202104 - Can You See Them Shine
Time for one of those lovely BTS things where you get to see all the fun we had making the music video for ‘Shine’
We filmed on a shoestring budget - we’ll tell you more about that later
Just another couple of weeks til Shine is released on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer etc. That gleaming date? 24th May 2021 - look out for a Youtube Premiere too…
FILMING
Starting at 9 on a crisp Sunday morning in east London, Hugo and I cycled to meet the team at the theatre. Upon arrival everyting was in motion, with dancer LJ warming up, and the tech team putting lights into place. This was too much for Hugo, who went to get coffees (see Hugo with his coffee in our BTS Video below).
Filming really does move slow and fast… at one point we were sat in the positions for our cameo, and asked not to move. After about 30 minutes, we dared move. Wandering outside, it was clear that the team were filming outside, creating the intro to the ‘Shine’ video. Of course, we had no idea. Perhaps they wanted us to be able to express a sense of confusion when it was our time to be filmed ;)
“It was a challenge! ... I had previously danced with something similar attached to me but this was a bit heavier so took a little more engagement from my side to keep it stable when going through my movements”
LJ tells us about wearing the gimbal
Camerman Norman crashes after a long day’s filming
After that, everything seemed to come together very quickly, and the magical effect of our dancer and the fog billowing into the room stirred an eery but anticpatory atmosphere, somewhat dreamy; we could see from this point that this video was going to look special!
Of course, everything is about perception, and for us what seemed fast may have got tiring for Norman and LJ - theirs was the most physical role, and they must have performed the song 30, 40 times over, barely standing still, with Norman’s camerawork beautifully mirroring the movements of LJ as he danced. It was great to witness. Exhausting too!
So, we packed up and went home, still buzzing from the adrenaline and imagining what the edit would look like….
A Happy Team = A Great Team
OUR BUDGET
Our budget covered:
Theatre rental for 1 day, a dancer, a driver, a cameraman, camera and lights, a gimbal suit (see picture), a director, a smoke machine*, on-location footage in France (with a cameraman)
Our budget (roughly): £900 + the cost of a last-minute smoke machine…
So, how did we do it?
The short answer, we have a great network of people; friends, neighbours, family… in France, Hugo drove his friends for a day out at the abandoned Sanatorium d'Aincourt**, and made sure they were fed with great bread from the nearby bakery, owned by Hugo’s parents (who make amazing bread and croissants, and a lot more!). One of the most difficult costs was the location itself, and finding somewhere that could safely welcome us… masked-up, and armed with hand sanitiser, we were ready to film! And we made a great day of it, too, spending time with friends Zoe (our director) and Josh at the Courtyard, as well as making new friends (LJ, our amazing dancer).
And so we’re super grateful to Tim and Josh at the Courtyard Theatre, Tim Folkard for driving, Benjamin Dobson at Kings&Runners for the last-minute smoke machine hire, and to Norman and Zoe at Skyland Films
By the way, if you don’t follow us on Instagram, is that because you don’t have Instagram? Cos practically all the links above are to Instagram pages haha (eek). We should say, other Social media platforms are available. See the bottom of the page for links.
PRE-SAVE BELOW
* The smoke machine I borrowed from a friend, which was vital for the shoot, didn’t work… so fortunate to be in London, and connected on Facebook (even though I hate Facebook!) so that we could source a working smoke machine on a Sunday morning!
** Look out for the incredible Sanatorium d’Aincourt in our video!