Hateful Chains

She Smiles Video Part One

Hello there!

This time I will tell you about the first day of the epic She Smiles music video shoot. It's epic because it's taking so long. And that's because it's surprisingly complex to organize a group of people, who all have different schedules and different kinds of day jobs, to come together for one whole day for a video shoot. But I managed to do that once, so I'm hopeful that day two will eventually happen, too.

We still had no location by the time we had agreed on a date that was possible to everyone and I was starting to get a liiitle anxious about it. But I tried one last straw, and contacted the place where we have arranged numerous concerts of contemporary music. To my relief it was available on weekend, and only for a small rent. It is an old liquor distillery, renovated for cultural use and to be rented for parties and such. It has a nice old vibe to itself, red brick walls and a glass floor, under which old structures have been preserved. So location was now taken care of.

The next thing to be anxious about was the costumes. There was a lot of hassle at work because of pending orders that were all due in December. I was working over time and at home there was another sewing job that I had taken. It also took some time before I found the fabrics that I wanted to use. The directors idea was that there would be dancers naked, or in "naked-like" suits, silhouettes, that give the impression of nakedness. So I was looking for fabrics that skaters and ballet dancers use in their costumes, but finding something for a reasonable price wasn't so easy, at least from on-line special stores. But there was a fabric store in the nearby town, where I heard you could find almost anything... So after the number of dancers had been settled and all the plans made, I took a trip there. 

Next was masks, because I wanted to give the impression of the dancers not being completely human. What better way to avoid natural facial expressions and humanity, than a mask? I could have made the masks myself, but I simply didn't have the time. But, there was a store for just that! Punanaamio, or Red Mask, as it would be in English, offered a wide variety of masks for all occasions, and the best thing was I could just walk in and order them into the shop! So I ordered these beautiful Venice-style white-golden masks, made from paper mache. They were a little more pricey than your average plastic masks but they looked so much better than any cheesy glitter thing, that I though it worth the price, plus everything shows on camera, so quality it should be.

The dancers' costumes took a while to make: I drew the pattern and made it into different sizes at home, which took several evenings. next tow or three days I cut them at my workplace before starting the day's work and then stayed there one day until nightfall to sew them together. One of those time's that the thought "Why am I doing this?" crept into my mind, yes. But at the same time I was stoked to see it all come together.

Two dancers and the hooded character, photo by @Rotkoarts

Then there was another dancer, to whom I had another role in mind. The part we were about to shoot now, was a "fantasy world" or "inner world", where everything is colourful, fluidly moving, strange, beautiful. Then there's the chaos, the un-controllable, which we sometimes are a little afraid of. I wanted that black character in the back of the mind to be there. But it should be somehow different in comparison to the strange masked fluid dancers. So, I asked a vocal student of mine, who is a break dancer, to join. Say what? Yes, that's exactly what I did, I put break dancing into a Rock music video.

Me against the brick wall, photo by @Rotkoarts

Then there was only my costume left. I only had the vague idea that it should be something red, so there would be the symbolical red, white /well, whitish) and black colors. I grabbed something when in thrift store thinking hmmm, maybe... I would have made some tearing and shredding to it but time was running short. In the end though, it worked perfectly with the make up and glitter stuff that was glued onto my face. A red strapless dress with some tulle underneath the hem, just needed to widen it a little and stick some bones into it, so it would hold up somehow. Should have stuck more bones, but yeah, no bones and no time to get them.

I had actually worked over time so much that I could take a day off before the shooting day. That was a real relief! I could sleep in and not worry about looking like a ghost on camera. And I had enough time to make sure that everything was in order. Like, dying my roots red to match the red dress. Then, two messages from the dancers came in, telling that they weren't able to come the next day after all. No! But phew! Luckily there were still three left. Always good to ask more people than you really need, I guess. 

