Prior to signing with Athem Films, director Tim Hendrix took on a passion project with an idea that might have started out bigger than the budget. "Teenage Rhythm" by GRMLN is a high-energy video of high school students having fun and causing trouble in their hometown, but with all the high school students played by a group of awesome senior citizens. The on set difficulties don’t show in the final video - that’s full of old people hanging out, smoking weed, and running around – but apparently things got pretty rough. We talked to Tim about how rough things got, casting a video full of awesome elderly people, and how some lines you can't uncross.

Doug: What was the impetus of this idea?

Tim: The idea originally struck me while listening to "Teenage" by Veronica Falls. I wanted to make this video for that track, but nobody at Slumberland or Wichita Records ever returned my cold calls or e-mails. Eventually the official video (which I despise) for the track came out, and I shelved the idea. Then, my homie Gloria from Force Field PR hit me up and asked if I could a video for their newest artist. I interned for FFPR a few years back, when they still operated out of a garage. One way or another every music video I've gotten happened because of the time I spent there, so of course I was down to help. The track ended up being perfect for the old people idea. They've got impeccable taste in clients, so I'm in touch with them a lot. Like, I think I bug them about doing an Anamanaguchi video at least once per month. They must be getting sick of that. Sorry guys!

Doug: What was the casting process? Where did you find everyone? Were you just looking for elderly people, or was there something more you were looking for?

Tim: Robert, the beared guy, was someone who I'd used in two projects prior. He was a janitor in a spec commercial for a mobile app I did, and a gravedigger in a music video I did for Kyle Nicolaides in his pre-Beware of Darkness/Lance Drake days. I'd had a lot of conversations with him on those sets, and I just instinctively knew he'd be right for the part. Beyond that, I just looked on LACasting. What's funny is that there is a very small group of elderly actors and actresses in LA that constantly bump into each other on various student sets, so instead of actually holding auditions, I just got to call Robert and ask if he had a good experience the last time he worked with each of the key players. If he told me they had the correct fire for the part, then I cast them.

One exception to that rule is Franklin Rhuel, the singer, who I cast based on the strength of his UFO conspiracy theory show, and the fact that he signs his e-mails with "Meow!"

Doug: What was your direction to the actors? How did you get this performance out of them?

Tim: I'm terrible at working with actors. Anyone will tell you this. I mean, my school hired Mark freaking Rydell to teach directing at my school, and I absorbed very little from the experience. Isn't that pathetic? But I didn't have any problems here, because the main cast was having too much fun. After playing quiet, hunched-over grandmas and grandpas in a million other student films, playing the polar opposite came very naturally to them on this one. I just told them to trust their instincts and do what came naturally, and 9 out of 10 times it was perfect. The credit belongs entirely to them.

Doug: Were any of them uncomfortable with the subject matter of the video?

Tim: Surprisingly, no. In fact, they pushed it much farther than I'd ever intended it to go. Which is great, because I was really dreading the possibility of having to provide direction for a lot of this.

Doug: You mentioned there being some issues with the production on this project, can you get into detail on what didn't go right?

Tim: There wasn't enough money to hire the people or equipment I needed, but I went for the gig anyway. It was a tiny passion project for me. I now realize that tiny passion projects that rely on set building, locations, extras, and company moves don't fare nearly as well as ones that rely on VFX. For instance, I had student DP and camera crew having to deal with a very slow shoot in 90 degree heat. These are a very, very skilled group of students who were doing me a huge favor by even showing up - But one of them, who I won't name, took the lack of pay and heat as an excuse to insult me in front of the cast and crew, and generally not give a shit about the project. This destroyed morale on set and made the whole shoot feel like a massive, unending chore. When we finally wrapped, I thought the video was crap and I'd never get hired again. It wasn't until a week later, when Ian had showed me his first cut that I realized it was actually pretty good. It's not like I don't get the fact that long, unpaid, difficult gigs suck, but hey, that's how we all start out. If you don't like them, then don't take them, bro.

And, uh, Traci was a incompetent last-minute hire I never would've worked with under any other circumstance. I almost hit backspace after typing that, but man - She forced our Gaffer to build her mailboxes while she sat in her car. And we paid her! That's a line you just can't un-cross. I still apologize to Chase about that whenever I see him. You reading this, Chase? I'm sorry, Chase. Rock on, Chase.

Tim's "I'm sorry" face

Doug: Your video for Koan Sound involved a lot of pretty high level stage fighting, how did the stage fighting skills of the actors in this video compare to the actors in the Koan Sound video?

Tim: Funny story: In this video, stunt choreographer for 80's Fitness and this video is actually that badass asian guy in the leather jacket! Only, Lola buried him in about 3 pounds of latex so you can't tell he's younger than the rest of the cast. So, I guess in his case his skills exceeded those of everyone who appeared in 80s Fitness combined! Robert and Tim were great too, but I'm sure Kimo could Jazzerassinate them (and me!) in an instant if he ever wanted to. Thankfully, this titan's on our side… For now.

Doug Klinger is the co-founder/content director of IMVDb and watches more music videos than anyone on earth. You can find him on twitter at @doug_klinger.