Latest Project: The Greenhornes’ "Pattern Skies" music video
Garage-pop band The Greenhornes debuted their first music
video, "Pattern Skies," fresh from delivering the soundtrack to Jim
Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers. Given two-and-a-half
weeks to concept, shoot, edit and animate the video, Lightborne
(Cincinatti, OH) juggled production and post. The "action" sequences
[such as the band outfitted in military gear negotiating heavy
jungle/forest terrain] were shot with the Panasonic VariCam, the
directors citing the camera’s slow-motion capabilities. The Sony
CineAlta was also on deck to capture the band’s performance and the
tiled grid shots. Co-directors Scott Fredette and Dana Hamblen discuss
their quirky, psychedelic vision.
F&V: What were some of your influences for this concept?
F&H: The band didn’t want to have to look rock-and-roll "cool" so
our early discussions revolved around being pretty candid and funny,
placing them in an obviously ridiculous environment. We are fans of the
Beatles’ Help and A Hard Day’s
Night so that came into discussion and we were able to agree
on using some of those visual cues. In addition, Richard Lester’s film
How I Won the War is an obscure influence that kept
reappearing, as well as 1960s commercials. We wanted this video to have
a Peter Sellers type of slapstick appeal.
F&V: How did you come up with those psychedelic illustrations?
F&H: We are very familiar with the style of The Greenhornes and
what they like. Their music is very’60s garage so psychedelia was an
unspoken part of our developing this into a video. But it had to have
the style and freakiness, which went with the "Midwest Vietnam" action
theme. ("Midwest Vietnam" was its working title). We have a great
designer at Lightborne, Tuesday McGowan, who gave us samples of’60s
and’70s graphic design. All illustrations were drawn in Illustrator and
animated in After Effects.
F&V: How did you employ cost savings without compromising vision?
Fredette: We took a homemade approach. Dana is a thrift-store queen so
she took care of the costuming. I drive home a different way every day
so I had all these surreal locations up my sleeve. We shot the video
very guerrilla-style. We have a great camera and grip and electric
house that was very helpful and nice (as usual), and we shot on Labor
Day so no one was around. We ate well, but light— the pies in the video
were only $7 each! The crew was awesome and generous, and they were
happy to be on a fun production.
Hamblen: Luckily, The Greenhornes boys were willing to do anything.
They literally had one weekend off from touring and we all committed to
really long hours and vigorous location switches. We went with a
homemade approach designing their outfits to enhance the slapstick
appeal. The bazooka gun is actually a collection of thrift and hardware
store finds. The coconut cream pies are a cheap, underused visual
effect.
F&V: What did you think when you heard Jim Jarmusch was a fan of the video?
Fredette: When I heard he liked it, I did the Nestea plunge into my
neighbor’s above-ground swimming pool. Jarmusch’s Stranger
Than Paradise inspired me to go into film and also seemed to
give us permission to do it on our terms. It was quite a compliment.
Hamblen: We thought he’d appreciate that we captured the silly
Midwestern side of the band that makes them so appealing,
personality-wise. Plus, isn’t he from Ohio?
Scott Fredette & Dana Hamblem (left) on directing their first music video "Pattern Skies" for The Greenhornes.
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