One of our favorite pieces of video equipment is the SnorriCam. Partially, because it is able to produce some really interesting looking footage and provide perspective like no other camera rig can. But mainly, we love the SnorriCam because it requires the artist to strap a giant, often homemade rig to the front of their chest, while in the video pulling off a convincing performance. The combination of looking cool on camera while looking ridiculous in person is a delicate balance that not everyone can achieve. In the music video for The Ritual, A-1 and director David Dutton make great use of a SnorriCam, and combine that footage with some sweet VFX. We talked to David about the video, the VFX, and the SnorriCam.
Doug: How did you first meet A-1?
David: San Francisco is kind of a small city. I met him at a BBQ like two years ago. I did a few music videos for an artist named Hopie and she became my friend. I went to her cousin's barbecue, and I met him there. Then when people were introducing me as this music video director, he said, "Oh, I'm an artist." I get that a lot and I kind of dismiss it, then later I saw one of his music videos were posted online somewhere, and I really liked his music. I actually pursued him, and then when I kind of presented that I had some spare time and I can do something on a smaller budget with him, he was really down. Then he sent me three songs and we pretty much worked it out from there. It was something we really kind of like snuck in. He was like, "Oh, I'm going on tour, I just finished a successful Kickstarter, I'll be gone." I really rushed to commit to doing a music video and I'm really happy we got to work together.
Doug: What did the treatment for this video look like? Did it include a lot of custom made visual references that matched the effects in the video?
David: Not really. It was more just a written out treatment, there wasn't really a lot of storyboarding or guidelines. A-1, he sent me the songs and then I really connected with that one, with the chorus and when his voice is tweaked out and high, where it's kind of his inner soul talking to him. I thought it would be cool to separate him from how he normally looks and be all cosmic, because the song talks about returning his body back to the earth. I started thinking about how I would make him look spiritual and more cosmic, with energy balls or something. I had a lot of different looks I was doing. I took a few photos of him and just played around with it in Photoshop. Eventually I got to making him look more digital and sound wav3-ish. I thought it would be cool to kind of reflect the song, but also be like he's just a sound wave in the world, since it's a music video. Originally, he was about to go on tour and he was really busy. I wanted to hurry up and get this shot, so I made it to where it was going to be really simple, we were going to shoot it in just one day. It was supposed to be a one shot video originally. We built the SnorriCam to hook onto his chest, and we would go through the entire song. What we did was, for the chorus, we had these checkpoints where someone would rise up behind him, and that's like a green screen board we made. When he kind of swings into those visual effects, there's someone actually popping up in front of him with a green screen and he turns into it. When I started editing it, there were really great performances in the different takes, so I decided to start having cuts in the green screen moments, because it's not as obvious. Eventually it became what it is now.
Doug: I wondered about the SnorriCam. Did you have to build a custom size? Did you build it specifically to use in this video? Did you have one that you had built previously?
David: We had a SnorriCam that we built before, or the rig for it. We modified it a little more for this video to keep it tight on him. The green screen we're holding up's actually a folding table that we got from Costco, and then we just got green cloth and stapled it down. It got really heavy.
Doug: The visual effects that you ended up using in the end, did you determine that stuff in the edit? That wasn't really predetermined when shooting a video?
David: I knew I was going to do it the entire time, I just wasn't sure exactly how I was going to make him spiritual. Originally I was going to make him tiny little balls and have him pulsate and float apart, float back in. It was working and I liked it, but it just wasn't interesting enough for me after a while. I completely scrapped that, and then I remembered learning before how to take the contrast levels of an image, and using that. It determines kind of like a pin look - like those things you stick your hand and you have those little needles and it makes the shape of your hand. I pretty much took that and applied that script to some VFX stuff. That's why it kind of looks like his image but at the same time it's a very basic image of him. It's these 3D pins that's made. Also, all of it's corresponding to the music, too. According to what the decibel level is will determine how much those pins are shooting out or pulsating back in.
Doug: That's not done manually? There's a program that helps you do that or do you have to do that manually, to make those pulse?
David: It's kind of manually. I wrote a script in After Effects and it kind of tracks the decibel level, and then from there I went in. There's moments where I go in and I'm tweaking it myself - like when he kind of comes apart or for the very ending, for example. There's some really big movements in the song, so I wanted it to really reflect to that. I would do those manually, just listen to it over and over and watch it until it was done.
Original Art Design
Doug: How hands on is A-1 with the effects? Obviously he's not doing any of the technical effects with you, but is he kind of making notes and giving you edits, or do you get to go nuts with that stuff on your own end?
David: No, he really let me just go nuts on it. I talked to him and I told him the plan, and then we had a quick sit down and he really liked it. He couldn't really visualize it, but then once we ran with it and after we shot it, he started understanding exactly what was going to happen. I had sent him some still images, and he pretty much would OK everything as we went along. When I sent him the final, we had a few tweaks that we did to add a little more edits in verse two. But he pretty much just let me do what I wanted, which is awesome.
Doug: When you shot for the footage that you do that had the effects done to it, was that green screen footage that you also shot outside or did you have a second day in a studio?
David: What we did was, after we were done shooting stuff on the Snorri, we kept it on him and we just put up a stationary green screen. We had really good daylight at the time and it was all evened out so we could shoot it outside.
Doug: Was A-1 the only actor? Do you have a female actor there as well? I feel like I see some shots of some girls in there.
David: Yeah, there's some dancers on green screen. That's actually taken from something else that I was going to do and it never really panned out. It was just going to be some visuals of some girls dancing - I kind of had it archived away. While creating that digital world, I decided to kind of put them in there to add a little more environment, just having something in the background to allure you. Yeah, I'm happy I got to use that finally.
Doug: Is it only you essentially, or do you have any help with the effects? Or is it primarily just a one-man show?
David: It's a one-man show. Sometimes I would love to contract things out, but I understand in the edit or in the shoot what I'm going to do. It makes it more manageable and easy for the kind of budgets I have for me to just do everything. I have a friend who's been working with me for a while, his name is Fernando Camerena, and he helps me shoot everything. He built that SnorriCam and he always runs second camera, sometimes A camera. Yeah, so there's one guy that helps me in just about everything I do. As far as edit goes, I'm always the edit and the VFX.
