Secrets and behind the scenes from my newest music video
After the success we had with the music video "Quédate (Stay)" by the young Venezuelan artist Jassiel (you can find it in this link), his father and manager called me to work on the next single, it was a super sticky song called "Sobrenatural (Supernatural)" (no despair, at the end of this post is the music video).
Because of the nature of the lyrics, they wanted to make a strange, crazy, eye-catching and unusual music video, and they entrusted me the complex but amazing task of making it come true. Obviously there were a serie of premises that I had to take into account: it should be a music video that narrate, in a certain way, a relationship between Jassiel and a girl, because he would feel something supernatural for her, there should be choreography since Jassiel is preparing hard in that, and it should be something that represented dream elements.
After spending a couple of days listening to the song without stopping (which is what I usually do), I came up with the idea of making a dream, where he would move from one situation to another, looking for Her, who would always be rejecting or running away from him. To make it more interesting, I would do it as a loop, as something that is repeated over and over again. And since I can not do simple things, I decided to do it in Sequence Shot.
For those who are not familiar with the term Sequence Shot, it is a continuous shot, without cuts, where the camera usually moves through the set of environments and situations, such as taking the hand to the viewer through that space. An example of that is the film Birdman.
Well, I decided to use this technique because in dreams we usually go through one place to another, from one situation to another in an almost magical way, without any reason or logical explanation, and this concept was completely adapted to the idea that I had for the music video.
Once the idea was approved by Jassiel's team, we start to search the team that will work with us, the location that lends itself to the number of changes of spaces that we had, the process of choreography and rehearsals, costume tests , makeup, etc., etc.
The video would begin with Jassiel waking up in his bed next to "Her", telling that he had had a strange dream.
She would disappear from his side, and he would look for her. From there Jassiel finds her in a 3D movie theater in the 80's. She rejects him and they find themselves in a Tiki bar with a turbaned barman in the 50's. That space would become a party in the 70's, with much people dancing around.
She would reject him and they would meet again at a cafe in Paris in the 1920's, which in turn would become a movie set in present.
They would find each other again at a 90's rave party. From there they would see a magic show where Jassiel himself would vanish her and appear the bartender of the 50's instead her. She, who did not like the act of magic, lead him to another space to be alone, but it would be transformed into a television studio, where Jassiel would sing surrounded by a dance team, girls who would fall from the ceiling making aerial silk, stilt walkers and a woman doing an act with fire.
Then we'll see Jassiel lying in the bed as the beginning, next to her, waking up and telling her that he had a very strange dream, this time with a mysterious character that he would see throughout the music video.
Yes, a real madness, but it was worth it.
After hours of rain, problems to get to the set due to protests in the streets of Caracas and the difficulties involved in coordinating a team of almost 70 people, at 4:45 in the morning, after 20 hours of work, we managed to make the final and perfect shot for which we worked for almost a month.
I hope you enjoy the Sobrenatural video as much as we enjoy filmed it:
Greetings and until a next post.
All the images are mine, taken by Carmelo Morales with a Canon 7D.
PS: There is no charge for comments
I like the full explanations. It's ussually a different idea of what I see... :-o
Ussually it happens! Thank you!!!