CHARLESTON, WV — Losers Club recently premiered Skywalker on the music video site BlankTV.com. The project was directed, shot and edited by Chris Thompson of West Virginia-based Selfless Media (http://selflessmedia.net), who traveled to Rochester for the two-day shoot.
Skywalker is a combination of dramatic storytelling and performance footage. The video opens with a graphic that informs viewers as to the percentage of children being raised in single-parent homes, often without a father. The production then shows a young boy, representing a member of the band, who is struggling to cope with such emptiness.
Thompson, who is friends with Loser Club’s Nate Blasdell, spoke with the singer/guitarist about the video’s concept and storyline in advance. He then made the trip to Rochester for the shoot, spending approximately 10 hours filming the dramatic imagery and a second day capturing the band’s performance.
Using a Sony A7 III, Thompson shot the storyline footage in 4K at 120fps, knowing that he wanted the imagery to have a slow-motion feel in the final video. Performance footage of the band was shot the next day, with approximately 12 passes done to create the look of a multi-camera shoot. Footage was captured using several different techniques, including hand-held and with a Ronin gimbal. All of the focus shifts were done in-camera.
The video closes with a message from the band promoting their summer tour dates.
Thompson says he had roughly three-quarters of the video complete before leaving Rochester to return to West Virginia. He edited the piece in Adobe Premiere Pro, and finished the final cut just three or four days after the initial shoot. The video was delivered in 4K.
Thompson, who has been working in the music-video genre for just a year-and-a-half, says there is always something to be learned at the conclusion of a project, whether it’s from working with a child actor, dealing with weather issues or adding unplanned shots on the day of the shoot. This piece, he says, came together rather smoothly, and he enjoyed working in a structure that offered a storyline — something that's a bit different than the rap videos he normally works on.