Audio Traffic Rocks!

Got back to HK a few days ago, and now sitting in the AnD office blogging... it's such a great and warm feeling... like I'm home.

I'm happy to see that Audio Traffic's "Way Too Long" MV is up on their page now, brought back a lot of good memories from the shoot...  When Terence first mentioned to me about making a few MVs for some HK underground bands, he gave me a few songs to listen to before I got to HK.  I felt in love with WTL instantly and was listening to it practically on repeat.  As soon as I heard the beginning (the guitar buzz before the drum,) I had this image of a polaroid picture being developed.  I really wanted to direct this MV, so I spent some time to absorb the song while I was still in London, and to think about how I could incorporate the polaroid visual into the MV.  I decided to create a narrative about a boy missing his ex-girlfriend, and I thought it might be cool to have the two characters exist in separate mediums, i.e. the girl only in polaroid pictures as the boy traveling through memory lane (so to speak.)

I met Don and Adrian one evening soon after I arrived HK.  Needless to say, they're super cool guys and we just clicked.  They liked the polaroid idea and really understood what I was going for.  The prep for this shoot was relatively easy since I knew the production size would be minimum.  The hardest part was to find a perfect location for the band to play the song and where the boy would end up.  I was thinking like a rooftop or an empty apartment where they could play at night with some beautiful neon lights in the background or outside the window.  We found this rooftop of a business building in Causeway Bay where there's a huge neon sign sitting there (imagine the final fight scene in "Highlander".)  But we knew that we wouldn't be able to get permission to shoot there, also setting up lights for a night shoot would create even more problem/stress for the gorilla shoot. 

Since the other director Kim was going to check out a warehouse space for Qiu Hong's MV shoot, I decided to tag along.  We got to the studio in Clear Water Bay one afternoon.  When we were climbing up the stairs to check out some space, I caught a glimpse of the gigantic satellite dish outside the window.  I remember I took a few more steps and it suddenly hit me, so I turned back around.  The funny thing was, Terence was already standing there next to the window smiling at me... what can I say... great mind think alike =)   I just smiled and said, "could I... really!?"   Paul and T made a few phone calls and the next thing I knew, we're going to put the boys up there and shoot them!  It was very exciting, since I've never directed anything with a big prop like that!

The rest was pretty stress free.  The more challenging part was actually shooting the polaroid pictures.  Since I had to record and capture the pictures developing in real time, and since the locations were all outdoors, I knew I had to build some sort of a box to block the sunlight reflection and the wind.   Once that was done, basically I just had to snap the polaroid pictures and run back to the camera station and shoot them while they're developing.  It was actually a fun day, especially thanks to T who came along and hang with us, and also suggested to go to the fun fair ground.  That was genius!

The idea of reversing the developing of the polaroid pictures actually came later during the tail end of the editing process.  My editor and I were just taking a break and chatting about the philosophy of "memory"... one thing let to another, and we thought it'd be cool to reverse the polaroid to intensify her absence and his missing of her.

I really enjoyed making this MV.  Thanks to Don and Adrian who were great to work with, and never complained even when I asked them to climb up the very dirty satellite dish and hang out there for hours.  And Phat who was so patient with me and did such an amazing DP job.  And of course, Jason and Kate who were the superstars in the MV, and needless to say, T and the AnD boys.  So I hope you guys enjoy the MV...