The Future :: Don’t You Dare

The Project: The Future is a group of four guys who relocated to Nashville from the Dakotas. We lucked into hearing their music while filming for Music City Unsigned, and we were immediately hooked. A few conversations and several months later, and we were filming The Future’s first music video and EPK. These guys are an absolute blast live – their stage presence and music just pulls you in immediately – and we wanted to find a way to reflect their energy and fun attitudes toward life.

The Result: We pitched the idea of an epic chase scene as the band made its way to a show, and The Future was all for it. Some of the ideas didn’t have the time or resources to materialize (a giant mob of business-class adults, extreme parkour), while some of the ideas turned out great (we love the car wreck).

Goodbye June :: EPK

The Project: Goodbye June‘s management, Cotton Valley Records Management, reached out to us to put together an EPK for the young, up-and-coming band. We’ve seen a lot of EPKs, and we’ve liked a few, but the EPK felt like it was stuck in a rut. You usually see interview, live music, interview, live music, and so on. We wanted to try to honor the traditional EPK format while pushing the creative edges where we could.

The Result: We love the way this EPK turned out. A lot of credit goes to the band and CVR. They’re so genuine and talented, and that’s at least half the battle in an EPK. Goodbye June was also game for an acoustic ending to the video, which just felt right. We feel like the result shows the spectrum of who Goodbye June is and who they could someday be, which is really what EPKs are all about.

Humming House :: Gypsy Django

Humming House

The Project: Humming House‘s story to this point is a prime example of why we love Nashville so much. They gather around an idea for a unique sound. (We classify it as bluegrassgospeljazzblues. They might call it something more intelligible.) The esteemed Vance Powell hears it, loves it, and helps record and mix the album in his spare time. Other indie artists in Nashville jump on board as extras in the video. Momentum gathers through word of mouth. It’s like musical incest – in a good way.

The Result: The band came to us with a great kernel of an idea: a period house party. We loved it, and they let us co-brainstorm the dance scenes, the bridge, and the attempted “Be Our Guest” wine-pouring shot. It was a blast to film and edit, and we’re honored these talented folks entrusted us with their debut single.

The Future :: Never Been So Cold

Music City Unsigned

The Project: Music City Unsigned invited us to film the final round of their Battle on 3rd series at Nashville’s 3rd and Lindsley. Tyler and I had gotten to see and film some of the earlier rounds in the contest, so this was a no-brainer. We hadn’t seen The Future perform, and little did we know how much they’d knock our socks off.

The Result: The Future has a great sound, and their stage presence just blew us away. Adam, Eric, Jordan and Bryan have full command of the stage and audience, and our challenge in filming and editing was to do justice to their unique presence. We went a little outside the box on the edit, but we loved how the video turned out.

Robert Kelly :: Be Here Now

Music City Unsigned

The Project: Our friends at Music City Unsigned introduced us to Robert Kelly when Robert was recording his debut album, “We Are Poetry.” After meeting Robert and listening to his music, we knew we wanted to do our part to help his launch. Robert invited us into Paper Swan Studios while he recorded “Be Here Now.”

The Result: Filming inside of studios can be a challenge. The lighting is often low, space can be tight, and the last thing you want to do is knock over a cymbal while the artist is mid-song. But Robert, his band, and Thomas Doeve of Paper Swan were great to work with. They didn’t even mind when we accidentally put our foot through a kick drum … kidding. The result was a sweet video that shows off Robert’s voice and charming personality in a more intimate setting than a typical music video or live music event. Robert circulated the video on various social networking sites in the days leading up to his album’s release to help generate buzz. The album, by the way, worked its way up to #15 on iTunes’ singer/songwriter chart!

Amy Stroup :: Redeeming Love

Milkglass Creative

The Project: After we filmed a Christmas CD release party for an album that featured Amy Stroup, she reached out to us with an idea for a video for “Redeeming Love.” We’ve been fans of Amy for years, so it was a real treat to work with her and Milkglass Creative. The challenge was the timing: Amy’s song had been picked up by ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars” and was airing six weeks after our initial brainstorming session. Christmas was a week away, which pulled us all out of town. Needless to say, time was tight to script, plan, film, edit and release the video.

The Result: After checking our schedules, Amy, Milkglass, and Yeah Yeah Creative had one open weekend within our timeframe. We set a solid gameplan, bought a few hundred feet of light strings, and reached out to a neighborhood ministry that was absolutely instrumental to the video. (A big thank you to Front Porch Ministry!) The day of the shoot was brutally cold, but Amy, the band, and the neighborhood kids were fantastic. Amy had practiced singing at x2 speed to help make the slow-motion effect line up correctly, and she pulled it off with aplomb. We knocked out the shots we needed in just under nine hours, and we had the video released with a week to spare before the “Pretty Little Liars” episode aired!

MCU :: Family Christmas

Music City Unsigned

The Project: Music City Unsigned asked YYC out to film the CD release party for their 2010 Family Christmas Album. After hearing the tracks from several of our favorite local indie artists, we knew we couldn’t say no. The challenge with the video was taking a range of sounds, artists, and styles, and making the video feel cohesive while representing the album’s beautifully simplistic, acoustic vibe.

The Result: Elenowen played a gorgeous rendition of “Silent Night” at the show, and after listening to the instrumental bridge we captured on our audio recorder, we knew we had to use it. The cello gives off such a warm, welcoming sound, and for an event filled with a tight-knit group of artists, we felt like it set the perfect tone for the evening.