Comfort Eagle by CAKE

This is the 3rd video I edited. Sadly, I traded in DazzleDV for Adobe Premiere. I can't remember what version it was, probably 2 or 3. At that time, Premiere was worlds more advanced than anything I knew about. It took me days to figure out how to successfully capture video from my camera. The effort was worth it, however, and I soon began imagining MUCH more ambitious projects to shoot and edit.
I became obsessed with the song COMFORT EAGLE from Cake's 3rd album by the same title. I started imagining visual things that made sense to me. I dove in and began creating a concept for a music video. The premise was Amish people living a sort of double life in the fields, obsessed with mainstream culture. I saw them as kind of badass dudes in there own mind.
I cast 3 of my most willing friends; Paul Hunt, Pete Vanderwall and Jake Dolash. I produced the video alone and basically did everything. I sewed crude costumes (my mom helped me, which is still a pretty regular thing), storyboarded the whole video, rented a generator, etc, etc, etc. The night before the shoot I remember that rain was in the forecast, but in Iowa, the forecast can change quickly, so I prayed it wouldn't rain...and it didn't.
Shooting the video was the most challenging thing I had done in life up to that point. I operated and directed actors for the first time. I felt way in over my head. I felt like the footage was crap.
Some of the most dangerous shooting I've ever done was this day, including letting my actors drive my Volvo through tall grass that could easily be hiding something huge and deadly, like a boulder, sped through the same grass on the back of a 4 wheeler going about 40 miles an hour, and Pete standing on the hood of the car in that same death grass. No one died, however, and we made it through the day.
This was the LAST video I shot on my Sony Handcam also. Shortly after this, I traded it in for a Canon XL-1s, which was an awesome camera at the time.
When the video was finished, I sent a copy to Cake. Foolishly, I imagined a world where they would write me and thank me for making a video to their song or something, maybe more. I never heard anything.
This video was a big editing job for me at the time. I lot of FX and filters and stuff. It was my first dose of using keyframes also, which at the time was a hard concept to grasp. I felt good about it when post was finished and walked away with my first real lesson in directing and producing.
Hop you like it!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mike
• pasley
• mike pasley
• jake dolash
• paul hunt
• pete vanderwall
• cake
• comfort
• eagle
• comfort eagle
• music video
• iowa
• corn
• amish
• farm

[TheBoredomIncident]

DUDE! Epic. One probably three fan made videos I've seen that are worthy of being a music video for the song that they were made for. Do you take requests?

[mikepasley]

@TheBoredomIncident THANK YOU! I don't really take requests, but that is a really great compliment. What would you request?

[Noa4h]

This video is AWESOME.

Thanks so much for this post, a job very well done. Good job with this project and I hope you prosper more.

[mirrandarocks]

Loving the video Mike! I <3 Cake and this song is my most favorite of theirs. Thanks for giving it a great video!

[ThaSoulFya]

that was awesome!!!! nice job man. always loved this song & the video goes perfectly.

[fritty56]

yeah u should do spoonman thatd be cool



[TheBoredomIncident]

@mikepasley Well, Beck's E-Pro, or Soundgarden's Spoonman are both loaded with imagery. Ausioslave's Like A Stone would also be a decent choice. At least I would think so. If you'd like a particularly challenging piece, Lost Keys and Rosetta Stoned (both of them together) by Tool could also make a pretty awesome video. I'd be really interested to see where your creativity would take you with any of those.

[crashlanding29]

such a good video!

[videoluva4eva]

he is calling you DUDE! 

[707scubba]

Lol wtf random dog.. That was sweet!

[mitch4942]

wow... that... was... AWESOME!!!!!!!!