Heaven’s Basement ‘I Am Electric’ by Ben Unwin
Wednesday, 13. February 2013 - 11:44 am
Spooky CCTV footage combines with a blistering performance to make a compelling video for old school headbangers Heaven’s Basement’s I Am Electric – helmed with elan by veteran director and editor Ben Unwin, making a rare return to directing promos.
“Having avoided music promos for a while I think that in some way I wanted to get back to basics and just film a band rocking out,” explains Ben. “I needed to get excited about guitars and distortion again, back to an old punk aesthetic if you will. And for the last year I’ve been collaborating on a feature-length documentary with John Hardwick, so it was highly therapeutic to get away from a longform piece and experiment a bit by turning the amps up to eleven.
“I’d heard that the band was great live, but you’re never sure if they will be able to recreate that in a film studio setting. However once I’d showed them a few takes, the trust developed and they jumped around like mad bastards all day long.
“Once a performance cut was approved we started adding little bits of distortion and flash frames in After FX before re-filming the whole thing of an old tube television to give it an electric feel.”
Heaven’s Basement
I Am Electric (Red Bull Records)
Director/editor: Ben Unwin
Producer: Ryan Elliot
Prod co: Red Lion
DoP: Stuart Nicholas White
Art director: Sam Davies
Make-up: Jess Acourt
Grade: Simone Grattarola at Rushes Post.
VFX:Tom Worth at Ascension Productions
Commissioner: Jill Kaplan for Red Bull Records
