Bryan Schlam directs a faithful love letter to the spaghetti western, in this captivating promo for Michigan-born virtuoso guitarist Billy Strings. The video for Seven Weeks In County boasts plenty of style inspiration and iconography from the classic 1960s movie genre: gunfights, jailbreaks and campfire theatrics abound, every frame ramping up the chaos and pulpy drama in a satisfying fashion. As the video starts Billy is locked up in the sheriff's office, then narrowly escapes a hanging - and that's just the start. It's an ambitious feat, and perfectly captures the nostalgia of this cinematic era, including the shooting style adopted by Sergio Leone in his classic spaghetti westerns. "We shot at Luck Ranch, which is at Willie Nelson’s house," Bryan Schlam explains of the production. "It actually was the set from [Willie Nelson '80s movie] Red Headed Stranger. The interior from the bar was renovated so I had our production designer Dakota and his art team recreate the bar from RHS. We even matched the original wallpaper. And we used an amazing stunt coordinator who was a stunt man in Red Headed Stranger."For super close up shots, we used a filter called a split diopter, which puts both the foreground and background into focus. The most noticeable shot is when Billy tries to get the guards key’s with his guitar. It’s an effect that really isn’t used too often but it’s a technique that I’ve really grown fond of."Schlam adds that everything in the video was filmed as practically as possible, which led to some ingenious solutions by the production team. "The guns had CO2 cartridges and powder, so there were actual pops from the guns," he says. "The close up where the rope breaks was a firework that split it in half. The camera mounted on the gun was practical too - the rig was hilarious. I think it was attached about 6 feet away from the camera on rails. It did the trick but it was a really unique set up that our crew had to figure out how to make from scratch."The close ups of the horse riding with Billy were shot on a saddle rig on the back of a stunt truck. Billy had to practice while we were filming with the other cast members so they would just drive him around the ranch as he learned how to ride a fake horse. It was really funny."The gunshots - which were really intense - were added in post and our VFX artist Jack even figured out a way to put bullets in the chamber of the gun when it comes out of the bushes in the ambush scene. Then we put together a cut and sent it off to a lab to print it to film. So what you're watching was shot on an Alexa 35, but then was transferred to film, giving it that vintage look that would match Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns in terms of aesthetic. We wanted to stay away from any American western references and keep everything Italian."The intro credits were our names but I made fake italian versions to make it more authentic. Maybe it was a bad call having it say in big letters “directed by Bruno Sclavi” instead of my name but I had to stay committed. And the audio in the credits scene where Billy plays live was recorded on my iPhone."

Tyler Childers is a grassroots country artist from Kentucky who provides an alternative voice in a genre associated with conservative values, and worse. And following the race-baiting ugliness of Jason Aldean's Try That In A New Town song and video, Childers' video for In Your Love - directed by Bryan Schlam - could hardly be more timely.It's a love story, set in the Appalachians in the 1950s, of two gay Kentucky miners. Starring Colton Haynes (WB's Arrow) and James Scully (Netflix's You), this is a tale that is touched with tragedy, but crucially one that sends a message of the power of love surmounting all obstacles, and the paramount importance of tolerance.The script for In Your Love was written by Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House - a friend of Childers - and Jason Kyle Howard. They then worked with Bryan Schlam on how to best adapt this unique story for the screen. It's the second time Schlam has worked with Childers - and bucked expectatations - having already directed the video for Angel Band (Jubilee Version). The In Your Love video also weaves in a performance by Childers and his band The Food Stamps, into the narrative. For House, it was important to not only depict the strife of growing up LGBTQ in an intolerant society, but also the joy and complexity of rural lives. For Schlam, the challenge was in how to do justice to the emotional core in such a short amount of time."I knew we only had three minutes and forty-five seconds to put this story together, so every single shot, every single beat, and every action had to have purpose," says Schlam. "I wanted to move the audience in a way a traditional music video wouldn't be able to."After locking actors Colton Haynes and James Scully to star in this romantic tale, Schlam could lean into a more narrative storytelling world in order to truly bring the emotional truth of the song to life. To stay as accurate as possible to its time and Appalachian setting, Schlam worked diligently with the team at his production company home, Brooklyn-based Ghost Robot - including producer Whitney Wolanin and production supervisor Loren Greene - to source authentic locations and period detail."I spent so much time working through archival footage of miners in '50s and '60s," he says. "Just looking at every single detailfrom exact helmets, to the tools they used, to how dirty their clothes and faces were."After sourcing the perfect farmhouse and bar location, a limestone cave roughly an hour outside of Nashville stood in for thecentral coal mine. When it came to making the mid-century setting immediately recognizable, period specific cars and costumes became key components.Schlam brought in stylist Samantha Roe for everything wardrobe related; from the actor's midcentury attire to Tyler and the band's aesthetic in the video. Production designer Amanda Alberto was also key in providing key hand props, and diligentlyremoving contemporary background details and supplementing what was already there.Director of photography Doug Porter was instrumental in shaping the narrative look of the video. Having also worked Tyler and Schlam on the Angel Band (Jubilee Version) video, Schlam praises Porter's ability to bring their creative vision to life. “By now, we have developed a shorthand that helped us pull off the shoot and give the frames emotion and life in such a tight schedule.”Tyler Childers has been previously outspoken on social matters such as racial injustice and police brutality. By centering a same-sex couple, In Your Love has predictably inspired strong reactions, but the most popular social media comments byfar have been overwhelmingly positive. There's also been a swarm of reaction videos of TikTok, with fans filmingthemselves crying after being deeply moved by the video.For Schlam, this emotional reaction from fans has been particularly gratifying: "People are truly connecting to this inclusive message on another level," he says. "To be able to collaborate with Silas and Tyler on a story that lets people know they're loved, recognized, and welcome is a true gift – nevermind the opportunity to make a music video with such a strong messageabout empathy and humanity behind it."

Is there life on Mars? There certainly seems to be so in Jac Clinch's absorbing promo for Police Dog Hogan, but not in the way you might expect... The animated video for Here Comes Crow explores a strange and wonderful narrative about an ancient civilisation of crows indigenous to Mars. We follow the story of an astronaut who is tormented and ultimately sent mad by a mysterious crow. Clinch was forbidden in the brief from showing the astronauts faces, and as a result had to bring a great deal of detail and emotion through the character's body language to articulately tell the story.Beautifully rendered in 2D, the video has a charming, ethereal style that is playful yet haunting, and the enigmatic climax will leave viewers mesmerised.