Montpelier Interview
Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 10:11 Written by Danielle Golding Wednesday, 03 March 2010 09:56
How To Make A Film Clip
In amongst the quiet streets of West End on a hot summer afternoon they were tucked up in a beautiful old queenslander: it was a band, a film crew and a couple of actors.
It was one of the many scenes staged over the duration of a weekend as local band Montpelier and their creative team worked fervently on putting together the film clip for ‘The Rafters’. When lunchtime rolled around the four members of the band took some time out to explain a little about the production so far.
“We’d been thinking of making a film clip for awhile,” says keyboardist Andrew Stone. “‘The Rafters’ does seem like the obvious choice because it’s got the storyline and narrative thing going on, it’s musically one of our favourites as well. It’s all being shot on 16mm film, which ties in well because part of what we we’re hoping to achieve with this clip is a really organic, beautiful feel. We want to make the most beautiful film clip we possibly can.”
Only recently having returned from overseas where they’d spent time recording their self-titled debut EP, Montpelier came home to a number of offers to film a video clip, and for this song in particular. ‘The Rafters’ highlights the vocal partnership between the two singers Dave Butler and Greg Chiapello, and is set to be the opening track on the soon-to-be-released EP.
Initially released as their first single, ‘The Rafters’ has been receiving various accolades such as ‘song of the week’, as well as radio airplay across the country. According to Andrew, though, no one had come to the band so actively as filmmakers Brodie Rocca and Bec Parkinson.
“We had a few proposals but no one came to us as enthusiastically or professionally as these guys, and their idea was exactly what we’d envisioned anyway. I remember we were in transit, staying somewhere in Coffs Harbour when we were on tour and it was well past midnight when we received their treatment of how they wanted to do the song. But it didn’t matter, we were really excited and sat up going through it all for ages.”
Run off their feet the entire time, director Brodie and producer Bec, two actors, several cameramen, make-up and costume artists managed to appear completely in control all throughout the shooting. Brodie and Bec also formed the team behind the Hungry Kids of Hungary’s ‘Scattered Diamonds’ video clip. Having freshly graduated from Bond University and into full-time jobs, producer Bec says they often spend their weekends scouting locations and working on independent projects.
“It follows a narrative plot with a young couple and your typical ups and downs, the good and the bad … it goes along as the song is sung. Me and Brodie chose all the locations and we work full time so it was hard. When I had a day off or something I’d come to Brisbane and location scout, and visa versa. There’s a shot in Petrie Terrace, stuff over at Newstead Park with the sun rising up over the river, stuff happening here in the house, open fields … lots of different places!”
Brodie first heard about Montpelier after reading a Brisbane street press article, started listening to their music and developing ideas from there. As far as the production goes, he indicates that they need two different teams for the different days of shooting, and chats a little more in detail about the type of film they decided to use for the weekend.
“It’s going well, we’re on schedule, there’s no rain and we haven’t forgot anything we had to do yet so that’s a positive. You’re always wishing you could go back and got more stuff after the set has been packed up, but you’re constantly running out of time and film. The filming side of it all is really interesting, we wanted to definitely film using 16mm rather than digital cos it’s got that real feel to it.”
Montpelier are set to release their debut EP on Friday March 5 at the Zoo.
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