This past week, the new music video for “So Close” dropped on Youtube to much fanfare! My former Redfoot bandmate Ryan Staples shot and edited the video, which is the forerunner to the upcoming “Always Alive” EP on Bad Apple Records.
Last year, as we were in the midst of recording the album, I had an epiphany. I wrote a storyboard for the video and sent it out to Ryan and the band. We cast Matthew Ward and Carmen Siguenza to play the boyfriend and girlfriend, respectively. My friend Steven Givan was the perfect choice to play the “Scare Bear”, due to his reliability and tallness. I got all the necessary permits and planned the dream sequence shoot for this past Fall at Veterans Memorial Park in Lexington. We shot the band performance footage at “The Practice Lair” (my basement) later in the year.
Music Video Shoot in the Park and the Lair
Before the shoot at the park, I drove up to Louisville to pick up a ratty bear suit, sight unseen, from a costume rental business. It reeked of old lady closet and cigarettes. After liberally applying some Febreeze to the suit, I met Ryan, Steven, Carmen, and Matthew at the park. The shoot went pretty smoothly, with only a few sprinkles of rain. The only rough spot happened when Carmen dropped the big elbow on Steven when he wasn’t ready. She knocked the wind right out of him! Of course, we kept that take in the end, since it captured some authentic pain! Ryan and all of the actors did great.
I strung up lights and hung memorabilia from my illustrious past in my basement for the second shoot. I also borrowed a fancy area rug to church the place up. Ryan set up a full light kit to transform my dimly lit practice space into the perfect stage. I wore my hair down for the first time since I’d been growing it out, and dusted off some of my old stage moves. I was concerned that I might be rusty, since I’d been playing only acoustic shows for the past couple of years. We ran through the song a couple times and were done just like that.
Behind the scenes
I shot some footage of the stars of the park shoot to do a short “behind the scenes” video. We had a lot of fun making this, and we hope you dig it, too!