Max McNown Video Shoot
This is the first time really sharing about my work on the blog, but I would love the opportunity to write and share about some of my projects, gigs, and other opportunities here in an effort to just be real about the life of a working musician.
Back in January, I had the opportunity to play some instruments and coordinate the band for a day of capturing music videos and some other content for Max McNown. Max is a fantastic artist whose first full length album, Wandering, is due out in April. We shot 5 music videos that day and captured several live acoustic performances for social media. I had the pleasure of working with Max back in the fall on 2 other music videos and was stoked to be invited back to do it again.
Both shoots were organized and produced by Home Town Crew, a fantastic ATL based film/production company that has created more videos than I can mention, but a couple of my favorites were videos for Silent Planet and Norma Jean. They are incredibly professional, excellent, and it’s a complete joy to create with them.
This day in January was fantastic, but one of more demanding shoots I’ve been a part of due to the weather… it was freezing. I don’t think it got above 30 degrees at all and we were in a warehouse shooting all five videos and outside for most of the other content. However, the HTC team made it super enjoyable. Great catering, as many heaters as would fit in the common area, lots of “hot hands” were used, and our friend Victoria Goldberg was on-site doing hair, make-up, and wardrobe for all the shoots. The amount of wardrobe for 9 videos is quite a lot, but Victoria made us look great, kept things organized, and was super creative in the process.
Call was at 10:30am and we got unloaded and went over the flow for the day. I was coordinating the band so we circled up and connected, made introductions with those who hadn’t gotten to meet or work together before. It was a fantastic band. James and Julia Shealy, Jud Harris, my great friend Weston T. Hine, and myself worked together and played a few different instruments and roles throughout the day to make it all happen. I can’t understate how amazing it is to have a crew who just rolls with the punches. No one complaining, no one frustrated, no one demanding anything, just a great group of people coming together to make art happen. The weather and the amount of work we were trying to accomplish in one day was challenging, but all these pros not only got the job done well, but they all made it enjoyable and easy.
I can’t stress how important it is in these situations to be over-prepared and incredibly flexible. Dealing with a schedule, so many people, variables like the weather, the natural light, access to power, and more always present challenges. We are all there to help an artist create something that they and/or their management have a vision for and to put everything we can into what the director is asking us to do. It’s a challenge, but it’s a great feeling when it all comes together and come together it did.
We wrapped a little early actually, got loaded up, made our way home. I’m super grateful to have been a part of this shoot in particular and you can watch a few of the videos we did here in the post. There’s more coming as we get closer to the release of Max’s record. Make sure and check out his social media, his website, and pre-order vinyl if you like. Max is a great artist and an even greater dude. Hopefully, we will be working together again really soon.
