PRODUCER / ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / VISUAL EFFECTS

This is our 4th(!) official music video for Matisyahu. We brought him into our stomping grounds of South Bend, IN and filmed him in and around derelict factories. Joe Baughman was aesthetically inspired by noir films of the 1940s for the visuals, so I was quite excited to be able to create a title card that drew from those (I believe, primarily the title cards from The Big Sleep and Mildred Pierce primarily, as reference points). Shooting with Matis is always a pleasure–he brings a very chill atmosphere to the set every time.

Random Notes:

• Profile face that the needle goes into for the title shot is my own! No one else was willing to get stabbed in the eye, but I figured I only need the one to do most compositing work.
• I’m quite pleased with how off-putting it is to see the little camera in the eye of our adorable child actor Stella.
• One of now a couple collaborations with renowned poet David Dodd Lee as the gumshoe detective. Always amusing to have his wry commentary on set.
• At 4:38 we see the view from camera from the little girl’s eye. We had forgotten to film this POV shot of Matis during production, so weeks later his assistant whipped out his iphone and shot the necessary shot of Matis (now with a suspiciously fuller beard) somewhere in Europe during his tour and e-mailed the whole 13mgb file to us.
• When we were racing around finalizing the credit sequence and ensuring everyone’s names were spelled correctly so we could send off the video, I foolishly didn’t double-check my own credit, so I now proudly have my one and only “compisitor” credit due to foolish error.