“Shot in the Dark” @johnmayer Director: @mathewcullen Producer: @lachemista PD: @alexseesthis Gaffer: Scott Moody Key Grip: @lukeatmenow 1st AC: @a_dorris Label: @bryanyounce ProCo: @londonalley Well, here we go! The part of the year I try and catch up on all the posts I didn’t get around to making this year! Approach: We wanted to make an homage to 80’s/early 90’s style music videos full of melodramatic, over-the-top imagery that would help bring the world of “Sob Rock” home. The Look: The goal was to make the video feel like we had found this tape buried deep in the archives of the offices at MTV. My goal was to try and achieve this look not through format, but by lighting, and pushing the image as far as I could. 1. Softness, most of this project was wide open, and had 3 or 4 diffusion filters running at once. 2. Highlights, on old video tape, highlights would burn quick, so I wanted our highlights to mimic that feel, and live in the same range, paired with a heightened bloom, to give us that heavy-handed feel. 3. Color, we wanted it to feel very neon, and at a point where the sat feels like it’s gone too far. So every light, and gel were usually 2 to 3 times heavier than what you would usually go for. I loved the way our “stained-glass” windows came out. It was great getting my hands on gels again, took me back to the days when I used to collect them off the floor and out the trash as a PA. Which is something I still highly suggest for anybody starting out. 4. Lighting Movement, almost every light on this was moving in some subtle, or not so subtle way to help amp up the drama. We had 20’s on scissors booming up and down. Another on a sliding I Beam, and others on dolly or through rain projection. Shoutout to my gaffer, Moody for coming dressed appropriately for this shoot, and our boy Ziggy, for keeping the gels in the right spots, who John also nicknamed, “America’s Cousin”. Doesn’t get much better than that for his first music video. Big thanks to John for another amazing album, and making us all laugh constantly. Definitely one of my favorite days on set this year. Cheers everybody!