Newspeak and Hooligan&Co. (Newspeak's post production arm) latest music video, directed by Erik Montovano, has been selected to be shown at this year's Woodstock film festival.
Congratulation to our amazing staff, and all the people that have work on the music video.
http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/festival2011/details.php?id=17738
DAY ONE
Everyone in our production was getting ready to shoot the first scene of Sarah Fimm’s music video for “Everything Becomes Whole,” from her new album “Near Infinite Possibility.” We were shooting in the historic Bearsville Theatre right outside of Woodstock, NY. Drew, our DP, had the Red MX camera properly framed. Sarah was doing a rehearsal of her performance when suddenly, it sounded like the earth was being ripped open.
A terrible bang was heard as well as what sounded like large rocks pelting the building. Everyone’s armhair was standing on edge and we could feel electricity in the air. The ground vibrated again, followed by a second large bang. A steady stream of water began to flood in from the ceiling, as a sort of “controlled chaos” took hold. Our crew was quickly moving all of our equipment out of harms way as shouts of “the roof might collapse!” was heard. After all the equipment was secured, our group cautiously ventured outside.
Trees look like they were ripped out of the ground and tossed aside by an invisible hand. The second bang we heard was a large tree, which was hit by lightning, crashing into the roof of the theatre. Drew somehow climbed to the roof and started cleaning away some of the debris, as an employee from one of the local businesses gave us a tarp to cover the gaping hole caused by the impact of the falling tree. We later found out that a tornado ripped through the area, knocking down power lines and leaving destruction in its wake. After the situation was under control and the fire department gave us the green light to continue our work, we began the shoot in earnest. The intensity of the moment got everyone in a fired up mood, and it showed in the day’s performances and enthusiasm from the crew.
DAY TWO
After the excitement of the first day of shooting, everyone was all in for “the tub scene.” Anne, our Production Coordinator, knows where to find any prop you would ever need, no matter how obscure. For this scene, we needed the perfect cast iron tub, which she managed to secure. The only problem was getting to the site of the shoot, which was a riverbed a quarter mile from the nearest road. We drove as close as we could get, and carried it across a field and into the center of the river. Erik was in the water with a gigantic grin on his face. We wrapped the scene up, and dragged the tub back the same way we came in.
For the next few scenes, we moved back to the theatre, and prepared to shoot the climactic scene of the video. JW, our antagonist to Sarah, was called to drag her on the floor to a cot. As JW nears the cot with Sarah in his grasp, he swooped down and quickly lifted her in his arms and placed her on it, a totally improvised move.
“Did we get that!?”, asked Erik.
“YES!!”, Drew said excitedly.
The next scene called for Sarah to be approached by JW, who was wielding two jumper cables attached to a car battery. Sarah was lying in the cot, and as Al, our Gaffer, was making sure the car battery was out of juice, he touched the jumpers together and an arc of electricity shot from one to the other. The look on Sarah’s face went from interest to fear, and was perfect for setting up the mood for the scene. We’ll scratch this one up as a happy accident.
We would say that this was the most exhilarating and adventurous shoot we have done to date, as the team was passionate going in, but the events and unpredictability added intensity to the shoot. Sarah adds:
“I got lifted by a Marine, almost electrocuted by the car battery, a tornado hit us, lightning fried us, but we all fought to make it great and it worked like a charm. There is no substitution for an amazing team, and in case anyone had doubts art is still alive.”
We look forward to showing you the final video, but we wanted to tell you what goes into a Newspeak/Hooligan and Co. shoot.
Artist: Sarah Fimm
Director - Erik Montovano
Executive Producer - Andreea Prichea
Writers - Erik Montovano / Andreea Prichea
Director of photography -Drew Ravani
Assistant Camera - Violetta D'Agata
Gaffer - Al Rivera
Best boy grip - David II
Make Up - Lucia Aloi
Wardrobe - Andy Star
Production Coordinator - Anne Leal
Photographer - Heyrick Chassé
Behind the scenes Video - Heyrick Chassé
Actor - JW Cortes
Actress - Sarah Fimm
WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON:
Newspeak has been busy. We are working on two music videos, a couple of show opens and promos; soon we will be able to share them with you.
WHAT TO LOOK AT:
In the mean time feel free to browse through our newly reorganized website, we have minimized the number of clicks needed and introduced a more rapid and direct way to access samples of our work. This is to minimize the amount of browsing time, as I know that most of us are daily bombarded with sites to check out, and information to read.
WHAT'S COMING UP:
At the end of July, 2011 we will send out our quarterly Newsletter [Nr.5] that will highlight recent projects and new additions to our team.
Newspeak and Hooligan&Co. enjoyed working with Mr. Oliver in directing and shooting him for the second season of his anticipated Comedy Central JOHN OLIVER'S NEW YORK STAND-UP SHOW.
The show started airing on COMEDY CENTRAL in March if you'd like catch an episode check out the
show's schedule:
