Sunday

Windows Version

Sunday

Soooo, normally I wouldn't

really be writing anything but this song and video really came about in some very interesting ways. I'll start at the beginning. So it's December 31st 2003 and Kelly and I are at N. 3rd as usual. It was really crowded so I get a call from Steph inviting us over. So we blast over there and ring in the new year...

So round 1 am, Steph gets on the guitar and starts playing "Sunday" . I was immediately floored at the raw energy and talent that I was witnessing. I couldn't believe it. I was like "holy fucking shit". I figured this is what it must be like when Johnny Cash picked up a guitar and started playing when he was just hanging out. I felt privileged to be there. Ok, Enough about me and my delusionary obsessions...

So, A plan starts rolling in my head. I got to shoot a video for this song,. But it's not even recorded! So I figure I'll do a video where I also record the audio live and make the video a single shot steadicam one take video. I come up with a plan to position Steph by the Love fountain and then follow Susan with the steadicam all the way to Steph. Steph's performance would be recorded live where she was either into a wireless mic feeding a deck or better yet, my on board dv deck. So it seemed like a plan, except the weather just went downhill. There was one Sunday where it was 65 degrees, but Steph had to work. Looking back now, I'm glad.

Every Sunday after that just got colder and colder. 9 degrees, 12 degrees, -3 degrees, snow, rain. Crap. I can't shoot a song called Sunday on Tuesday can I? No, it
will have to be the first Sunday that can sustain life signs for a couple of hours.

Back to the recording.

I figure it would be a good idea to get the song on tape. Just in case for playback. I try to stick to a concept for a clip, but at the same time I'm not scared to totally re figure the concept at the last minute if it makes the production go better. I look at music video production like sex. Sure you can plan it and anticipate everything, or worse yet, show up with some grandiose plan that is unrealistic and unpleasant. I like to hit that set fast and hard, and leave it with it's hair messed up and breathing heavy. Your gonna be sore when it's done, but you'll sleep good. A production day is going to be messy and awkward so you might as well try to make it fun . Spontaneity, a feeling, a vibe, a mood a moment is what makes a music video production, and it's reflected in the final product. Oh yeah, the recording. So Steph and Susan swing by January 9th round 1:00 am (my birthday) I set up my Senheiser mic on my steadicam docking stand. It's a docking stand, it's a mic stand, it's both! I run that to an old ass dat i have and loop that out to a Dazzle Dv bridge and into final cut pro in the laptop as backup. I give Steph and Susan the thumbs up and we lay down 3 takes of the song. mind you, I am no recording engineer by any stretch of the imagination! I know to hit play and record and keep the levels from peaking!

So now I have the song on tape, wahoo! I'm in Orlando on a corporate gig, it's coming up on a month since I recorded the song. I get back on Friday and start realizing that Sunday might be a possibility this Sunday. I call Steph, she's good. I call Susan, she's good. Ok, it's coming together! I start visulaizing, I figure I'll do some crane stuff, 2 hours of crane should yield a video right? I come up with this idea of seeing Steph playing guitar and then craning up to reveal Susan on a perch of some sort, is this too song birdie? So then it hits me, I'll use a ladder! I have 2 eight foot ladders! I'll sit Susan on a ladder and then crane to reveal her etc...So i call Susan to see if she is ok with heights. She says " yeah, i'm ok with heights , except for one thing" What's that i ask? "Ladders, I'm scared of ladders" Fuck! Leave it to me to pitch a tiger gag and Roy gets it in the jugular. Susan's a sport and says she'll try, as long as it's sturdy. She also asks me "What's the concept?, what's the video gonna be?" So it's important to seem confident , have a plan, right? I respond , "Uhhhhhh, Ummmm, it's gonna be you guys playing Sunday and I'm gonna shoot it, i guess. " Luckily Petie was freaking out and saved my ass from having to bullshit any further. Honestly that was my concept. The song is so amazing that it dosent require anything but documentation. The video is but a plate to serve up that dish.....lol

So there we are at north third saturday night. We're with Amy and her boyfriend Peter. Kelly is kicking me under the table because I'm being rude because I'm text messaging with Steph. I finally fess up and tell Amy that I'm pre producing a video on my phone via text messages. I was asking Steph if she had a small guitar amp for playback. Id power it off of my 12 volt inverter. Amy is in production so she totally dug it. I was also freaking out because so far it was JUST ME and Steph and Susan and jen. I was waiting to hear back from Dave. I wasn't looking forward to shooting a whole video involving crane all by myself, but id do it if i had to. So the phone rings and it's Dave! he's good! Wahoooooo! I have my crew! We set a call for 7:30 am at silk city diner.9 hours later.

5 am Sunday, February 8. So I'm in the bathroom and I can hear the wind howling across the skylight. Damn it sounds cold. I'm gonna puke. Why do all my schemes involve getting up in the friggin dark ass cold? Coffee, Coffee will make it better. I'm getting stuff together and loading the last of the cases into the trailer. Stomach has settled now. It's about 6:30 and I'm loaded and ready to head over to silk (5 min away) and meet Dave. FUCK, FUCK , FUCK! The crane tail extension is at RSVP!!! FUCK! I cant build the 35 footer without it! Fuck! Ok fuck it, dynamic production environment right? So I look over at the steadicam, now it's gonna be a crane AND steadicam video! But shit, what am i going to do crane wise? The longest i can go without the extension on the tail is the giant plus config, bout 15 feet. Then i have an idea! I'll use one of the 4 foot extensions instead. It'll be too long and will set back the anchor hole for the tension cables, but I'll deal with that somehow later....

I meet Dave at Silk,, He must think I'm on meth or something cause im talking a million miles an hour about how we're doing playback, what the video is, the extension problem and solution...sorry Dave, i had a lot to figure out!!! We blast over to the location and start building the crane. we build the 25 foot configuration. The tension anchor point is about 7 inches short of reaching. I figure a ratchet strap will do it, but its too short a distance. Im dicking with it for like 5 minutes and Dave busts out a 7 inch huge carabiner. Holy shit dude! wher'd ya get that ? I found it. It fits perfectly and away we go.

Steph, Susan and Jen show up round 9:30 am. Crane is set. Im doing playback outta a little mp3 player, going to an old ass technics receiver/amp feeding one speaker. the other channel of the mp3 player goes to a canon zr25 camcorder which is also getting video from the Ikegami hc200 camera i got off ebay for 500 bucks thats on the front of the crane. Ac is coming from a radio shack inverter with 100 feet of extension cord on it. By the time the juice gets to the plug it a retarded 85 volts at 58 Hz. The camcorder charger dosent seem to mind....

So we start banging through takes. Jump out of car, shoot a take, jump back in car to warm up. Dave and I would figure out the next set up while they warmed up. We were on American and Brown, a block from N. 3rd and half a block from the church that inspired the song.we started with crane and then after about an hour and a half of that we switched to steadicam and figured we'd move closer to the church.

We did a couple of takes across the street from the church and did playback out of stephs gorilla amp (in the video) mounted on the bike rack of Jens car. We crossed the street and did a take right on the corner of the church fence. People were peeking from the church door and I started getting worried that we might be overstaying our welcome and that we might be disturbing services or something. I waved to them and smiled and asked if we were being too loud. They smiled back and then something incredible happened! THEY INVITED US IN! All of a sudden we were going to shoot IN the church that inspired the song! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

So we shot for about 30 min in the church. cut it in FCP4, blah, blah, blah,.... Just a quick little video for a truly powerful song.