Shooting Canadian industrial / dark electronic artist Glenn Love‘s At My Door video was an interesting exercise in creativity. The idea was Dyno Mike’s of Mikey Brand Productions. He proposed that we work together to create a music video based in surrealism. We weren’t certain what Glenn’s lyrics meant but the two of us would team up to manifest a dream-like moment in time based on them.
I’ve dreamt this
Many times before.
You’ve come again
Standing at my door.
I hate you –
The original intent was to surprise Glenn with the video but that was eventually partially scrapped as I had completely forgotten and mentioned something to him about shooting it. Dyno Mike and I still worked together to create the piece and the final product was a surprise to Glenn as he was kept ignorant about everything other than the moments you see him in the video.
Pre-shooting prep essentially consisted of Dyno Mike and I listening to At My Door a number of times, coming up with somewhat of a sequence of what the video would contain, and me heading out to buy props and play with set design. Dyno Mike worked on the bigger picture as I concentrated on the small details. The foundation was laid and on the day of filming the two of us worked together in the moment.
That’s exactly how I like to do a lot of things, and for those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile, you may have realized that’s how I prefer to travel. It’s also one of the reasons I’m drawn to martial arts. Actually, it’s pretty much how I strive to live my life. Set an intention, create a foundation, then ride the momentum of what comes and see what I can do with it.
For example, the apple you see in the video below was grabbed moments before leaving to go film in a nearby park. I was drawn to its colour and the texture of its skin. Bringing it with us just seemed like a good idea and I figured I’d be able to use it for something. It became a focal point of the video. There were a number of moments like this while filming. One of us would come up with something we couldn’t have planned prior and we played with it.
In addition, Dyno Mike was great to work with as he pushed my comfort zone with his direction.
“Hey, how about you dance?”
What?
I didn’t want to dance by any means cliche, I’m also not a club chick, so what was I going to do? I decided to work with the music and allow myself to veer into instability with a few moments of inferred hostility. We decided I was waiting for my dark lover and I wasn’t doing well with the wait. But I was…and then I wasn’t…..
The dark lover aka the man with a helmet and no face was played by Paul Gleeson. Here’s a pic of the two of us from a couple of months ago when the we DJ’d an 80s night in downtown Toronto.
His scenes as well as Glenn’s were shot separately. The entire video was filmed over the course of a weekend.
Here’s the final product, directed and produced by Dyno Mike. Please enjoy and feel free to tell us what you think.
Read the previous memoir, Devil’s Night – A Film I was In, here.
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