Wow. It's been ten years since we shot the video for 'Not over yet' for Blackheart (They hadn't used the Orchestra moniker yet) and it's still one of our favs at Elerby Towers.
When we taught film at schools we would always show the process of making a music video using this as an example.
And how mistakes could change an entire idea.
It's Summer 2014 and Chrissy and Rick venture over to our studio to discuss the idea for the track. and they have this bloody amazing track from the forthcoming album 'Songs from a satellite' As ever lots of ideas are thrown around with lots of coffee and vegan food tasting competitions but finally we plump for a time-lapse-ie sort of video.
Movement and lot of it.
I hate greenscreen.
If not done right it's like you shot the thing on a potato but relented. We would have Timelapse footage that we would shoot ourselves in central Manchester and this would sit behind Chrissy and Rick as they perform the track. OK. A bag of ideas. Shot on various frame rates and stuff. Closeups.
So we turn up at the studio at 9am (ugh - early call times!) and we look at the greenscreen backdrop and it looked horrible.
Creased.
Unusable.
We shoot a few shots and then I just said can we just do some shots with a white backdrop for backup. So we did. And lots of it.
I remember directing them with lots of hand movements that would look cool as if reaching out through the Timelapse footage.
No I'm lost too.
So all this amazing performance footage is shot. Greenscreen and white backdrop. Then over the coming weeks we would venture into Manchester and shoot tons of stuff.
Remember it's summer 2014.
Summer.
You know when it goes dark at 10pm. And we needed it dark. So what was going to be a simple shoot became a night shoot (double ugh).
So we are sat in a pub til 10pm drinking Shandy (Triple ugh!) until the sun decides to disappear over a very hot number of days and we go around shooting cars, streets, people - anything that looks great and colourful for the video.
All the way through while the camera whirls away locked off shooting random, we discuss the video.
Now while I was at the studio in the weeks between shooting the performance and the backplate stuff I played with the footage and - by accident - managed to key the footage on top of Chrissy and Rick instead of the normal behind them.
And it looked strange but very nice.
So while shooting near the gay village at 11pm at night I mention this to Rick about my studio accident and how it looked strange but very nice. And he geeks out a little. Then I do.
Thats the video.
So with this in mind. I shoot cars, lights - anything that looks wizzy and zoomy that would look great on the footage.
But how to end the video? Why not Chrissy and Rick be in Timelapse at the end? Idea sprung from watching an early edit from our studio footage.
So we venture in Manchester again and at around 1pm shoot them in the street matching what we shot weeks ago stood still for 30 minutes.
Bingo.
Also I didn't make Chrissy cry but for that side close up you can blame Rick. What he said was sad but the reaction was there.
And Chrissy called him a twat afterwards - in all good fun.
So that's how we made this. Still dead proud of what we made. Thanks to Chrissy, Rick, Lorraine (for the photos above) and Gibbo.
Plus it was used to advertise the tours in the years and in magazines - see - mistakes can be good!
Lee B
