I. CONCEPT
“1109” is the street number for a house in Chico, CA that holds the ghosts of Hail The Sun’s college days. With a house like this of my own (shout out to The Island!), I was immediately drawn to the nostalgia riddled thematically throughout the lyrics. Honestly, I’m always drawn to nostalgia. If I could walk through that house right now, I would marvel in awe at the residual cosmic projections of my past selves, gallivanting about like the world couldn’t stop me.
With this production, I wanted to capture the feeling you get walking through a sentimental setting as memories fade in & out of your perception.
II. EXECUTION
Fading a subject in & out of a scene is an easy composite with a tripod, but I find that the static tendencies of tripod shots lack the dynamic needed to maintain musical movement throughout visual movement. To rememdy, I shot mostly on a programmable mechanized slider, comping several takes into the same camera motion.
For my favorite scene, I slowly rotated the camera 720-degrees (two full rotations) with the band sitting equidistant around me. Once each member exited frame, I directed them to change outfits/props before the camera swung back around.
This production was shot on a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, graded in Resolve, & cut in Premiere Pro.
At the end of the video, I concluded the cryptic branding I started during the release of Hail The Sun’s album, Culture Scars, tying in the reveal of the band’s next album cycle for their EP, Secret Wars.
III. EPILOGUE
To this day, the music video for “1109” brings me back to my college years. The San Diego days were golden & the nights smelled of cheap beer & cigarettes. Though I could never fully place myself back in those memories, I’m glad I was able to pay homage to the eternal spirit of adventure & to the ones who shared it with me.