Mallard Productions were approached by Arista Records to produce a music video for one of their latest up and coming artists.
Arista Records is one of the most influential record labels of all time, and is owned by Sony Music Entertainment. They have had a diverse selection of artists on their roster since their inception in 1974. Avril Lavigne, David Bowie, Jake Bugg, Aretha Franklin, Kings of Leon, The Kinks, Kylie Minogue, Santana, and Take That have all been on their books at one point in time.
This time we were filming for Scottish singer/songwriter Elliot Greer and his latest single ‘Afterlife’. Although Elliot is based in New York City, he returned home to Glasgow to film the music video and embark on a tour.
Over the course of a single day, we shot a few different versions of the track. These included a raw single take, a full band performance and a more intimate piano and singer version. All three sounded great but were unique in their own right.
We opted for a stripped down vintage sepia style and incorporated warm colour tones with retro set dressing to get the right aesthetic. Part of the challenge was turning a very modern recording studio into something a little more homely. The studio itself is fantastic, but the style we were going for was more rustic. After a location scout at the studio, we decided to dress the set with antique furniture, Moroccan rugs, old warn out suitcases and tea crates.
We stuck to a set of Canon cine primes to allow for some nice soft focus and brought in our haze machine to add to that ‘smokey’ room feel. Our specific hazer emits particles that are just 0.2 microns which produces this lovely cinematic haze effect that you often see on feature films.
Most of the video was filmed handheld, with the exception of a few shots where we used a dolly for smooth tracking.
We were really pleased with how it all turned out and delighted to be asked back to film part of Elliot’s live tour.
Client Arista Records
Date January 2025
File under Music