Saturday morning was glorious. We arrived early at the scene with the guitarist to check everything out. There were some furniture around so first we had to move them into storage. Then arrived the make-up artist, the shooter/director and drummer, whose role was to be the handyman. First thing he asked was "Did you make sure we can use the smoke machine?" And to my horror I realized I hadn't! I called the places manager but it turned out the smoke detectors couldn't be turned off. So we had to do what we could with the lights and space without the smoke. Pity, but I think it will turn out fine. And I think it can be added later, if necessary.

Director and Drummer setting up the lights, photo by @Rotkoarts

Guitarist went to get some snacks and coffee for everyone, and I sat on a table to be painted. While sitting there the dancers arrived and started to get into their costumes. Luckily the masks fit their faces quite well and gave just the air of mysticism that I had in mind. My make up took some time, so when the lights were all set up, the dancers went to try the space out and shoot some material without me. The make-up art was all about red, with glittering glue-on gems and a "lizard" pattern, patted with darker red eye shadow through fishnet stockings. There was red on my forehead and neck too, which was good since my scalp was all red from dyeing.

Photo by @Solkigraphy

Everything set, we started shooting the parts with me and the dancers. The director has this knack of articulating his ideas and directions in a calm, clear manner, so that no-one really felt insecure about what they should do. We did all kinds of angles, close-ups and distant, with me and the dancers, and separately. The space turned out to be really diverse, even without the smoke. The brick wall, the glass floor with lights underneath, the iron staircase going up to a balcony with a glass floor, the iron ladder on the wall: Everything was used to get interesting angles and shots.

Taken from the upper level, photo by @Rotkoarts

In the afternoon the break dancer arrived and sat down for make up. His face was to be painted black. He had with him a black shirt and a cool hoodie and I had prepared black pants to go with them. The outcome was nice! Had a little scary air to it, which was my intention all along. We then took the shots where he did the break dance. I noticed there was some trouble and he seemed a bit uncomfortable. Then he asked for water and I realized it was all because the glass floor was too slippery for him to dance with only socks on. Which was because his shoes were white. Should have prepared for that too, but yeah, always something is forgotten. We got him the water and he wet his socks, which made the break dancing much easier.

He's dancing the dance, photo by @Rotkoarts

Photo by @Rotkoarts

We then took different shots with me and the hooded character, him with the dancers and alone, and all of us together. In between we of course took a ton of pictures, especially the make-up artist whose job was now just to watch and see that nobody's make up was running. Me, I'm so bad at taking pictures, let alone posting on Instagram all the time. Something I should correct, I know. But there were a ton of photographs from the shooting day and I luckily got the permission to use them on social media, so I was able to share what we did.

Photo by @Rotkoarts

Photo by @Rotkoarts

Photo by @Rotkoarts

When everything was on camera, we ordered some pizza and cleaned the place up. There wasn't much, except the leftover snacks and all the stuff we brought in. At this point people had befriended each other and were happily chatting, while eating the pizzas and cleaning the make-up. I decided that the dancers could keep the costumes to them selves. They would have much more use of them than my closet, and I had two leftover suits. The masks, however, I kept to myself.

All the masked dancers, Photo by @Rotkoarts

Photo by @Rotkoarts

When all was cleaned up and everyone outside I closed the place up and left to another town to play a gig! Crazy, but there weren't really other options. I was so tired after a whole day of shooting but it also gave me this energy, that you get when you do creative things with other people. Completely different from the low vibes you get after a long day of working and nothing really going forward. This, though, was a huge step forward! We now had almost half of the material that makes She Smiles music video!



And the thanks for that belongs to:

Ville: director,cameraman
Minna: Rotkoarts, make-up
Jani: handyman, lights
Kimmo: snacks, audio
Dancers: Laura, Assi and Saija
Sami: breakdance

also, but not least: Pro Manilla Säätiö, which rented us the spectacular location

Thank you!!!

Next week we'll be shooting the band scenes!!

Flora

Photo by @Rotkoarts

Photo by @Rotkoarts

Photo by @Rotkoarts