This LGBT-themed music video for Doug Locke was featured on Upworthy, Huffington Post, and Logo, accumulating nearly half a million views. The song had been out for months before the release of the video propelled it to #32 on the iTunes Hot 100 chart.
As the director of photography, I wanted to develop a cohesive visual language for the project. Since the music video is set in two different time periods (the late '60s and contemporary), I wanted to create a visually distinct look for both periods - which I accomplished with lens choices, color grades, and shooting style.
I shot the 60's portion on vintage Lomo anamorphic lenses (50mm and 75mm), and I shot the contemporary portion on Leica R primes. Using the Lomos to contrast the sharper, cleaner contemporary lenses served the story well. The Lomo lenses are soft and dreamy, and they have some interesting distortions around the edges that enhanced the nostalgic mood we were trying to create.
I also used the color grade to separate the different time periods - including a heavy film grain on the ‘older’ footage and a distinction between warm and cool tones.
I used different camera operating styles for the two different sections. The contemporary portion was mostly static, with minimal movement - but the 60's portion was fluid, organic, and handheld. I really played up the movement there to bring some energy into those shots.
