SAN FRANCISCO — Alternative artist Floyd recently released her debut video What Do You Say. The project was a collaboration between San Francisco-based production company 88spire (88spire.com) and the artist, and was awarded as a scholarship by the company, honoring friend, business partner and mentor Mike Kaney, who passed away recently from cancer.
88spire’s Veronica Chung, who is a partner in the production company with Bryan Fong, met Floyd through a writing group and felt she was a perfect candidate for this philanthropic effort. The company donated much of their services to help make the video concept a reality.
What Do You Say features Floyd singing and playing her guitar in front of many of the city’s famous landmarks. The video was shot in just a single day across six locations, right before the stay-at-home order was put in place. Careful planning allowed the team to capture Floyd in what looks like an abandoned city.
LA-based director of photography Patrick Lawler handled the shoot, using a Red Dragon camera and cine lenses. A small Bluetooth speaker was used for playback on-location, which provided a soundtrack for Floyd to perform to while not attracting too much attention during the run & gun shoot. The shoot locations included the Bay Bridge, a local pier, a trolley car, graffiti backdrops in the Mission District, Dolores Park, the Golden Gate Bridge and a rooftop in the Russian Hill neighborhood.
The edit was a collaborative effort, with Fong laying down the structure and Chung providing feedback. The edit was performed using Adobe Premiere, and came together over the course of a week. The team used Frame.io for review and revisions, with Lawler handling the final color grade. Floyd referenced some of Lawler’s past music video work, and wanted the project to have a bit of a retro/filmic look without it appearing dated. Film grain and vignette effects were added in the final treatment.
The video was delivered via Dropbox to Floyd as a 1920x1080 H.264 file and made its debut online on June 26th.