Broken Heart video by Winona Oak and she liked the idea of colored lighting. I knew we'd be short on time, crew, and we'd not have access to power at our locations, so for sure we'd need battery-powered lights. This past year I've had a few chances to work with the Astera Titans and knew they'd work for the colors we'd want plus they're battery-powered.
Elena isn't signed to a label so she's footing the bill for these projects. We had my camera and lens package and a $400 budget. I rented a car that'd double as our picture car and a means to get gear around, two 4' Astera Titan LED tubes and some misc. grip from Lightbulb Grip & Electric, plus a couple of Gold Mount batteries and a Smoque filter from a buddy of mine named Dave Adams. I was also able to snag Kyle Vines again to AC on the project at a crazy discounted rate. I swear one day I'll be able to have him pull focus so I don't embarrass myself with soft footage making the edit.
There were a few happy accidents too. By far my favorite shot is Elena singing in the backseat of the car. I'd picked the spot in advance knowing the existing lighting would get us pretty far. I'd just need to add the red accent on camera right and augment the levels coming in on camera left. We were shooting near the base of an above-ground section of the subway and during our first take we had a train come by. The interior lights of the train made some great-looking reflections on the car windows. We also lucked out with some cars driving by during one of the make-out shots and a couple of her performance takes near the wall. Honestly, we didn't have the resources to add much intentional motion to our footage so the happy accidents adding some subtle on-screen movement were by all means welcomed.