Living in Seattle has some really, really positive aspects to it, besides the bluest skies you've ever seen for 2 months out of the year. The #1 greatest thing for me is the incredible music scene, of course, with cool events going on every single day of the year. In February, I was super-mega-maxi lucky to be able to be a little part of a music video shoot for Seattle rock legends Mudhoney, which took place at the visually-delectable Radar Hair and Records in the SODO district. The band had made an open call for extras and I thought, heyyyyy, it would be really fun to be able to bring my camera along to document the whole filming process and be able to give fans a behind-the-scenes look. I contacted director Carlos Lopez with my idea and he very kindly said, yeah, do it! Wheeee!
The song (which everyone certainly learned by heart that night!) is "I Like It Small," from Mudhoney's ninth album, the brand-spankin'-new "Vanishing Point" on Sub Pop Records, and the video was going to be a continuous shot, single camera process so everything had to be timed perfectly. The evening started out at Radar by everyone nomming on multi-boxes of pizza and sucking down a keg o' brew while the crew finished setting up the space for the shoot. It was pretty nifty to see so many of my friends and music people I know there. I ate a slice o' 'za and tried to scope out where I should stand so that I could get some good shots without tripping over all the video equipment and cables and ruining everything like a ruinous ruiner.
There were a few run-throughs prior to filming, with so much going on at once. There were lots of walk-on roles, lots of off-camera things for vocalist Mark Arm to do very quickly and then get back in front of the camera (smoking jacket, straightjacket, stigmata, etc.), walls to be moved in and out, blow-up dolls to be thrown in the air, so there were many assistants beside the very-able crew (director Lopez, DP Brady Hall, AC Daniel Mimura, AD Sarah Crowe, gaffer Rory Emmons, safety coordinator Peter "Drago" Tiemann, and stairs/wardrobe wrangler Cathy Lopez). Everyone learned their cues, and then the filming began! It was a tight space, and I appropriated a short staircase each take in order to get a better view until it had to be used for the video. At the end, I ran back and forth from the front to the back to the front again in order to get some wide shots of all the extras cramming in for the PARTAY TIME shots. Everyone was workin' hard, but it was SO much fun. Lots of smiles.
A few hours of this crazy stuff, and it was a wrap! Everyone said their goodbyes, and some very thrilled fans got to say hi to the band, too.
If you would like to view all 61 photos, why, you just go on over to Flickr! CLICK THIS LINK RIGHT HERE and POOM! MAGIC! YOU THERE!
And now...ladies and gentlemen...the finished video for "I Like It Small" by Mudhoney, released today! Congrats to all!
Mudhoney, "I Like It Small"
Thank you SO much Carlos Lopez, Brady Hall, Lacey Swain at Sub Pop, Sara Kimball, Johnny Samra and Betsy Hansen at Radar, and Mudhoney!
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman