A behind the scenes look at Dead Town’s new music video ‘Monster’.
I’ve known the guys in Dead Town for a few months now. I made their first music video earlier in the summer for a song called “Gummo”. I was extremely excited when they showed me this new song titled “Monster” because it was catchy, heavy, and screamed for a dark, moody and creepy looking music video. The band wanted to release the video on Halloween and we agreed on the dark, moody and creepy vibe! We decided that shooting it in black and white would be the way to go. Personally, I love black and white videos and I was on board with the idea immediately!
After a few weeks of brainstorming ideas, we decided that it would be really cool to have dancers involved in the project. Maybe some choreography??
Introducing Orielle and The Dance Method!
Orielle put together a small dance crew and choreographed several amazing routines to fit the vision that we were after. Not only did their routines look fantastic on camera, but the dancers were all able to improvise when I threw extra ideas at them in the moment.
The Dance Method (TDM) is an innovative dance experience bridging the gap between the training of a “competition” dancer and a “professional” dancer.
Shoot day!
The video was shot at Outworks studio in Winnipeg’s Exchange district and my good friend and fellow photographer Rahim Misericorde was my lighting guy/assistant. After a fairly easy morning setup and light test, we got the band all setup and ready for their full band shots. I wanted the video to have a lot of energy and intensity. To accomplish that I used a combination of different shooting styles. I used my gimble for faster walking and running around shots, I shot hand held for some jittery/intense shots, and then I shot with high frame rates to create even more intensity.
The dancers and choreography was going to be interspersed during the choruses and bridge of the song, while the verses would remain just the band so the video could grow and progress with intensity.
While we were filming some of the close-up singing shots, I had the idea to have a dancer act as a “monster” and sing along as well as interact with the singer. Definitely a spur of the moment idea, but we went with it and it added a really cool and unique layer to the video.
After an incredibly fun and creative day of shooting we had all the pieces that we needed to put the video together. A few weeks of editing and here we are.
I just want to thank the guys in Dead Town for bringing me on board! The guys are awesome and I can’t wait to see where their music takes them. I’d also like to thank Orielle Marcus and her crew from The Dance Method. You guys killed it!! And a big thank you to Rahim for all of his lighting expertise and behind the scene photos.
And finally, the incredible audio you're hearing was produced, recorded and engineered at Studio 11 in Winnipeg by Jason Gordon.
The official music video. Enjoy!!!!
Find Dead Town on Instagram - @deadtownofficial and on spotify.
Find me on Instagram - @jagmediaco
Find The Dance Method on Instagram @thedancemethod
Find Rahim on Instagram - @rahim_factor
Find Studio 11 on Instagram - @studio11entertainment