Mark
Strata Poster
As some of you know I am a budding singer/songwriter outside of CF. This report has been a very long time coming since the video was actually shot in April 2010... Unfortunately I was totally off the boil and just lost a lot of enthusiasm for the project and my music as a whole but after some gentle nudging from the nearest and dearest the editing and production of the video was completed earlier this week.
Anyways, before the video I thought I would post a sort of picture report from the day of the shoot, as I do remember it very well and give everyone a bit more of an idea on the back story of the song and the video.
Supernatural as a song is about a feeling of empowerment. That empowerment comes from when you look back over the years at the people that have wronged you and how you can feel stronger for that experience. It my case, it was being bullied and particularly homophobic bullying. Nowadays I can look back at those days and I do feel stronger for it because I realise just how much of the bullying was born out of their own fear, fear of being associated with a 'gay'. Homophobia really speaks volumes of the person dishing it out and I wanted the song to be about that. I wanted the song to tell those people that what they do only makes me infinately stronger, like a superhero, Supernatural. Of course, the song isn't just aimed at homophobes, it is aimed at all bullies and I only hope that the song can be of some inspiration to others out there.
With that in mind, when the oppurtunity came up to film a video thanks to Aaron (CF Member Az). I wanted to tell the story of a 'superhero' of some kind, whose prescense empowered others to overcome bullying. We very quickly set about storyboarding the idea and deciding how we would tell the 'story' that you see in the video.
Anyways, after a lot of planning and convincing we seemed to have a whole team of people ready, the vast majority of which were CFers
and the shoot could begin...
We started off by shooting numerous takes of me singing in a standard outift, these would be the shots that were less related to the story.
There was of course, some messing around too... I must admit, I found it difficult keeping a straight face in front of the camera. Pulling faces helps alleviate the nerves somehow perhaps...
We then did another whole bunch of shots in a different outfit that would be the 'superhero' type affair. This is where Aaron got go a little mad with all of his special effects stuff. I did love the lighting on this whole bit
That was basically all we did on Day 1 of the shoot. I say 'all' we did but we were shooting the whole time just constantly getting improvements in and making sure I was getting my own words right...
Then we hit day 2 which is where a few more CFers and a couple of Aarons friends came down to be actors... Starting off we got everyone all made up nice. Laura did all the hair and make-up for us. It was actually a really bright sunny day so even the guys had to have a little make up to make sure they didn't end up very pale in the video... First up was our very own Nealbie...
Followed by Ben, who is this shot is getting his hair done. It should be noted that when Laura asked what they should be styled like I just repsonded 'chavvy'....
And then Matt Cooper-Kay.
I believe AJ also had some hair and make up, but no photos to proove it... shame. Either way it was now time to shoot. I would just note that although it looks lovely and sunny in the pictures it was still bloody FREEZING! Yet, we still seemed to be standing round lots... I think we were allowing Aaron to set up the shot and all that.
The first part of the story begins with a young lad (played by AJ) being chased...
By some bullies (played by Neal, Ben and Matt) Bear in mind, that we must have shot this running about a million times and Neal had a long night of drinking Cider the night before... He felt rough afterwards to say the least!
Ooo, just one tech member here... Bradley wasn't on camera until the afternoon so he was helping with a big shiny disc thing... Apparently this helps light the scene evenly (I think)
And doesn't AJ look a bit Clark Kent here? Blates the glasses I reckon, but it all really worked for the shoot.
Back to the story and the bullies have caught up with our victim...
And the usual bully intimidation tactics are employed... Doesn't Ben just look sooooo menancing in this picture...
I will just say that these guys acted their butts off in the cold that morning. So far, all I had done was watch and help Aaron direct. You can really see the acting going on in this picture of Alex... sheer terror!
And although in the actual video the story would pause here we continued shooting the rest of 'AJs' story for the latter half of the video which meant an appearance from 'superhero' me.
As I mentioned, the idea was that the sheer presence of the superhero would give them strength to overcome the bullies. The sunglasses were further symbolism of that concept...
At this point, Alex (AJ) fights back!
After a short lunch we headed out to another location in a park where we would shoot our 2nd 'story'
The premise of the 2nd story centres on what appears to be a very happy couple played by Michael and Olivia.
If you look closely in the video you will also see a shot that suggests they are engaged… oooo… That is until our next character arrives, this one played by Brad, another CFer :-D
The idea here is that Brad is blatantly checking out Olivia and the hubby to be Michael is not impressed… not in the slightest… I will say again that these guys acted their butts off too and it was a little scary to watch, they both really got into it and I remember Olivia telling Michael to get really physically aggressive with her. There were a couple of passers by; I can only imagine what they were thinking…
And then, once again, the superhero appears…
…Giving Olivia the strength to fight back. This whole section was really intense to watch because they were really getting into it. I was quite shocked when she took off her ring and threw it at him even though I knew it was coming.
And that was pretty much the shoot.
I guess I should also thank everyone who helped out and took part over the two days. Marc, Aaron, Laura, Aj, Ben, Neal, Matt, Brad, Olivia, Michael and also thanks to Leigh (A-Kid) who came and filmed all of this going on ready for an eventual ‘Making of’ style documentary and Tina (Beans) who took thousands of photos of it all.
