Editing for the ‘Tricycle’ video was locked last summer and we’ve been anxiously trying to get the visual FX done. After trying a couple of individual VFX artists on a freelance basis, we came to realize that it definitely needed a team of artists. Thanks to the Academy of Art animation and visual FX department headed by FX supervisor Catherine Tate (check out her IMDB credits), the visuals for the video are being worked on as we speak. Brian Tasker (cinematographer/producer) has been working feverishly with this talented group to guide this project into the finish line. He’s been showing us FX dailies that simply rock, taking this video to the next level. As of right now, we’re looking at the video being done by Memorial Day (of this year).

With regards to the ‘Never Be the Same’ video, Andre Sanchez (cameraman/editor) labeled and broke the footage down into a storyboard edit which was about 19.00 minutes long. Then Brian Tasker came in and worked with Andre to trim it down again to a rough story cut which brought the video length to about 7.30 minutes. After looking at the density of the footage, story and the fact that the finished video will be about 6.30 mintues long, we decided to bring in a narrative editor (Dylan Cassard) which at this point is where the video is at. Brian and Andre will be working with Dylan to help facilitate the continuing push to get the video done. Once the picture is locked, we’ll color correct and the video will be finished.

Again, we can’t put into words the appreciation we have for everyone’s hard work on both videos. Also, we would like to thank you for your continuing patience and support.

Dave & André messing around on the set.

Saturday November 7th we went downtown to the studio with the cinematographer, Brian Tasker for the video that will be shot in a few hours for our upcoming single Never Be The Same.

We toured the sets at Studio 100 and had a moment to goof around on set as well.

Our drummer André will be the cameraman for the entire shoot. As we write this, he is in the other room testing out the Arri SR3 that he will be lugging around for the next 5 days of shooting.

We will be updating our Facebook and Twitter pages throughout tomorrow’s shoot. Join us for the fun and good times as we try to help out and also stay the hell out of the way as well.

Dave's pretty beat up from mixing 'Never Be The Same' all night.

Read Part 2

Read Part 3

Read Part 4

I woke up the next morning shattered.

My knee was stiff and sore from my bagel fall the previous morning and I felt pretty close to useless. I hobbled to that back of the house to survey the damage from yesterday’s work to find André in the back with his drums completely torn apart and washing every single piece with a damp rag. Actually, a lot of damp rags. There was a thick layer of dirt over everything from the day before and his drums seemed to take the worst of it.

I was almost starting to feel bad about not helping him when I realized that the night before I had told the director, Jared that I would mix up a batch of napalm for today’s final shoot.

“Napalm?”

When I was a kid I found out how to thicken a quart of gasoline so that it would form a sort of gelatin that you could then apply with a paint brush. The jellied gasoline would burn for a very long time. We (and people that know what I’m talking about) called it ‘napalm’ even though the DuPont corporation would most likely disagree with us.

“Why…do you…need…napalm…to shoot a…music video?”

Simple. We planned on burning a tricycle.

A man and his tricycle

The final shot, and the one that the band had insisted on was of a tricycle burning. Preferably at the end of the video, but we were flexible on that point.

“Why a burning tricycle?”

The song Tricycle is a reflection on youth. The fun, silly, & not-so-smart things that one does growing up. The song spends all of it’s time reminiscing about the past.  However, we as a band do not put a lot of stock in the past and are far more interested in the future.  Our lives point towards the future. The past helps define who we are, but it is not the entirety of who we are. The burning of the tricycle is our statement that the viewer has had a chance to reminisce and now they should grow up and move on. Destroy the past and create a bright future for yourself.

“Umm, OK, so why use napalm?”

We needed the tricycle to burn for a while. Straight gasoline or other flammable liquid would probably burn out quicker than we needed for the shot.  The napalm mixture would also burn better in the high winds at the beach.

Jared added the beach part of this story. I loved it. Still do. Burn the tricycle at the beach. At dusk. Makes me smile just writing it.

OK, before we burn the tricycle at the beach we need to make the napalm. I really didn’t want to make it after all but I knew someone who did, so I called on our friend Rex.

Rex had provided a stellar job as the set electrician on Saturday. He wired up two separate 20 amp circuits exclusively for the production to use for lights and all of the amazing power-sucking tools that are required for a film shoot. He had offered the night before to help make the napalm. We love the guy and I loved him even more for taking the napalm job off of my plate. Awesome.  I’m going to go inside and take a couple of more Advil and Rex is now the Production Pyro.

