MUSIC VIDEO: SEAN K. PRESTON GETS CAUGHT UP IN 'THE TWISTER'
I’ve never really been an advice guy, but, I will say one thing with absolute certainty: Never turn down the opportunity to learn a new skill.
When I was graduating college, I found a kindred spirit in one of my instructors, Ralph Miller, the owner of Rusty Knuckles. With both of us having roots in skateboarding and punk rock, I saw Rusty Knuckles as THE perfect job and, fortunately, Ralph saw me as someone he could trust with the label’s look and feel.
I started working with Rusty Knuckles in 2011, editing performances of label artists when they were passing through town, then music videos and product videos, until one day, Ralph decided he could trust me behind the camera.
Fast forward to 2019. The label has a new artist, Sean K. Preston, and I’m slowly but surely working to be a filmmaker, and BOOM, I get a call from Ralph who says Sean is looking to create a cinematic video for his new single called ‘The Twister’.
And I had an idea.
‘I want to film Sean walking through a field and, just as the song picks up, throw him in the middle of a tornado’.
Ralph was in with just a simple question of ‘what kind of budget do you need?’ and we were instantly in pre-production.
I agonized over the concept, the coverage, and every little piece of minutia I normally obsess over before arriving at a very obvious solution: the long take.
For anyone who is wondering, a long take is also known as a continuous shot or a ‘oner’. The basic gist is that it’s a shot that manages to envelop an entire scene without editing, breaking, or cutting away. The camera lives with our subject/characters throughout as much of their journey as is humanly or technologically possible. Considering the idea of the video, it made the most sense to me to hold on Sean throughout the entire video which ended up being around 3:18.
So there we were, on a beautiful piece of land given to us to shoot on by the wonderful Michelle Peters, in the hot Kentucky sun, take after take (14 in total), trying to navigate the high grass and random potholes while keeping our movement steady, and badgering Sean with a pair of portable leaf blowers in lieu of a high-end wind machine.
Once we wrapped that day, it seemed strange to not have to edit anything down, it was kind of what I imagine a hole in one is like in golf.
It was then time to send it off to post with the amazingly talented Christopher Shiner, a VFX artist in Louisville who just blew us away with what he managed to come up with. The realism and depth he provided is what made the video work.
I could seriously talk about this video for days as it's one of my favorite projects, but I think it’s more fun to just show you. Enjoy, friends.
Credits:
Artist/Composer: Sean K. Preston
Produced by: Sean K. Preston, Ralph Miller, and Mike Thompson
Director: Mike Thompson
Director of Photography: Thomas Johns
Colorist/Editor: Austin Sheehan
VFX: Christopher Shiner
Hair/Makeup: Andrea Ahl