A very impressive debut video for Gem Club’s I Heard The Party by Joshua Stocker, who reinterprets a classic sci-fi alien abduction scene as a mystical, quasi-religious event for the melodic but funereally-paced track.

Shot in Wendover Woods, Joshua made the video as part of his FMP (final major project) at Chelsea College of Art before his graduation. But this isn’t your average student film, with superbly controlled direction, lovely photography and a stunning levitation sequence as its centrepiece. “I wanted to take this well-known and familiar concept, and take away all the things you relate to a Hollywood alien abduction – no spaceship, no aliens, just a bright light with a man slowly ascending up,” says Joshua.

“It was also important to me that all the effects we see were created in camera with a minimal amount of post production. For the main ascension shots we had a large mirror held on scaffolding about 6 meters above a trampoline. Dan (the actor) simply then jumped in a specific way to give the effect of his body being pulled up. It was a very cheap way of pulling off an expensive looking shot, and meant we could get a vast amount of takes within a very short period of time.”

Joshua’s full blog of how the video came about, from the inital idea right through to its completion, is here, with more behind the scenes info here.

Gem Club
I Heard The Party
Director & Producer: Joshua Stocker
1st AD: Josh Baker
2nd AD : Kadri Mahmoud
Director of Photography: Matthew Emvin Taylor
Gaffer: Robert White
Focus Puller: Malte Huebner
Clapper: Robin Webster
Spark 1: Steve Garay
Spark 2: Dominic Palgan
Spark Trainee: Ben Hawkes
Spark Trainee: Sian Lennox Gordon
Runner: Kiran Mandla
Runner: Jamie Stocker
Makeup Artist: Maddy Fearn
Editor & Compositor: Joshua Stocker
Grade: Toby Tomkins @ TJT Film
Cast:
Man | Dan Payne
Girl | Amanda Renberg
Behind the Scenes: Katherine Jenkins
Catering: Linda Stocker, Dawn Clarke, Tim Stocker