Travis’s Something Anything by Michael Baldwin
David Knight - 2nd Oct 2008
Michael Baldwin's latest collaboration with Travis has essentially a very simple idea. The band wanted to make the guitar solo in Something Anything the focal point of the video. That has been achieved very effectively.
But it's not just the concept, in which guitarist Andy wills himself to grow larger in order to perform the said solo. This works because it is beautifully achieved. It looks great, firstly due to Chris Sabogal's excellent photography, and then as a result of really painstaking post work - as Mike explains below.
It's not very fashionable to say something (or anything) nice about Travis these days, but frankly this is bloody good. Hats off to Mike and all concerned for their sterling work.
Mike Baldwin on making the Travis video for Something Anything
"The band wanted to make something that was based around the guitar solo, so we thought we would make Andy the guitarist bigger. In an attempt to do it all in-camera, we fed him growth hormones and tried stretching him overnight for a week to get him bigger but in the end it was a fruitless task and had to knock on the door of a post house to see if they could help.
"Glassworks said yes, thanks to the help of James & Rich at Fallon (who were involved from the start as they are friends of Fran from the band, and were involved in the creative). And so after the more-complex-than-it-looks shoot - which involved lots of maths and scribbles to get exactly what we needed for the post - I moved into Glassworks for ten days with a small suitcase and toothbrush.
"It was a long arduous process as we had to rotoscope every shot of Big Andy. We didn't use greenscreen at all as it wouldn't have matched as well (and would have been a pain to work with in the small location).
"Anyway, Glassworks did an amazing job and I eventually moved home, where, rather worryingly, my girlfriend didn't even seem to notice I'd been away.
"I'll use this opportunity to once again thank all the crew, especially the generous and incredible Mr Sabogal, who all helped out as there was a lot of love involved in making this video happen."
Watch 'Travis’s Something Anything by Michael Baldwin' hereDavid Knight - 2nd Oct 2008
Credits
Production/Creative
- Director
- Michael Baldwin
- Producer
- Thom Green
- Production Company
- Flynn
Camera
- Director of Photography
- Christopher Sabogal
Editorial
- Editor
- Michael Baldwin
Grading
- Colourist
- Ben Rogers
Misc
- Post
- Glassworks
David Knight - 2nd Oct 2008