Alex Amoling’s narrative video for "I Could Hear The Water At The Edge Of All Things" by Hammock centers around a struggling blue-collar family on Staten Island. Casting a real family to appear in the video, Alex is able to find a chemistry within the characters that feels really natural and real - something that would be difficult to recreate with a group of strangers, particularly when one of those characters is seven years old. We talked to Alex and the guys from Hammock about the music video and about the album trailer for Oblivion Hymns that Alex also directed.

Questions with Alex Amoling

Doug: This song is so atmospheric, it fits perfectly with a narrative video like this. Did the track drive the story?

Alex: Definitely. The track has such a subtly intricate build and then release before the powerful finale that I think it lends itself to more of a short narrative. Once I heard those voices come in, it was like being hit by a wave and that feeling instinctively guided me through the story process. Even when I was playing with other story ideas for the piece earlier on, they always had a significant climatic point that they built towards. It's one of the beautiful things about the new album as a whole because each track flowed into the next like a larger narrative.

Doug: The video is over six minutes long and the narrative is pretty complex, did you write an actual script for this video?  

Alex: Originally, I was going to write a treatment, but as my idea progressed I instinctively started writing in script format. I felt it lent more to the thought process, the way I wanted to film the video, and allowed me to very clearly hit plot and character points. For me, the brevity and clarity of a script has always been a stronger foundation for me to build off of.

Doug: Most of the cast in this video has the same last name, did you cast an actual family to star in your video? 

Alex: Nick and Jenn don't have the same last name, but they are all a family that I met through my make-up artist and girlfriend Madeline. She worked for JHU comics, which Nick, who plays the lead, runs. I had always heard from her about Jenn, Rory, and Severin, but hadn't yet had the opportunity to meet them. When I was working on the idea, my mind went to them and I met with Nick to go over the project. After I wrote the script, I went to Staten Island and visited in order to get to know everyone and the land. I can say we're all good friends now.

Doug: A lot of the emotion in this video comes through the performances of a child actor, what are some the of techniques you used to help bring out this performance? Both in the natural family settings and in the final scene. 

Alex: I think sometimes you can approach working with children with specific techniques. I know I tried at first on this project, but Rory is a wonderful and energetic seven year old and not someone who's trained in acting. He watches a lot of videos and was interested in seeing how everything came together so I tried to work with that curiosity he had. In the family setting, Nick was a great help in just talking to him and cracking jokes. Sometimes Rory would leave in the middle of a take and we would just have to wait to garner that interest again. He responded best when we'd just let him sit or do whatever he wants and then just film. Other times, we'd put him in a location we needed him to be in and then Nick, Jenn, or his brother Severin, would come in with their goal for the scene and interact with him. The most challenging part was the ending, which I will say was just him in the car watching me dance outside. Because he's young with such a vivid imagination he didn't want to be involved with any scene where Nick gets "shot" so I just said, "Hey, sit in the car and watch me dance." Later, in the edit, it was just about finding all the pieces where he wasn't laughing at me.

Doug: What was the process behind the album trailer, was it planned from the start or did it come through the creation of the music video? 

Alex: The concept for the album trailer was something we had been talking about during the entire writing process, but mostly came through the creation of the video. It had to be a separate piece, but still intertwined with the concept and art work of the album. Because of the scope of the script and the limited resources, we had to use the materials we had at hand. I ended up choosing the track, "In The Middle Of This Nowhere" and focused on introducing the visual of Oblivion and the character of Nick. The idea was to show his character trapped in a spaceless and timeless place. Introducing his alter ego of the robber was something that happened naturally as we filmed in the studio and I added it in the trailer to sort of tell a parallel, but more ambiguous version of the full storyline.

Questions with Hammock

Doug: Most of your videos are pretty spectacular, how important are music videos to you guys as artists and how useful are they as promotional tools for a new album?

Hammock: Thank you… We’ve been fortunate to be able to work with some great directors who have gone far beyond what was expected of them. They truly do it for the artistic expression because the money really isn’t there. I think our videos are important to us because we live in such a visual culture now and as far as helping with promotion… when a video is released at the right time it can create a needed sense of anticipation for new releases.

Doug: Alex also directed a trailer for your new Oblivion Hymns album, and it pretty much serves as a trailer for the music video as well. Do you think the tone of the video reflects the tone of the album?

Hammock: The “white light of oblivion” definitely ties in with the theme and artwork of the record. There is a consequence to the choices we make in this life but how we end up making them is usually more complicated and filled with personal struggle. All of our specific choices and particular experiences occur and exist within the horizon of the whole and universal. The “light” is always there and the sense of oblivion is omnipresent yet within this context we struggle day to day just to pay our bills, grow in our relationships, and struggle to discover solutions to what sometimes seems like an unending list of problems. When art is good, it can open up that space in ourselves that not only helps us to see things more clearly but also to experience “the normal” with new eyes.

Doug: Are you conscious how fans react to your videos? Do you look at YouTube and Facebook comments about the video?

Hammock: We actually do read most of the comments, especially right after the video is released.

Doug: Are you guys pretty hands on during the music video process or do you like to let the director take most of the lead?

Hammock: Not really… If we trust the director we usually let them go once we feel good about the overall treatment they present to us. We might write some paragraphs and share our thoughts about what/who we would like to see more of in the video but we usually end our correspondence with, “take as much or as little of what we’ve suggested… take none of it.” In the end it’s all about respect and trust.

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.