Director Jeremy Johnstone came to us with this great treatment to shoot on a bunch of roller coasters out at Coney Island for the upcoming release of Wye Oak's single "Holy Holy". Wye Oak was coming to NYC to play Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and we had 2 days to pull it off. Music videos are fun for any video production company, and we're especially proud of how this turned out.
From a Producing standpoint, this was a really fun challenge. At the budget level we were talking about, there was no way to pay to shut down Coney Island to have full control over the coasters. So we had to figure out a way to get what we needed for the video, while maintaining the safety of the band, crew, and everyone around us. As you can imagine, putting cameras on roller coasters that are swinging around 50 feet in the air can be really dangerous. So we tested, and tested some more, and then tested again. Our location scout was what made this video possible. We knew we had some crazy camera challenges, but we were confident we could pull them off going into production.
Our Cinematographer, Andres Cardona, and his crew did a fantastic job of rigging the cameras to each coaster, setting the frame, and then safety chaining everything before take off. Andres had this to say about the rigging: "The scariest thing is that constant ticking that you hear as the coaster nears its peak - like a ticking time bomb. There's a certain point where you either have it on safely, with safety chains in tow, or you have to abort."
Beyond rigging the cameras to the coasters, Andres and crew devised a way to rig a make-shift SnorriCam to the band members to get the reverse POV shots. This was a really cool effect that translated the movement and framing of our coaster footage, to the footage of the band walking through Coney Island.
Jeremy's skills in post-production definitely shine in this video. He did an amazing job of mixing live action footage that feels personal, intimate, and voyeuristic with treated elements that give the video a nostalgic feel - as if it were a vacation video shot on 8mm.
Our Essential Tools:
- Mini cardellini camera mount
- Safety chains
- Small cameras (5D, 7D, GoPro)
- Make-shift SnorriCam
- Cool hands