Ignis Fatuus

September 2008

Ignis Fatuus is a rock music video for a song by Autumn Tragedy of the same title that tells the story of a group of freedom fighters rising against the totalitarian establishment that stifles freedom of speech, destroys individual liberties, and oppresses its citizens in a post-apocalyptic world. The militia leaders are the band, with the lead singer being the motivator for the movement. The band’s fans are the militia, rising against the growing oppression of the fascist regime to fight for their freedoms and liberties. The militia leaders and their followers meet in an abandoned warehouse for a speech and recruiting gathering, hoping not to be found by the government agents that patrol the streets before they can escape with their lives. Through the song’s lyrics, the militia leader (the band’s lead singer in the video) motivates his followers and promises at the end, “There will be blood!” At the end, we see the government agents narrowly missed discovering the gathering, but by the time they arrive the warehouse is empty and the resistance will fight on.

Ignis Fatuus was an important project for me because it was a total departure in tone and style from my last music video, Winded. While Winded has done well on the festival circuit, it is a much different video than Ignis Fatuus. Almost every shot of Winded is gorgeous and pristine. For Ignis Fatuus, we were going for a different look, a much more bleak, desaturated, gritty look. The result is a video with not only a different editing style, often more chaotic, but where individual frames may not be beautiful, but they work together to form what I believe is a fantastic video. My previous two videos had a much more saturated, gorgeous look to them, where I wanted them to look as pristine and pretty as possible. Ignis Fatuus was a departure from that style, often focusing instead on trying to dirty the image and make the video feel darker and more intense. I also enjoyed having the opportunity to try to create a bleak, depressing near-future world where a fascist government has taken control and a group of freedom fighters stands against the establishment.

On a logistical level, it was a new experience working with the band helping on pre-production as much as Autumn Tragedy did for Ignis Fatuus. Their creativity helped make the production feel much higher budget than it was. Working with a fairly large number of extras was also a new experience for me, one that I feel helped me grow as a director. Additionally, because of the low budget, our story elements were shot with non-actor fans of the band, so trying to work with them to get convincing performances, even for brief intervals, was another challenge I had not often faced. While the production was more stressful than my previous music video because of a smaller crew and a smaller pre-production window, I am very proud of how the video turned out and hope that other people feel the same way I do.

“Indie Production Nightmares”

Indie productions, especially with music videos, are always a difficult undertaking because they are almost always understaffed. In our case, I had two crew members who were not being paid (the only two) tell me at midnight the night before production that they would be unable to come because of transportation problems. I arranged to have my 1st A.D. pickup one of them, the 2nd A.D., because he could be present for the whole day until someone could drive him home. On set, we were missing the cables for the iPod to speaker connection, so I had to send the key grip to get them. The U-Haul we rented had a fuse blown, so it had no turn signals, which meant we showed up late with the equipment because following the directions became tough when a slow-moving vehicle cannot signal to change lanes. There were supposed to be 50 extras, but only 30 showed up. We faced a lot of challenges, but everyone was very proud of the project upon completion and fortunately we had an excellent DP with lots of experience and an excellent editor who helped make the video look its best. We were able to work together with the band to cut costs, but still achieve a video that I believe is competitive with many larger budget projects.

“Dealing With Extras”

While we were supposed to have 50 extras and had only 30, we still had our hands full dealing with the extras. First, they were not professional extras, but friends and fans of the band. In many respects, filming a music video with professional extras rather than fans, for what we were doing, would be a huge mistake. We needed people who would rock out to the music and really be into the band. At the same time, when you don't pay people, they are less likely to show up, which is evidenced by our 60% turnout. I had told my DP before production that as long as 30 people showed, we'd have a video. Sure enough, almost exactly 30 showed. The first several takes with the band performing and the extras were very awkward; nobody was into the song. When I announced to the extras that they need to rock out and really exaggerate their movements to make it look good on video, I got scattered laughs. I was worried we were going to have trouble generating energy because the first rehearsal take, where we were filming crowd shots, looked like a funeral procession. Fortunately, after several takes, everyone really got into the song and we got some great energy that I think helped the band, too.

Director / Producer: Jonathan L. Bowen

Executive Producer / Transportation Coordinator: Victor A. Davoody

Director of Photography / A Camera: Eric Gustavo Petersen

Editor: Brendan Collins

1st Assistant Director: Ethan Cushing

2nd Assistant Director: James Bellows

B Camera: Eric Waananen

1st Assistant Camera: Needham Smith

Behind-the-Scenes Videography: John Kramer III

P2 Loader / Media Management: Axel Haverkos

Grip / Dolly Grip: Brendan Collins

Grip / Electric: Andrew McMennamy

Gaffer: Andrew Aiello

Assistant Makeup Artist: Amalia Castonguay