SixTwentySix Productions (https://sixtwentysix.co) and its directing duo of Miles & AJ (Miles Cable & AJ Favicchio) just completed work on a new video for RCA recording artist Doja Cat. The Need to Know video, which debuted on Friday, June 11th, shows the star in the futuristic environment of Planet Her, where the singer and her friends take on alien features, including green skin. After partying at Doja’s space pad, the entourage catch a rocket-powered Uber and take the party to a private club, dancing the night away with similarly-eclectic partiers.
SixTwentySix Productions produced and posted the video, which is a mix of live action and CG visual effects. The video was shot primarily using the Arri Alexa LF with Hawk V-Lite 1.3x anamorphic glass.
"It’s always a team effort,” explain the directors. “We are only as good as talent we surround ourselves with and it shows on this one. It was a collaboration from the initial call with Brett Alan Nelson, Doja’s creative director, and we felt the fire from the jump.
AJ penned the treatment and focused on the arrangement of talent, while Miles worked closely with DP Russ Fraser on the look and creating the 3D world of ‘Planet Her’.
Miles and AJ
"Accomplishing what we did in a short window was an adventure,” they continue. “Our PD John Richoux, and his art team designing and building our sets in like a couple days was incredible. Malina Stearns and a 20-person prosthetics team turning the girls into aliens was bananas, and of course Doja delivering magic on each take…it came from all angles on this one.”
The VFX took off after an initial call with Brett Alan Nelson.
“I jumped into Unreal Engine right away and started making a rough intro shot of this brutalist city in Planet Her,” Miles recalls. “And that was the first thing they saw before even reading the deck.”
“That was monumental for us without a doubt,” adds AJ. “Within two days after the initial chat, they got a taste of VFX work that typically takes weeks of post work. Miles went full tilt.”
"The rest of the VFX process was a great collaboration with the talented Daichi Sakane,” adds Miles. “I would go in and build out the rough layout of the scene and animate the cameras, and then he would jump in and really dial up the lighting and textures and overall ambience. Unreal Engine has been so fun and daunting at the same time, but as I get deeper into it, AJ and I are learning how we can keep utilizing this tool for more and more projects in the future.
Miles edited the project, and says he had a blast cutting to the soundtrack.
“Doja’s on-camera energy is just so contagious that it gives me such a dope pace to work off of when I'm cutting."
The final color grade by Kaityln Battistelli brought it all home. Brian Bell served as producer. Additional SixTwentySix Productions credits include Austin Barbera and Jake Krask