by Kris Sundberg, director of the music video "Pour Me"
I was thrilled when Marty and Brian first asked me to create a music video for their new album, Kanoka. They even graciously decided to let me choose which song I wanted to do. There was just one problem: the album wasn't finished yet. Luckily, I got to see them play a few live shows last summer where they unveiled some of the new songs. That's when I first heard "Pour Me" and I knew immediately that song was going to be the winner.
I was thrilled when Marty and Brian first asked me to create a music video for their new album, Kanoka. They even graciously decided to let me choose which song I wanted to do. There was just one problem: the album wasn't finished yet. Luckily, I got to see them play a few live shows last summer where they unveiled some of the new songs. That's when I first heard "Pour Me" and I knew immediately that song was going to be the winner.
The music video for Switchback's "Pour Me" was shot in two drastically different locations. I first filmed the band performing the song while I was on vacation with my family during this past New Year's celebration. We had all traveled with the band to our cabin on St. Joseph Island in Ontario, Canada, and Switchback was to play at a party on the island to ring in the New Year. Since I live in Los Angeles, CA, I knew this would probably be my only chance to get any live footage of the band. So the band members, my production assistant (aka my girlfriend) and I went to the venue a little early and ran through the song 5 or 6 times to shoot different angles of them playing. The stage was already set up for the party, which meant I didn't have to worry about lighting the band, which was nice, but there was a giant Canadian flag behind them that snuck its way into a few shots. I consider it a tribute to our friends on St. Joe.
The second part of the video took us from cold and snowy Ontario to the blazing heat of the Imperial Sand Dunes in Brawley, California, just north of the Mexican border. As I listened to Kanoka, I of course began to imagine the old west and decided it would be really fun to pay homage to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the finale of which is one of my favorite cinematic moments. I called upon a good friend of mine, Nick Miller, to be the director of photography for this portion. Nick and I went to school together and have collaborated on several projects in the past. Most people would probably shudder at the idea of driving 4 hours to film in the desert all day, but I knew Nick would be ready for the adventure. I then asked Lauren LoGrasso, an actress, musician, and friend from college, to help with the casting. She introduced me to Kit Leonard and he graciously agreed to play the part.
The next Saturday I woke up at 5am and got ready for the shoot. I hopped in my car and went to pick up Nick and the rest of the equipment. After a much-needed stop for coffee and breakfast, we hit the road for Brawley. We arrived at the location around 10am and looked out at the dunes. The view was breathtaking...despite our best efforts, I don't think any video or pictures can ever quite do it justice. But then we had to start unloading the equipment. It was a cool 105 degrees as we carried all of our gear down into the dunes. We needed to be far enough away from the parking lot to get the wide shots that I wanted (like the one where you can see all three of the Kit Leonards standing around the table). Nick and I each had to make about 3 trips back and forth from the car to get it all down there. I had asked Kit to be there by 11, so by the time he arrived and we were ready to start shooting, Nick and I had already been awake for 6 hours and had lugged heavy equipment up and down sand dunes! It was a good thing we came prepared with lots of water.
Kit was an amazing person to work with: a very talented actor and never complained once about the heat (we did take a few breaks to go back to our cars and bask in some air conditioning). He revealed to me that he had traveled through the Sahara with some friends in the 70s, so this was nothing new to him. I think he even handled it better than Nick and I, who both had to take a break at one point because we were feeling faint. So much for the vitality of youth.
There were a few other challenges and interesting moments during the shoot. For the super wide shots, Nick and I had to climb back up to the parking lot and leave Kit out on the dune by himself. Fortunately, Nick had brought walkie-talkies, so we gave Kit one to hide in his pocket, while I brought one up with me so I could give directions from afar.
We also had to constantly work out the logistics of the VFX shots, specifically when there was more than one Kit in the shot. We would have to keep the camera in the exact same spot and make sure Kit was either wearing glasses or not, holding the guitar the right way, tilting his hat up, etc. Then he would have to switch to one of the other characters and walk over to a different spot. I gave each character a really creative name so I could easily communicate who Kit was supposed to be at the time; there was "Hero," "Villain" and "Nervous Guy." I then merged the footage in the editing process so that it looked like there were two (or three) Kits in the same shot.
We filmed until the sun was just descending over the horizon, then frantically set up for the last shot: the iconic western movie staple of riding (in this case walking) into the sunset. Nick and I then spent the next hour hiking our equipment back up the sandy hill and somehow managed to finish packing before dark. After a long 4 hour drive home, we were finally done. We were exhausted and caked in sand (as was my car), but we felt that the day had gone extremely well and that our adventure would result in a great music video.
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