Now, I was warned going into the meeting that they wanted something ambitious, but then I discovered just how ambitious it was. The boys wanted a “Western” Movie/Video Game style with a large number of extras, all in costume along with an old looking town and great effects, on a budget. I quickly called my usual wardrobe person, Kelly Somers who assured me it could be done and our VFX guy, Kerrod Cooper who was happy to work for a solid week on a tiny budget for the fun of it! Thankfully Blair (from ABOS) had remembered going to the Caboolture Historical Village when young so we quickly locked that in and I went there myself on at least one or two occasions to confirm a deal and also with the band a few times prior to the shoot to go over the creative.

The story of the clip is all the band’s and I take no credit for that. What I did was guide the ship and give the clip that epic feel on a shoestring budget. With about 60 people all in period costume, real guns (many of them), an incredible 1st AD in Darwin Brooks (Australia, Great Gatsby) and a beautiful looking clip (thanks Dave Wayland, DOP) I think we achieved that! 

I’ve always looked to film for inspiration when crafting music videos, giving the clip a genre (love story, crime, etc)  and basing colour palettes, shots and intended cutting rhythm, etc with what is often associated with films in that genre. For “Nightrider” I watched films including “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” for the Western vibe and referenced a lot of comic book movies to give it a slight video game look which is what ABOS was after. I always reminded our crew to think of it as we’re making an epic Western, not a heavy metal clip, so shots needed to hold for a long time with the camera locked off on a tripod with the occasional long, sweeping stedicam shot. Otherwise it would have looked like every other rock/heavy metal clip, just with everyone dressed differently.

Thinking as filmmakers doing a Western, we felt we had a chance to contribute to a reintroduction of the genre to our generation who haven’t seen too many Westerns at all. The video game vibe (i.e. 1st person POV, digital blood, etc) was one way to put a new coat of paint on and the other was a camera & edit technique that I’ve never seen used in film before. The technique makes the video appear as if all is still in the frame except for one element that moves.