I get Dave the ingredients for the mix and he starts in on the redneck chemistry. Jared is fascinated at first but soon realizes that Rex is mixing the napalm up with a cigarette in his mouth. Jared gets on his tricycle and moves to a safe place to watch from a distance.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, we were planning on lighting a tricycle on fire on the beach. A city beach. There is no such thing as a permit for this. This will land your ass in jail. Period. We decided weeks before that this part of the shoot will be only essential personnel. DP, AC, Director, Pyro, & performer. No other people to slow us down, no other people to have to bail out of jail.

And speaking of jail; I checked my wallet before we headed out to ensure that we had a healthy portion of bail money and that the right people knew to be ready to come get us if we had to be bailed out.

Once Rex has his napalm slurry ready, he poured it into a container and we grabbed our equipment and props and headed to the beach.

Our next location

Once we get there we realize that the wind is monstrous. However, we’re convinced once we set Rex’s napalm alight that the people still out at the beach are in for a hell of a show.

We get one establishing shot of me walking up to the camera with the tricycle, setting it down on the ground and pouring lighter fluid on it. After that shot we set up for the burn.

Marinading a tricycle

Rex covers the trike with napalm using a paint brush. Brian and Nick set up the camera and get ready for the big boom. I can’t help but laugh thinking that the people at the beach tonight are in for a hell of a show. I also can’t help looking around nervously for police or anyone who might force me to sleep in a holding cell that night.

Everything is set, the coast is clear (literally), and we are ready. Rex lights a match and…the wind instantly blows it out.

We form a wind block behind him. Nothing. The napalm catches sightly, but the wind blows it out before it can get going. And this continues to play out over and over again. Rex lights a match, wind blows it out. Rex lights a book of matches, napalm goes out.

After 15 minutes and a full box of matches we finally concede defeat. Rex tries his best to wash off the napalm from the tricycle, but it behaves almost like grease and there is no washing it off at this point. As I am being a sore loser at that moment, I take the napalm-covered tricycle and stick it in the  trunk of my new car with no regard to the fact that it is covered in seawater and gasoline grease. We head to pick up more gasoline and to a new location to make sure that this trike burns.  Tonight.

Rex quickly mixes up a new batch of burn-goo while I pull the napalm-covered tricycle out of my trunk. Holy crap! The entire trunk is now covered in napalm. Matted into the new carpet from the tricycle rolling around in my trunk. I try to half-heartedly clean my trunk but I gag on the gasoline smell that smelled nothing of victory at that moment. We drag the tricycle to it’s new spot and start the burn.

We tried one more time with just napalm on the trike but the results were so weak that we started over again with a half-gallon of gasoline just to help push it along. That did the trick! Instead of describing what happened watch the video below for a behind the scenes video of the final burn:

After three attempts we finally were able to light a tricycle of fire. It turns out that it’s not that easy to burn a child’s toy these days. Not as easy as one would think.

With the burn out of the way, the video shoot was over. 39 hours later we had all of the footage needed in the can. All 3,200 feet of 16mm film. Everyone worked very hard and long hours and no one probably expected it to take as long as it did, but we’re all proud of the work that was put in and the stories that we have from the shoot. Now the band has to finish mixing the song and the footage has to get to the editor. All 3,200 feet of it.

I wonder how long it will take to edit?

Read Part 2

Read Part 3

Eric's Old Alter Ego

After an hour my lip started coming off.

Dirt and latex don’t mix too well. Even worse is latex and sweat. The three of us had been put into makeup so that we would look like old men. The makeup process involved painting 3 to 6 layers of latex on our faces to give the effect of wrinkles. After about and hour and a half I had been talking and sweating and the latex on my upper lip started coming off.  Needless to say Amber the makeup girl wasn’t too thrilled with me.

While Amber was rearranging my face the kids had finished their day. André had an opportunity to thank the kids and some of the parents for their help that day. By the time my face was re-applied all of the parents and the kids had already left. I want to thank each and every one of them for their time and help that morning.  I enjoyed talking with the parents and the kids were a blast to work with. We hope the kids had a great time too.

It’s now about 1:30 PM and it’s all band in front of the camera.  We initially went into this video without the intention of seeing the band at all. However, Jared convinced us with his treatment that we should see the band in the video. All right. Here we go.

For the first shots of the band as old men, I had to come in to the set from behind a door, walk to the other band members who are already smoking cigars and playing poker and start singing. We did a couple of camera rehearsals and then got ready for the first take. While waiting for the first take one of my favorite memories of that day’s shoot took place.

