22nd January 26th feb
My 7th Film - Chad Mason: "Long Way Home" (2010)
Directed by Chad Mason
Director of Photography: Greg Harris
Promoting the lead track from a soon to be released E.P., this was the first collaboration between myself and Greg Harris (of Harris Hawk Media), and also the first promo video ever made for my solo material. Another first was the use of HD and widescreen (16:9 became standard half way through making my previous music promo, so that one, for Whole Schebang, ended up in 4:3). There were, i think, 5 separate shooting days in May 2010 - but only one of these was a full day (a 12 hour shoot starting at 5:30am, which resulted in the happy accident of a milk float rolling into shot.). All of the footage of me in a coat and scarf was shot on a boiling hot day. Of course when we came to do the bits with me in just a shirt it was freezing. Greg was cameraman for the lion's share of the footage in the city of Norwich, and on the estates of Blickling and Kimberly hall, with me filming myself on the beach at Minehead while at All Tomorrow's Parties (ever the opportunist); Naomi Cousins filming me in front of a church up the road in rural Somerset and Oli Horton and I taking it in turns to film each other at Alexandra Palace.
The video also features footage from the original recording session of the song. This was filmed artistically on the tv set, so that this 4:3 stock would not jar with the rest.
This was the first video of mine that utilised a storyboard - though we never quite storyboarded the whole thing; Much of the final 3rd of the video was in my head and remained so until we filmed (and in some cases edited) it. We used a Canon Eos 5D for principal photography. A JVC HD10 (I think) was used by me for the location work outside Norfolk. This was tricky as the two cameras were shooting at different frame rates...
The use of multiple locations resulted in some bizarre juxtapositions. As I play the harmonica, I stroll down a rustic street (Norwich) and come upon a phone box (Somerset). In a few apparently seamless seconds we have travelled 600 Miles!
The trick shot with the hat and Chad doppelganger was a definite highlight. How did we do it? That would be telling, but I can say it took less time than you might think. Just under an hour. Not bad considering I had to be sawn in half. I was lucky to work with many old friends for the "band performance" parts of the video. Dave Cox, Mike Cranny and Laura Copsey, all of whom played on the track in the studio, were kind enough to make the trip, accompanied by Lucy Wilford, who we managed to stow in a trunk through camera trickery, and local musician Henry Walker who took great pleasure in playing the drums with a spirit level and carpentry mallet! Oli was particularly entertaining, especially in his constant fear of arrest for impersonating a policeman. The entire scene outside the Trafford Arms in Norwich was tremendous fun, though nerve-wracking. Dave had to be thrown out of the pub by Mike. It had to look realistic, but we also didn't want to piss off the pub staff (I have to drink in there!). In the end it worked brilliantly, especially as a member of the public walked up at the very moment it happenned, his look of bemusement 100% genuine! One annoying outcome of the video is that I have no idea where my coat got to. Here's hoping it's not still in that tree...
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Slanted Dance Promoby gregharris1982254 views
Very scenic. Beautiful shots of the forest and the music is very nice too. I liked the coat-hanger in the middle of nowhere
SanFransiscoDreaming 8 months ago
really great chill out song!!!
delraro 8 months ago