Early Saturday morning the sun rose in a clear sky and it looked like the start of a beautiful day. Drums were loaded in the trailer, outfits were pressed and cleaned, scripts were written, sites reserved, props purchased or made, batteries charged, people were all checked in, and for once we were only 30 minutes behind schedule instead of the usual 45. To top it all off, Dana smartly decided to wait to change into her white pants until everything was in place at the shoot.
Two weeks of planning was about to come to fruition. For the next 4 hours we would be spending some of the most stressful, and also some of the most entertainingly fun moments of our musical careers. Even the dog was excited.
Everything went smoothly as we loaded into the site. The host was very gracious and helpful with showing us where to park and how to navigate back quickly. The site itself was fantastic… a perfect cross between an interior decorators wet dream and a wedding photographers version of heaven. Carved statues stared at faux marble walls while an elk head looked forlornly out over the garden from the second story balcony. You couldn’t turn anywhere without encountering the creative decorations of an interior mastermind. It was the perfect setting for the blissful story of domestic dismay we were about to capture.
Our two stars Howard and Renee arrived right as we did, and couldn’t have been dressed more perfectly for their roles. They are more than just actors… we have known and loved them through thick and thin for years… they are literally part of our extended family. Our camera man Baretoe isnt far behind.
Shortly after we settle into the house Dana leads the briefing for the shoot, outlining the order and scenes we need to capture. There are many. Some are insanely fun… such as the chachacha line that winds through the living room. Some are more difficult to capture and require creative thinking… getting the dog to bark at the door required some carefully timed barking of our own. Getting him to walk through at the right time was even more challenging. We could have lived without it, but we are glad we didn’t. Doing our goofy dances through the living room had everybody laughing off camera, which made it even more funny.
Unlike the Airwaves video where we all froze, it was hot. We had to open the door between shoots to get air flowing so we could cool off. Even the camera was overheating. We cooled off with breaks and water. Then it was back to work.
The hardest scenes were the actor scenes. There were some intimate and some difficult scenes and most of the crew went elsewhere so as not to interfere. Even Reverb (the dog) … who was mainly just excited to be in a new place with lots of smells to discover and was very enthusiastic about visiting the bushes outside…. repeatedly. He was helped by Ray, who filmed the entire filming for the behind the scenes cuts much later down the road from now. If there was an unsung hero of the day it was Ray, who was tirelessly helpful throughout the day and a great companion to Reverb.
Finally we were finished and all headed off home. It was a long day, and everyone of us felt like we had been hit by a slow moving bulldozer. Yet every one of us was happy about that.
In post production now… The Knock Knock video will be out very soon… and we are very eager and excited. The hard work has paid off and this is one of our favorite videos thus far. We hope you like it as much as we liked making it. And.. we want to thank Renee, Howard, Nayyef, Baretoe, and Ray for their generous contributions… your help is greatly appreciated and we couldnt have done it without you.