After the first time we shot a live, one-take music video on one of our sets—where we teamed up with Hourglass Sessions and legendary drummer Nate Smith—we knew we wanted to do it again.
This time with a vocalist!
Shera Shi is a band based in Richmond, Virginia. They have a killer new album coming out in January, and to promote that, we did a creative photo and video shoot on a set.
We teamed back up with Tyler and Dillon of Hourglass Sessions to create this one-take live music video.
So, what I mean by a one-take live music video is... we filmed a reel-style music video, BUT Britt, the vocalist, was singing live as we filmed, and the band was playing LIVE right beside her. So, the video captures a real performance.
David art-directed the entire shoot, designed, and built the set. He had this vision of a forced perspective hole referencing a mirror with Britt singing. But instead of moving the camera to create the warped effect, David designed the set to MOVE, keeping Britt the same size within the frame the entire time.
David and Tyler from Hourglass Sessions figured out the exact shot they needed while I went over the blocking with Britt, as we wanted her movements to complement the movement of the set and align with the lyrics.
Dillon, the sound engineer, worked with the band, mic'd everyone up, and made sure everything sounded amazing.
Once we all had our individual roles figured out, we brought it all together for a run-through—with the band playing, Britt singing, and the camera moving.
We shot four takes in total to make sure we got the exact shot we wanted... which ended up being take number three!
After that, we reset everything and took photos on the same set. It’s amazing how much content we can capture in such a short period of time with this concept.
When you see the video, you’re going to be blown away that this is LIVE music. The video comes out on January 8th, so keep your eyes open!
Our friend Kai Eason stopped by and took some amazing behind-the-scenes shots of us creating this project. It was so special to have our creative process documented through someone else’s eyes—Kai is such a talented photographer.
Working with creative people really is the best. Such a fulfilling experience.
Photo Credit: Kai Eason
