First look: "Fake Empire" music video

With R as my assistant, I shot an unofficial music video for "Fake Empire," a wonderful song by The National, a little over a week ago. Our photogenic friends, S&Q, were kind enough to give up a Friday night to let me barge into their place and boss them around for a few hours. I recorded them drinking some wine, dancing in the living room, walking around the neighborhood at night, etc. It's supposed to be an atmospheric, three-minute piece that sort of dwells in a state between awake and asleep. I'm a little concerned I screwed up some of the shots, as a result of keeping the camera in manual mode the whole night, a very dangerous move on my part considering my lack of experience and the rushed conditions of an ambitious shoot. Balancing between under- and over-exposure is always a point of concern; I'm afraid some of my footage may have turned out a bit dark. I should have been more prepared because I've been envisioning the video in my head for long time, but for some reason when I got there, I no longer knew what I wanted. Typical. Oh well, I think we got some really decent stuff. There are a few screen shots in my Recent Video Grabs gallery, in case you want to see more. I still need to get some supplemental cut-aways (e.g. the moon in the sky, branches in the wind), but I believe my work with the actors is complete. Now that I mention it, I wouldn't mind getting everybody together again to perfect the outdoor scenes, but with the timeline the way it is that is looking unlikely.