Video Chats: Chris Buongiorno on "Fake Gold Chain" by New Beat Fund

In “Fake Gold Chain” by New Beat Fund, director Chris Buongiorno takes the simple trick of putting your knees in your shoes to appear shorter and turns it up to 11. Thanks to some rotoscoping and some patient actors, this video ends up being both hilarious and remarkably convincing. We talk to Chris about the video, fooling an A&R, and surprising a break-dancer.

Doug: You've done a few videos for New Beat Fund, how is the working relationship between you guys like?

Chris: They have been friends of mine for a long time. I’m a musician as well and we come from the same circle of bands in the Santa Clarita Valley. We had been talking about doing videos for a while, and when they started this new band, I knew we’d hit it off. At first it was a more traditional relationship, like write a treatment, send it over, and talk about it. Then it became more of a collaborative process, where they’d bring preexisting ideas to the table. We’ve done four videos together and every time is amazingly different. Not to mention, it’s a pretty slow process because you’re working with no budget and always asking favors of people. So I'm just doing it as a friend and a fan of the music. It’s always exciting because when you’re working with a budget, the label has certain expectations, but with no money, you’re basically free to do whatever you want, you know? And with budgets constantly shrinking, there is no point in doing a music video unless you love the band and the track.

Doug: When you came up with your idea, you said it was like a collaborative process between you and the band. How did that work? Did you sit down? Was it always a plan to do something that was humorous? How did that work out?

Chris: They showed me the song a few months ago, and like most of the videos we’ve done, a visual instantly popped into my head. As a kid, I always loved those Tim Conway films like Dorf on Golf, where he’d attach his shoes at his knees and show you how to play sports. I don’t know why that image always stuck with me, but for some reason when I heard the song, it just clicked. I guess it was the childish nature and tone of the song. We were sitting around the table having drinks or something. I was like, "What if we just did something where you guys were all just crazy kids in the suburbs?" At first they said, “I don’t know.” Then I got on my knees and showed them the visual and they instantly got it. Just goes to show that often times it’s better to communicate visually than verbally. There’s also this fun keyboard sound that’s really catchy and it reminded me of my childhood and just being crazy and wacky. We knew we wanted that loose style of early 90s hip-hop videos so it just started from there. It was a pretty organic process of just, "What if we do this and what if we do this." Soon enough we had a full concept and shot it that weekend.

Doug: So, just to be clear, the way that the shrinking of characters is done is you’re basically tying shoes to someone’s knees, or do they just kneel down in them? Because the characters aren’t just standing there. They are lifting their legs and the shoes are going up with them as well. Do you have to fasten them on the knees or something like that?

Chris: Yeah, it was a bit of an experimental process to see what worked best. I knew from the get go that I was going to have to frame very shot straight on and for the shots that aren’t, I’d have to do some cleanup to really achieve the effect. As far as the actual shoes, it’s as simple as tying them around the backs of their knees.

Doug: I was curious about that because I was looking for the back half of their legs. There needs to be bottom halves of legs somewhere. So you rotoscoped them out?

Chris: Yeah. A lot of the scenes, especially towards the end of the video when they are on the tennis court, their actual feet are showing in pretty much constantly. So that’s where most of the cleanup happened. Also, a lot of the shots, like the closeup of the dog walking, had shadows cast from the bottoms of their legs and feet, so I ended up rotoscoping a lot of what you wouldn’t normally notice on a first glance. We tried to frame every shot in order the hide their legs, but when you’re running and gunning with no money and only a day to shoot, there’s only so much time to fully prep a shot.

Doug: You did try though? It wasn’t just like, "Screw the back half of your legs. We’ll get it later"?

Chris: I come from a visual effects background and anyone in VFX will tell you they hate nothing more than the words, “We’ll fix it in post!” But when you’re required to shoot fast, there’s only so much you can do. In fact, the break-dancer at the end was the biggest curve ball. She came to set not realizing we wanted her to dance on her knees, a request most B-boys aren’t used to. So in a situation like that, you just improvise. So she did what she could and I cut around it to make it work. Then I went back and shot some actual shoes on green screen, comped those in and cut her legs off. Once the video came out, she laughed and said, “What happened to my legs?!”

Doug: She didn’t even know? Wait.

Chris: It was a total surprise! She’s a professional break-dancer. She is in that new movie Pitch Perfect but just happens to be a friend of ours. It was just nice to ask her to do that and later being understanding that we cut her legs off. I think it was a bit of a shock to her as much as everyone else. But it probably won’t make it on her dancing reel.

Doug: What about the choreography where there is a break down with 10 or 15 half legged people doing this dance. When choreographing that, do you have to wait until you’re on the spot, on your knees, in order to figure it out?

Chris: It all happened on the day. I knew that I wanted them to be in a triangle position, so I just said, "Everyone get in their positions. We are going to go through and learn some basic dance moves." One of the extras is a professional choreographer and it was helpful to talk to her about it and figure out what moves are possible on your knees. I knew I wanted the dancing to be a derivative of 80s and 90s hip-hop, so that gave us a jumping off point. You can do a lot of that stuff without moving your legs. A lot of the people in that dance scene don’t have their shoes tied to their knees, so they weren’t able to lift their legs up. It also didn’t help that it was 100 degrees that day and everyone was helping for free. I don’t know if you’ve spent any time on your knees, but it absolutely kills after a little while. The band's shoes had this really thick padding under their knees, so that they’d be more comfortable. But I don’t think anyone there would ever do it again.

Doug: That actually leads to my next question. People look hilarious when they walk on your knees, so on the surface it would seem like this would be like such a fun, light hearted, silly set of everyone just laughing at each other. Then you think about it, and realize these people had to spend the whole day on their knees. Did it get pretty cranky there for some people?

Chris: They were actually all good sports! A lot of those people were in videos that we’ve done before and were used to the torture we put them through. So I guess they knew what to expect and were thankfully down for the cause. It always helps to explain the concept to unpaid extras like that so they feel important and are more cooperative. Fortunately in this case, they loved the concept.

Doug: Well, if it was torture, you don’t see it on the faces because it looks great.

Chris: I agree. I love working with my friends because they’re always willing to go the extra mile. After all of the time I spent cleaning up the extras’ feet they eventually see it and love it because they feel like they’re a part of something important. I just laugh because to me the rotoscoping is terrible and there are still a few feet here and there if you look closely. I’d probably be let go from any VFX house for turning in work like this.

Doug: Well I think it definitely works. I just assumed on first run that you guys set the camera up so everyone’s feet were blocked and stuff. Then I'm like, “Wait a second, she’s break dancing with her legs in the air.” Little things like that sort of shine through.

Chris: Surprising people is always the goal and those details are what I love most. There are a few easter eggs in the video that people are slowly figuring out, and that’s what’s most rewarding. It’s funny because the band sent the video to their A&R guy and he wrote back like, “How did you do the shots with the break-dancer?!” It’s obvious to me, but I guess the general population is not so hip to the world of visual effects. For me, it’s always most tasteful in moderation.