From director Pete Schuermann:
“Music videos have never been something I’ve been afforded much opportunity to become involved in. I’m not sure why, though I’ve not pursued the work as many other filmmakers do.
Both of the videos you see here I was commissioned to do by friends at the time. The first, ‘Fade Away’ is a song from John Cary whom I had known mainly through my wife Ashley.
John and his group told me that creative reigns were all mine though they know they wanted the band to be seen playing. The concept for the ‘story’, which I hope is rather obvious, is a bit of a supernatural succubus kind of thing. Or a ‘nice guys finish last’ fable in a way – lol.
We had a wonderful location in a Victorian home graciously offered to us. It was one of those nice older places that gave a nice frame no matter where you pointed the camera. I did the photography myself, and I always try to point out to filmmakers entering the profession to seek out a picturesque setting no matter what you are shooting. It does the work for you in many ways.
The biggest challenge, though, was getting our actors to feel comfortable in a very high-visibility make-out session. As I recall, our actress was much more at ease than our male star. (!)
As for ‘Drink a Little’, well, this is a weird one as you no doubt can tell. Locally public figure of sorts ‘Major Mandolin’ (the ‘star’) fancied himself an entertainer of eclectic design. This song was written as maybe a bar drinking song, I guess, but the good Major had visions of it becoming a viral sensation. Ergo the need for a video.
My take was to camp it up to great degree and the Major re-recorded with the strained voice you hear. From there, the creative approach was mine to apply. Obviously, with the goal of viral potential in mind, I felt the best shot was a non-sequitur, ‘what the *&^& did I just watch’ approach.
Like it or not, I think I achieved what I set out to do. For sure it’s a love-it-or-hate-it experience. It was very fun to shoot, especially with the assistance of the lovely ladies (my wife being one of them) and the Steampunk group adding their enthusiasm to the shoot.