As I am waiting on my mark on the other side of the door, a crew member is talking to a couple other of the crew outside the door and blurts out:

“I’m not going to be able to get this @#$%ing song out of my head all day.”

Setting up a shot

This crew person’s back was to me and I guess they weren’t aware that I was there. I thought it was hilarious.  We don’t take ourselves too seriously and at the same time realize that the song is not everybody’s cup of tea.  That’s fine with us. We had spent nearly a year working sporadically on the song so through good and bad we had heard it over and over and over ourselves. If anybody understood this crew member’s sentiment it was me.

The other crew people around looked at this individual with horror expecting me to loose my mind. Instead I turned around and simply said “I know what you mean.” and turned back to my mark.

The way I saw it was we had at least 8 more hours of work to do and I reasoned that I could at least let them know that I know that I’m not offended or that I hold a grudge because they don’t like my song. Liking our material is not a course requirement but it will make the day go by quicker.

However, this person gets no points for tact or timing and we had 8 more hours of listening to the song. Sometimes we create our own hell.

Once we finished shooting the old men scenes we went upstairs and peeled the latex off.  We were more than happy to get that stuff off of our faces after 3 or 4 hours.  I was happiest that I was finally able to get the dirt boogers out of my nose from working on that dirt floor for hours as well.  We were given a solvent to break down the latex on our faces, but we had more fun pulling it from our faces first. It was a cool and creepy feeling peeling what felt like whole sheets of skin from our faces. Dave and I enjoyed the process a lot more than André did.

Andre's makeup removal technique

The other interesting side effect about the latex is that even after you clean it all off your skin is still wrinked from being bunched together like that for hours.  It’s like waking up with pillow face.

Since I had peeled my makeup off first my skin recovered first so I was hauled in and leered for the camera until Jared stopped laughing at me. The whole band came in and we worked on the performance portion of the video until the dinner break.

Dave watches his head

The area that we were working in was only 5 and a half feet from the floor to the ceiling. I am the shortest person in the band at 6′ tall. Both Dave and André are 6’4″. André was mostly ok because he was sitting down behind the drums or on the couches for most of the shots. Dave however was getting miserable as his back and knees were killing him from having to crouch or crook his neck or rest a knee on an amp so that the camera could see his face. Every single person in the crew and in the band cracked their head on the cross-members and “ceiling” at least once.  I had managed to avoid doing it until towards the end of the night when I walked straight into a support beam. Hilliarious.

Band Performance

After the dinner break everyone’s energy started flagging. Jared and Nick the gaffer rallied the troops and they set up for the next two shots.

The second to the last shot was of the band in present day singing and playing poker together. After a couple of takes of that we set up for the final shots of the day us opening and turning the pages of a photo album. The photo album had green construction paper in it in place of pictures. Stills of the kids and band will be superimposed over the green rectangles so when the pages are turned the pictures will turn into the footage of the kids playing on the playground and stealing candy as the old men band members reminice about “good times”.

The final shot was finished around 10:30 PM. Including breakdown the crew had a fourteen hour work day. It was a long shoot that day, but we got everything done that was on the shot list.

The crew broke down the set and put away the lights, camera, sticks, etc. etc. and scattered as quick as they could. Some of those poor bastards still had that song in their head the next day, I’m sure.  I sat on the set with the electrician Dave Rexrode and our buddy Jim Hamilton of Scaramanga and wondered what in the hell do do with all of the band equipment. We were beat tired and all of the gear still had to be moved upstairs. Dust and dirt was still in the air hours after everyone left. I turned and looked at André’s drum kit and saw that it was now totally and completely covered in dirt from the day’s shoot. Each time we had a new shot to do I would see his kit had that much more dirt on it, but this was unreal. André walked in, looked at the kit, and turned right around in exhaustion.  There was no way he was going to break down the kit and clean it that night.

Hours later we hauled the bass and guitar equipment upstairs but André wouldn’t deal with the drum kit until the next morning, whenever that might be. We still have two more shots to do on Sunday and one of them will be a crime against nature and the City of San Francisco.

Preparing for a tricycle hate crime

Part 5 of the story concludes with napalm, unexpected gusts of wind, fire extinguishers, and bail money.

Tricycle Video Shoot Part 2

Dave's old man has a fine taste in shoes

We spent the morning at the playground shooting the kids running and sliding and the band with the kids swinging and climbing. While the rest of the production wraps up at the playground and then continues on to the next location, we go back to the house for a costume change and to get latex applied to our faces for our scenes as old men.

