THE MAKING OF: STARGAZER BY ELYXYRE

Video Production is a field unlike any other. It’s a collection of creatives who work together to tackle a common goal. Each individual brings experience and knowledge to every project, creating something unique that couldn’t otherwise be done. And because video production takes a special kind of experience, passion projects can highlight how important creatives truly are to making something great.

Director of Lighting Anthony Stock is also the drummer of the band ELYXYRE, and he pitched the idea of producing a music video for their song, “Stargazer.” This was an opportunity for our team to grow as creatives, stretch their imaginations, and work together to create something fresh and exciting.

The process started as most things do - with a pitch meeting. Anthony, along with long-time Aurora Films freelancer and ELYXYRE vocalist/guitarist Nash Doud, met with the Aurora Films team to discuss their vision for “Stargazer.” A creative treatment was presented and the team discussed how it could accomplish the many big ideas.

“When Nash and I discussed what we wanted for the video, we started with the limitations,” Anthony said. “The soundstage was available, so we wanted to work from within it. Then it was a matter of taking a grand idea and thinking ahead to how to execute it. We have the luxury of not only knowing what we wanted to accomplish but also how to accomplish it, being on both sides of the production coin.”

The 25’x 25’ white cyc wall was to be used as a stage. The vision – to show a sunset and reveal the stars midway through the song, bringing forth that sense of wonder and awe that one gets when taking in the cosmos. This was the main scene to setup.

“What made this such a unique job was that two-thirds of the band are also crew members,” said Director of Photography, Dan Giangiulio. “Our lighting director was essentially unavailable on the shoot day because he was in the band.” As a solution, Anthony pre-programmed the entire shoot ahead of time. By using 8 Skypanel s60 lights hooked up by DMX to a dimmer board, the lighting cues of the entire song were preset, ready for an operator to make everything come together. This pre-planning allowed the crew to shoot through the entire song, without stopping for lighting changes.

Stars were achieved by using a projector covered by a flag that was revealed during the middle of the song. The set lights faded in tandem to achieve a look that mimicked a sunset into the night sky. The song was filmed eight times using this lighting setup, shot with various angles and lenses so for a multicam edit later.

Next, an iso of each band member was shot in a separate “fractured” look. To create three distinct looks for each band member, the crew setup moving lights and different color balances. A prism was then attached to the camera and placed in front of the lens, practically distorting the image. It was important the iso’s didn’t stray too far from the feel of the entire video. Each band member played the song in its entirety in their individual shot.

Then, a transition piece was shot that would be used in the bridge of the song. This look was again achieved using the projector with a neon tunnel stock video that could be colored differently for each band member. A slider was used to push the camera towards the band, adding to the rising action of the song before the grand finale. Anthony said, “Because this setup was only for a specific part of the song, we could save time by only recording a small section of the it.”

Finally, the band wanted to evoke the feeling of being whisked away to the stars, and they wanted to do this literally, by having Nash pulled from the set and into the galaxy. This was a two-step process: First by shooting Nash on a floating-rig where he could be suspended a few feet above a green screen; and second, by filming a plate to replace the green screen with in post. For the plate, we suspended a camera above the band on the cyc and pulled it up to the ceiling, this way we could put Nash floating above the band.

After the single shoot day, the project moved to post production. The music video was arranged in the same way we would any multicam edit, with the ability to quickly cut between different shots throughout the song in a streamlined process. While in the editing process, we quickly realized two things – first, there wasn’t enough distance between Nash and the band for the floating shot to get the look we wanted to achieve. We scrapped the plate and opted instead to build a background ourselves with various stock video and motion effects, creating multiple layers to give it the sense of depth and perception we needed to get that floating effect.

The second realization that came in the editing room was that the music video was missing something to make it feel complete. In the treatment process, an idea was proposed to have Nash “wandering” through different environments during the first half of the song that could then be juxtaposed with the “floating Nash” look later in the video. We shot the wandering Nash scenes by fixing the camera and Nash to a dolly and moving him throughout various environments around our studio. This way the background could parallax with Nash, but he would be fixed within the frame, similar to the “floating” shot.

After a series of edits and a round of color grading, the music video was complete. Throughout the process our team learned new ways to utilize gear and achieve practical effects that will now be a feather in everybody’s cap moving forward. Most importantly, the production was an experience that can now be beneficial to all clients who come afterward.

Watch “Stargazer” by ELYXYRE on YouTube and listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.