I will just add that there are a whole load more photos if you wanted to go and look at them over on Facebook, but I didn’t think the report needed all 154 photos that I have (and countless many more that Tina also has).
So that was the shoot and finally, here is the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feQN86-JpjU&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Anyways, before the video I thought I would post a sort of picture report from the day of the shoot, as I do remember it very well and give everyone a bit more of an idea on the back story of the song and the video.
Supernatural as a song is about a feeling of empowerment. That empowerment comes from when you look back over the years at the people that have wronged you and how you can feel stronger for that experience. It my case, it was being bullied and particularly homophobic bullying. Nowadays I can look back at those days and I do feel stronger for it because I realise just how much of the bullying was born out of their own fear, fear of being associated with a 'gay'. Homophobia really speaks volumes of the person dishing it out and I wanted the song to be about that. I wanted the song to tell those people that what they do only makes me infinately stronger, like a superhero, Supernatural. Of course, the song isn't just aimed at homophobes, it is aimed at all bullies and I only hope that the song can be of some inspiration to others out there.
With that in mind, when the oppurtunity came up to film a video thanks to Aaron (CF Member Az). I wanted to tell the story of a 'superhero' of some kind, whose prescense empowered others to overcome bullying. We very quickly set about storyboarding the idea and deciding how we would tell the 'story' that you see in the video.
Anyways, after a lot of planning and convincing we seemed to have a whole team of people ready, the vast majority of which were CFers
and the shoot could begin...We started off by shooting numerous takes of me singing in a standard outift, these would be the shots that were less related to the story.
There was of course, some messing around too... I must admit, I found it difficult keeping a straight face in front of the camera. Pulling faces helps alleviate the nerves somehow perhaps...
We then did another whole bunch of shots in a different outfit that would be the 'superhero' type affair. This is where Aaron got go a little mad with all of his special effects stuff. I did love the lighting on this whole bit
That was basically all we did on Day 1 of the shoot. I say 'all' we did but we were shooting the whole time just constantly getting improvements in and making sure I was getting my own words right...
Then we hit day 2 which is where a few more CFers and a couple of Aarons friends came down to be actors... Starting off we got everyone all made up nice. Laura did all the hair and make-up for us. It was actually a really bright sunny day so even the guys had to have a little make up to make sure they didn't end up very pale in the video... First up was our very own Nealbie...
Followed by Ben, who is this shot is getting his hair done. It should be noted that when Laura asked what they should be styled like I just repsonded 'chavvy'....
And then Matt Cooper-Kay.
I believe AJ also had some hair and make up, but no photos to proove it... shame. Either way it was now time to shoot. I would just note that although it looks lovely and sunny in the pictures it was still bloody FREEZING! Yet, we still seemed to be standing round lots... I think we were allowing Aaron to set up the shot and all that.
The first part of the story begins with a young lad (played by AJ) being chased...
By some bullies (played by Neal, Ben and Matt) Bear in mind, that we must have shot this running about a million times and Neal had a long night of drinking Cider the night before... He felt rough afterwards to say the least!
Ooo, just one tech member here... Bradley wasn't on camera until the afternoon so he was helping with a big shiny disc thing... Apparently this helps light the scene evenly (I think)
And doesn't AJ look a bit Clark Kent here? Blates the glasses I reckon, but it all really worked for the shoot.
Back to the story and the bullies have caught up with our victim...
And the usual bully intimidation tactics are employed... Doesn't Ben just look sooooo menancing in this picture...
I will just say that these guys acted their butts off in the cold that morning. So far, all I had done was watch and help Aaron direct. You can really see the acting going on in this picture of Alex... sheer terror!
And although in the actual video the story would pause here we continued shooting the rest of 'AJs' story for the latter half of the video which meant an appearance from 'superhero' me.
As I mentioned, the idea was that the sheer presence of the superhero would give them strength to overcome the bullies. The sunglasses were further symbolism of that concept...
At this point, Alex (AJ) fights back!
After a short lunch we headed out to another location in a park where we would shoot our 2nd 'story'
The premise of the 2nd story centres on what appears to be a very happy couple played by Michael and Olivia.
If you look closely in the video you will also see a shot that suggests they are engaged… oooo… That is until our next character arrives, this one played by Brad, another CFer :-D
The idea here is that Brad is blatantly checking out Olivia and the hubby to be Michael is not impressed… not in the slightest… I will say again that these guys acted their butts off too and it was a little scary to watch, they both really got into it and I remember Olivia telling Michael to get really physically aggressive with her. There were a couple of passers by; I can only imagine what they were thinking…
And then, once again, the superhero appears…
…Giving Olivia the strength to fight back. This whole section was really intense to watch because they were really getting into it. I was quite shocked when she took off her ring and threw it at him even though I knew it was coming.
And that was pretty much the shoot.
I guess I should also thank everyone who helped out and took part over the two days. Marc, Aaron, Laura, Aj, Ben, Neal, Matt, Brad, Olivia, Michael and also thanks to Leigh (A-Kid) who came and filmed all of this going on ready for an eventual ‘Making of’ style documentary and Tina (Beans) who took thousands of photos of it all.
I will just add that there are a whole load more photos if you wanted to go and look at them over on Facebook, but I didn’t think the report needed all 154 photos that I have (and countless many more that Tina also has).
So that was the shoot and finally, here is the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feQN86-JpjU&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
