The cosmic death metal band Blood Incantation recently released
The Stargate
, an ambitious 20-minute short film that debuted at a special theatrical screening in Los Angeles on September 10th before being released online.
The Stargate is a saga that centers around a mysterious artifact dating back to the Dark Ages. The story spans time periods and genres, combining folk horror and science fiction with its mind-bending imagery and unsettling atmospheres.
Director Michael Ragen (
ragendp.com) collaborated with Paul Riedl and long-time friend James Carpenter to conceive the story, while also serving as the project's cinematographer and editor. According to Ragen, the visuals were initially going to be released in three parts, coinciding with the way the music is presented on the band's album — as two songs broken into three tablets. Plans changed however, and he was tasked with visualizing the entire story.
"It's probably the biggest music video I've ever done...in terms of work," he notes, adding that production began as far back in April and finally wrapped up post in September. "Music videos are generally much faster paced...We were almost making a feature, minus the dialog. I don't remember the exact amount of shots in the film, but it's somewhere around 550 to 600."
Photo: Director Michael Ragen; credit: Tristan Seniuk
Production ultimately spanned 20 days and included shoots in the mountains of Colorado, where the band is based, as well as in Los Angeles, Utah and Arizona. Much of the visuals were captured using Sony’s FX3 compact cinema camera, with Ragen’s Panasonic Varicam LT also playing a role.
"I've had it from a movie years ago," he says of the Varicam LT. "You can remove the IR Cut filter in front of the sensor and then you have an infrared camera."
Based in LA, Ragen and producer Mindy Kelly traveled to Colorado by car with the props for the sleep chamber, and spent a day in the woods doing 3D scans. He also shot some of the night-vision imagery.
"And then, the second day, we shot all the stuff with the sleep chamber sort of melting and covered in slime."
Ragen used this initial shoot go begin figuring out where the footage would land along the musical timeline. In Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve, he began placing footage, as well as text cards to create a simple animatic.
"I was able to start dropping in shots and I would share (them) with the band so we could just watch and read the entire video," he recalls.
The video is a mix of both color and black & white live-action footage, intercut with practical and digital visual effects. Much of the liquid imagery, for example, came from Chris Parks, who is a fluid effects specialist.
“He's worked on many things over the years and a director friend connected me with him,” Ragen explains. “He basically offered access to his archives. I sort of told him the stuff I was looking for and he gave me 200 shots to look through. At the end of the day, I think I asked for close to 70 shots from him. Some (have) our color correction and other ones we manipulated and combined to create the space sequences.”
The final shoot of the space pilot took place just a week or two before the video was to be delivered.
"It was a bit of a scramble," Ragen recalls.
Looking back at six months of work, Ragen says it took a lot of collaboration to pull off the final product. The more the team communicated with people about what they were doing, the more they found like-minded individuals who wanted to help.
The artifact, for example, was created by an independent jeweler - Rachel Pitler-Hsiung
(www.sorceressandthestone.com) - who is a fan of the band and was excited to be involved. He also tapped a few prop rental houses and was surprised at how affordable some of the items were when it came to acquiring items like the torture device.
"There were a lot of 'firsts,'" Ragen says of this video. "Technically, we didn't have a production designer," he adds, noting they had to figure out how to build the sleep chamber and space cockpit. "None of us had been to a prop house."
In addition to serving as producer, Kelly also appears on-screen as the witch in the cave. Tristan Seniuk wore multiple hats too, acting as art director, assistant director, managing the blood and helping with set builds.
Belal Hibri handled the final color grade, and Sarah Bridge created the end credits.