At the end of June 2025 I shot a performance music video with long-time collaborators Paradise Lost.
The shoot this time was with the band themselves and not the narrative/short film style as the last one.
The last time I filmed with the band all together in one room was right in the middle of the Covid pandemic in November 2020.
I produced and directed a full live stream performance and all filming crew were required to be masked and complaint with the restrictions at the time (those were the days!)
This shoot however was a little more of a relaxed shooting environment, however as usual we were always up against it for time ⏰
This was my camera-dolly setup; very stripped back for subtle punch-in moving shots. We shot on my Canon C70’s, capturing Cinema Raw Lite files that are absolutely gorgeous to work with 😍
Here I am without the band in shot, testing the light and generally looking busy.
I had a small broken, shattered, wooden shack style wall built by a new friend who I knew would be the perfect guy to source the wood and safely build it.
He made it in his workshop secured with steel rods and locks, the shipped it to the location. It was rock solid - perfectly safe for a busy environment.
We shone a powerful Aputure light with fresnel attachment with a blue gel, on the otherside of the wall to create this splintered god-ray like light effect.
I wanted it to look cold, like moonlight.
Complete with the haze it’s a really simple but striking visual style that creates a moody and claustrophobic tone which looks besutiful and haunting. Perfect for the track.
Nick (below) was lit with a comparably warm light from above and positioned in a way for a few shots which had a despair and confessional feel to it.
I’ll share the final video shortly with some more about it! Currently it’s just shy of 1,000,000 views on YouTube which is super cool!
That shattered shack wall with a strong blue source through the gaps is a clever way to get cold beams without a huge rig. The warm top light on Nick against that chilly backlight feels like instant story, and Cinema Raw Lite on the C70s gives you room to push it in the grade. How much haze did you settle on to keep the rays crisp without choking the space, or did those slats do half the acting for you?
To answer the question, yeah absolutely the haze did a lot of the heavy lifting to see the rays! It would be naff without it.
Really pleased with the end result, I’ll be posting it soon enough 😀
Right there with you, the haze is what made those god rays sing, especially with the blue gel behind the shack wall and that warm top on Nick. That cool against warm contrast nails the confessional vibe. Can’t wait to see it drop and edge past the million mark.
Hey I appreciate the comment! Though was this reply Ai generated? Something about the wording and repetition of key words from my post don’t seem to add up. I checked your profile and saw something about ChatGPT on hive 🤔
I’m curious.
Hehe. I wish. No it's not AI.