Three Videos Shot in Five Hours

Sam Williams, featured in "Black Betty"

The Experiment

In this experiment I teamed up with The Hushes on a Sunday morning about 5 months ago.  We decided to shoot only 2 takes per band member per song and any mistakes were not to be re-shot.  Only 2 cameras could be used at once and what ever footage we had at the end of 5 hours would create the final three clips.

Rain and Snow 

The first video shot was "Rain and Snow" and it was featured as part of the Live at the Port Youtube series.  Originally it was one of my least favourite sets of footage perhaps due to the mustard walls we used as a backdrop.   It turned out to be a positive in that it gained a vintage look that I tried to play on.  As an overlay I used out of focus footage of flashing LED lights which I was hoping would add an element of playfulness and variations in colour.

Here Comes the Flood

In my mind, Here Comes the Flood was supposed to have a claustrophobic, sweaty, swampy feel to it..  The backdrop was a scarlet sheet back-lit with a spot-light while a hint of natural light was channeled through a doorway to light the front. Coincidentally the air conditioning wasn't working in this studio so that little bit of extra shine to the skin was a bonus.  To cap it off a fly was buzzing around Emily Davis's head in one section of the footage.  But we adhered to the rules of our experiment and didn't re-shoot so if you watch carefully you can see it in the final edit.

Black Betty

We had progressed well through the first two videos and still had over 2 and a half hours left in the experiment.  The band took a break  to change outfits while I grabbed some footage of Sam Williams armed with a roller on a stick and a tin of white paint.  The Hushes returned and the syncs were shot back to back like a factory production line.  As it turned out we had plenty of time left over.  There was in fact footage taken of The Hushes playing poker and brawling over a cheating dispute that didn't make the final cut.  Perhaps that might be another video down the track. 

The Hushes were really on the ball and kept up their light hearted enthusiasm the entire time.  Thanks to everyone involved!