At this point my knee was bothering me from my bagel fall earlier so I figured limping around like an old man would be easy. A couple of Advil and I’d be back to normal.

I plopped into the makeup chair to be the first one to have latex applied to my face. For the latex to wrinkle up properly we have to stretch the skin on our faces out while the latex it painted on, dried and then powdered. It’s not a particularly hard process, but we do end up looking more ridiculous than normal as we feign surprise or mental illness while the makeup is being applied. The latex smells a bit, and a hair dryer is used to dry the latex on. When having latex applied to simulate crows feet you get used to having air blown directly in your eyes after a while. It also takes approximately 3 to 4 layers of latex to get the effect. Let’s just hope it shows up on camera.

For our costumes we went to four or five Goodwill/Salvation Army stores throughout the Bay Area looking for the most ridiculous clothes that we could.  Most of the clothes that were found were at the first Goodwill store we shopped at in Fremont.

By the way; the Palo Alto and Menlo Park Salvation Army/Goodwill stores have the nicest stuff, which was useless for our purposes but might be good for your bargain hunting in these tough times. Fremont must have a short population because the thrift stores had mens clothes mostly donated by people who were under 5′ 8″. Must be that dwarves are generous people when it comes to donating to the Goodwill or The Sally. Some people’s times are tougher than others.

The production came back from the last location and started setting up some of the last shots for the kids.  It was also the last location for the day.

Brian the D.P. breaks out the wheelchair dolly

The first shot here was on the sidewalk of the kids on their bicycles. Brian, the DP got to use his coveted wheelchair dolly, so we were all very happy for him. We also had an opportunity to use the tricycle because one of the kids hadn’t learned to ride a bike just yet. I don’t know how the Director felt about that, but the band was happy that the trike was getting used before it’s big finale.

The final set design was of a clubhouse or attic that the band used throughout our lives. In the video we will see the band as children, as ourselves today, and as old men in the clubhouse. The kids final shots would be of them playing our instruments in the clubhouse.

Tom studying the behavior of dust on the set

Dmitri

We brought down our instruments for the kids (André had set up his drums the night before) and the first thing that I noticed was that Dmitri was shorter than the bass guitar. I had to get a picture of that.

I gaff-taped the strap up on the bass so that it wouldn’t drag on the ground and let Dmitri have fun. Diego was behind the drum kit bashing away while his dad Effron helped coach him.  While we were working on the bass guitar strap, we discovered that Brandon, the kid playing Dave in the video, actually knew how to play guitar and he was playing it well. He was playing “Johnnie B. Goode” and “Sunshine of Your Love” and doing a great job of both of those songs as well.

We left as the kids jammed out their parts for the crew. It was getting crowded on the set with all of the people looking on so I split for another part of the house.

The Kids Are Alright

Once that shot was finished the kids were done for the day. They did a great job and we’re glad that they could join us and we hope that they and their parents had a good time.  Our thanks again to everyone!

In part 4 of our story we will bash our heads on the ceiling, take one for the team, listen to the same song over and over, and finally get out of this damn latex.

I hop into the car and grab a grocery bag full of bagels and jam back to the house. We want to have craft services ready for when the crew gets here for their 7:45 AM call and I’m already late. I still haven’t gone to the bathroom.

I walk into the house in a good mood singing a little song about bagels. The camera tripod is in the middle of the room and the crew is getting the gear ready for the shoot. As I not-so-deftly move around the gear and tripod I accidentally hook my foot underneath  an office chair and before I can stop myself I’m falling towards the coffee table and bagels are flying in the air.

Eric in the makeup chair wondering if there are any bagels left.

To keep myself from breaking the coffee table and looking like Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker (fatty go boom) I roll towards the kitchen. André turns around to see bagels and Eric flying in mid-air and then sees me hit the floor. He’s late to pick up the coffee for the crew so he doesn’t have time for this crap either. He laughs as hard as I’ve heard him laugh. He continues laughing hard as he walks past me. He negotiates the crew and gear better than I did and is crying and laughing as he goes down the hall and out the door.

The crew is stunned by what they saw. They want to laugh along with André, but instead they offer weak concern for my health.

“Are you alright?”

I twisted my knee pretty good and am almost as embarrassed as when I backed my car into Jared’s Vespa. Instead I sheepishly bleat my standard line:

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine”…

…and continue to pick up bagels off of the floor, couch, and coffe table. So much for my happy bagel song.

