Combining time lapse with stop-motion, the video for Analog Or Digital by Wildlife Control required band members Neil and Sumul Shah to perform in a complicated, full-day shoot on San Francisco's Ocean Beach. Most complicated shoots like this might require some convincing by the director to get the band on board, but since the band directed this video themselves, this was not an issue they ran into. We talked to Neil and Sumul about the production of the video, their experience with stop-motion, and the shelf life on a viral music video.
Doug: Where did the original idea come from?
Wildlife Control: We were first kicking around music video ideas for "Analog or Digital" after one of our NYC shows in late 2011. We didnt really have a budget to work with, which can sometimes be a great creative constraint. We knew we wanted to make a video that reflected something about us. The most obvious thing was to film ourselves doing stuff over the course of an entire day. The rest of the concept fell into place pretty quickly after that.
Doug: Do you guys have any experience with time lapse or stop-motion? Did you know what you'd be in for with this project?
Wildlife Control: Other than trying to make some homemade cartoons on the family camcorder when we were kids, we didnt have any real experience with either technique. We do have a lot of experience with photography and math though, so it seemed simple enough. Famous last words.
Doug: Did you have an idea as you were shooting it what the final product would look like?
Wildlife Control: After we had settled on a location and done a few short test shoots at various times of day, we had a pretty good idea of what we were going for, visually. Of course, we had zero control over the weather - we actually got rained out the day before - or the human activities that occurred on Ocean Beach that day, which to us is the beauty of the whole thing. Some really amazing things happened that day, and we can click through frame by frame and remember them all.
Doug: What was the process like having to lip sync with this video? What the the timing process like?
Wildlife Control: During the sunrise and sunset performance sequences, we were shooting one frame of footage every few seconds. We would hold a pose, wait for the shutter, hold the next pose, wait for the shutter, etc. It took over an hour to do each one, and since the whole video is a single take, there was no room for error. We ended up hacking together a little teleprompter iPad app that we set up next to the camera. It would tell us what beat we were on for drum position, guitar chord, and mouth shape. The whole thing was pretty homebrew and ramshackle. When we think back on it, we get a wave of nerves, because it was basically a miracle that nothing went wrong.
Doug: This video is pretty complicated production wise, and it requires a lot of you, but the finished product is awesome. As a band, is trying to make a great video worth the extra effort?
Wildlife Control: Since the concept was ours, we were fully on board. There were times where we were afraid we had bitten off more than we could chew, but we pushed through and kept going. Was the extra effort worth it? Making the video was an unforgettable experience, and artistically we couldnt be happier with how it came out. So yeah, 100% worth it.
Doug: What has the shelf life been on a video like this? You released it over a year ago now, does a creative video like this still seem to be relevant a year later? Do you still get comments on it?
Wildlife Control: We do still get comments from people, both online and in person. Since the internets attention span is so short, we sometimes forget that people are still out there seeing the video for the first time. After SXSW this year we were in the airport waiting to board our flight back home, and a random dude - who we thought had been giving us the stinkeye earlier - came up nd asked, So howd you guys make that video? That was cool.
