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Great news! My first music video, where I was hired as the director of photography, is online. My client was the Swiss band Koenix. The song is about Hanna who sets out to get rid of her demon.
Planning and execution
We originally planned to shoot another music video on that sunny Sunday last December. But due to a common flu, one band member couldn’t attend and we had to find another song and location to use. Postponing was never an option as the release for the upcoming album Eiland was set in stone. Jonas, the singer of Koenix and the director and editor of this movie, and I set out to find the necessary locations. We found them in two nearby buildings and in the Jura region. We pitched our ideas to the rest of the band, Phillip and Michael and his wife Sina, on the same Saturday night. Some adjustments to the plans were made before we went to bed to get some rest before shooting
The next morning was used to shoot the heavily backlit black and white scenes of the musicians indoors. At noon we drove to the snowy outdoor location, which luckily was only 20 minutes away. The sun and clouds didn’t really deliver the exact mood lighting we were hoping for, but it was more than good enough. Sometimes we had to wait a few minutes as we didn’t want tourists wandering the scene. After a few hours in the snow we drove to the third location. A small basement that provided the setting for the first part of the video.
Outlook
This is one of three videos I shot for the band. The next one will have a short behind the scenes video on my YouTube channel. Subscribe and click the bell icon to be notified when it’s published.
Watch it now
Enjoy the video. Please like and share. Leave a comment if you have any questions about the video or anything you’d like covered behind the scenes of the third video.
Insights
You’re a curious one! I like you. Let me explain how we got some of the shots.
Musicians
To get the high contrast shot, I put up a mobile black background behind the musicians and lit them only from behind with two LED fixtures. To reduce possible spill-light, a Fresnel attachement and an ellipsoidal were used. The light for the basedrum was a small light inside the instrument. The windows in the background were blacked out, to reduce the ambient light.
The camera was mostly set on a tripod, since any movement could have revealed the room around the musicians.
Cellar entrance
To create the illusion of Hanna getting out of the small cabin, we placed a white muslin on the wall that was on the opposite of the narrow hallway. It just measured 1.5 m in width. We placed a lighting fixture (green) on either side of the hallway and illuminated the muslin to create a seamless white exit (red).
Dream scene with all talents in front of the picturesque tree
To get the musicians out of focus, a shallow depth of field was needed. To achieve this on the sunny Sunday afternoon, a strong ND filter was used to expose correctly. In order to place the musicians and Hanna in the right place, we brought a pair of snowshoes with us so that the required path could be created. We didn’t want to catch a cold.