Brandon, Dmitri, & Diego getting set up for the first shot.

The video calls for three children to play ourselves when we were younger. When we went to bed the night before the kid that would play David wasn’t cast and I had no idea how this was going to work. Jared didn’t seem to be concerned with it so I put it out of my mind (kinda).

After I put out the bagels that were still good and Andre got the coffee going for the crew, I ran and took a shower (and finally got to go to the bathroom). By the time I got out of the shower and dressed all of the kids and their parents were there. Including Brandon, the actor who would play David.

I still have no idea how they found the third kid but there they were – all three kids and they were ready to go. Heather, our producer, somehow made it happen. Thanks again, Heather.

Now that everyone is ready, we head to a city park for our first shot of the day. We have a film permit to shoot from 8 AM until 12 PM on the playground at the park. It’s a good thing we have it, too.  At least one angry parent demanded to see it. By the way, for the record, we didn’t dominate the entire playground. We would use half of it, the children could use the other half. We would switch sections between shots so the kids could use the other half of the playground.  We moved fast, left early, weren’t rude or condescending, and tried to accommodate all of the kids & parents. We tried to be good citizens and we are sorry if anyone was put out or offended.

When we started shooting Jared had the kids run and play as a group and individually with each of us as well.  André along with Diego were on the top of a 21st century jungle gym-type thing that could have only been created using a CAD program (I would have hated to have been the guy to put it together). André had already been 6 cups of coffee into the day when Jared told him to “climb up to the top of that thing”. André jammed up to the top like a caffeinated spider monkey and waited up there until the shot was over.

David rode the space age see-saw with his doppelgänger and I was on the swings with Dmitri, the actor who was representing me at six years old. We got along great right away and he won every race and swing competition that we had. I guess I need to practice more.

There were two more shots with us (one of them was André on one side of the see-saw and all three kids on the other side) and the band was done shooting on the playground. The band left while the production finished at the playground and then moved on to the mini-market for a single scene there.  We headed back to the house to change into our costumes and be made up as old men.

Part 3 of the Tricycle Video Shoot continues with more dust, dirt, latex, and Advil.

Read Part 1

I plan on posting updates and pics throughout the day of the shoot on our Twitter page (http://twitter.com/socializedmusic).

Once the video is finished (approximately six more weeks) we will post it here and on our YouTube and MySpace pages.

As I write this, the crew is taking a break from dressing the set and hanging lights. I’m getting ready for bed. It’s going to be a long day.

Check back tomorrow for real-time pictures and stories from the set.

Read Part 2 of the series.

We arrived at the place around midnight with a full crew. Brian Tasker was directing the shoot and brought over thousands of dollars in cameras, lights, and all manner of equipment with him. The band had our equipment and four others as a crew. This was a project on a larger scale than we normally undertake.

We took some still photos that night and the crew had a party. We woke up the next day to find that it was boiling hot in the shade and it was still 10 AM.  Most of the crew were hung over and we needed to get lots of water, ice, and Gatorade for the day’s shoot.

I drove down with the producer to get the provisions. While I was gone, Brian, André, and the crew was shooting B-roll shots of outside the mansion when the site manager showed up and shut us down.

Apparently proper clearance was not obtained to shoot at that location and we were left with 2 trucks worth of equipment and a mostly hung over crew to pack up and get the hell out.  We left the mansion and came back home exhausted from the heat and without any principle footage shot.

We spent our time in October working on the track and have been working on Dmitri’s guitars as well.  Seeing as there will be quite a few guitars in the song, it’s going to take a bit more time.

On Halloween evening, October 31st, we got back together with Brian and actually started shooting footage for the video. Of course that evening brought us the first rain of the season as well.  We shot for over three hours before the rain threatened to destroy the lights as we had to pack it in.

The next evening, Brian, André, and I drove around San Francisco and shot another 45 minutes of footage for the video. The lens was a little longer than we were hoping for (we needed a shorted or wide-angle lens for what we wanted to do) but I like some of the footage down on Broadway/Columbus and around City Hall.  Maybe some of that will make it into the final video.

In the meantime, I have been wanting to cut together a video that I can post that has clips of the shoot and behind the scenes goodies as well.  However, time has not been something that I have had a lot of lately and I have to be able to concentrate for about 4~5 hours to work on the video. It would be nice to be able to have something to show for all of the work we have put into the video so far. Props to Brian and the crew.