Hyper-low-budget, single shot experiment in time ramping.
Category: Music Video
The third Graetzmedia music video for Violent Soho. Trying to keep their quintessentially Australian Suburbs image intact, while throwing some technological head-trip curve balls at their THC-addled fans.
We spent a lovely day in an excellent, naturally art-directed Queenslander house, running the robot back and forth endlessly. It went Rather Well Indeed.
A dark, hot room filled with smoke and lasers. Who doesn’t want that in their life? Lighting is all controlled via my audio-reactive lighting system, each light pulse is directly controlled by the sound of the instruments and vocals.
Directed, Shot, Edited, Laser and Lighting Programmed by Jaymis
Filmed at Regent Station
Camera gear courtesy of Graetzmedia
After the Violent Soho/Graetzmedia single-shot clip Covered In Chrome was nominated for an Aria award, we knew the follow up had to be really special.
Director Dan and I had been discussing if we could use the camBLOCK motion control system to do a low-budget version of the famous “Children Of Men” car chase scene. We did some tests in the back of a van and realised that the robot would be able to move while under acceleration, so we started planning.
Shitbox car purchased and modified. I came up with systems to allow director Dan to control the moco rig live, moving throughout the entire length of the car while he was huddled in the back underneath dirty clothes and sleeping bags. I figured out a quick-release system that enabled the transition between car interior and hectic live performance, which I may have done slightly differently if I’d known that transition would be mediated via my jumping in the passenger door of a moving vehicle.
Behind The Scenes
What followed was one of those wonderful creative experiences that makes the hard work of filmmaking completely worthwhile.
I’m fascinated by timelapse, and I’ve wanted to shoot someone sleeping for ages. Not in a creepy way, you understand. It’s just that slow-motion and timelapse videos reveal stuff we don’t usually get to see as humans shackled to linear time. As a VJ I do a lot of thinking about different ways of using projection. I’ve used projection mapping in the past on buildings and inanimate objects. So sleeping dudes seemed like a completely obvious next step.
It was surprising how little convincing was required to get Little Odessa on board with the concept. My pitch was “All four of you, asleep in a bed together, with a projector blaring in your eyes. It’s likely to be the worst night’s sleep of your entire life.” They were instantly, unanimously in favour of the idea.
Single-shot, time-ramped icon of Brisbane Suburbia. I don’t think director Dan Graetz and the rest of the crew realised how much of a Thing this video was going to be when we spent a day shooting in 39º heat at bass player Luke Henery’s house.
It totally became a Thing, nominated for a 2014 Aria Award, and over a million plays on Youtube.
I sorted out the time-changing of the music, set up stage lighting, and came up with the quintessential “Jaymis” suggestion – “set the hills hoist on fire” – when we couldn’t figure out how to finish off the clip.
For the shoot day I had it easier than most, spending most of the clip hidden upstairs watching the video remotely and pulling focus. More sweat came out of Dan’s body than I thought was possible for a human body to contain, but the look of the piece, and the “teleporting” band members required that we produce a Behind The Scenes video to prove it was a real single-shot clip.
After designing and 3D-printing modifications to convert our 3-axis camBLOCK motion control system into a monster 5-axis crane rig, I needed a project to test out the system. Fortunately my buddies Little Scout were about to release their new single, and the aesthetic perfectly fit the multi-pass, audio-reactive ideas in my head.
Motion control gave me some delightfully crane-y multi-pass camera moves, and audio reactive lighting made the band members magically appear only when their instruments made noise.
This clip won Gold in the Music Videos category at the Australian Cinematography Society’s 2013 Queensland awards.
Another collaboration between Graetzmedia and the amazing humans of Ball Park Music.
The “house” and “science lab” scenes of this piece were all shot at my home, I invented the ejector-pants, and shot B-cam angles for the performance scenes. (Also: Sneaky bus stop cameo, so I could be on hand to reset the ejector pants between takes.)
I’m the visualist/networking/game-master member of bitpop band 7bit Hero. When introducing our weird hybrid gaming/live music project to people, we had trouble explaining how it all works. The band actually wants people to be messing with their phones at our shows?
Perhaps a music video might get the concept across, with BEEEEZ!!!
The first public use of the audio-reactive lighting system I developed for Ableton Live. The lighting of this clip was controlled entirely via the sounds of the music. The individual audio “stems” – vocals, synths, kick drum, snare etc. – were routed to different lighting channels to create a perfectly synced yet organic looking lighting show.
Directed, Shot, Edited and Lighting Programmed by Jaymis: http://jaymis.com