Hooray for Earth "Keys" [2014]

Production Company: 1st Ave Machine & North of New York

Directed by Beau Burrows and Tucker Bliss

Producer: William Crouse

Director of Photography: Tucker Bliss

Programming & Fabrication: Beau Burrows

First AD: James Koenigsberg

Label: Dovecote Records

Hooray for Earth have a wonderful ear – and, unsurprisingly, eye – for the foreign-yet-familiar and seductively strange, so when they came to us with the prospect of working on a video for their new album, we got excited.  We knew we wanted to do something unorthodox with Tucker’s background in precision cinematography and my background in creative programming and visual effects.

We started this project knowing that the deadline would not allow for intensive post-production, which became a very useful creative boundary when we realized we’d have to capture nearly everything in-camera for an on-time delivery.  So I developed and programmed a computer-controlled system of lights and motion control rigs that would flash and move in sync with the song.  This allowed us the freedom to shoot different objects and at different locations while keeping the perspective and lighting consistent;  It’s motion and lighting control, all in one.

Once we had the motion and light rigs built, the actual shoots became visual sandboxes from which we created the material you see in the video.  Noel and everyone in Hooray for Earth brought a lot to the table during these exploratory shoots, which made collaborating closely with the band an integral part of the creative process.

Behind the scenes:

Copyright © 2015 Beau Burrows