OVERVIEW

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In a last minute​ move, I got hit up by the local Folk/Americana band, House With A Yard, to do a big video project to help promote the release of their debut 6-song EP. They wanted to record the album with a full band in a four-hour span, and bang out these songs in a raw and rugged way. The final package would include a live music video of each song, as well as a documentary-style lead in about each song, and a longer overall lead-in for the project about the band. I was all about it. My documentary-brain had been going stir-crazy all winter and spring, and I jumped at the idea, shooting for some eight hours and then launching into the editing process the following week. 

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I wanted the style of the documentary to be very raw and rugged, to match the band's present stage. They're a new band, and have been playing live gigs consistently for a few months, and though their sound is honed, a project like this called for what I felt was more of a run-and-gun style that wasn't trying to be polished. 

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Until the music videos anyway. I wanted each video to be more polished than the documentary, sacrificing the faded 2:1 look of the documentary for a 2.35:1 with richer blacks. Each song has a different flavor, and a few songs in, I began running around introducing different lights from the studio to change the vibe, and then later introduced a different original color grade in post. The lighting set the right mood for the band, and the grade brought out the themes of the songs. A song like Oyster Mountain Breakdown, a wild instrumental track, focused on some more fun colors with a teal and red palette, whereas a song like The Final Roll, which plays on the lead singer's thoughts about the final roll of Kodachrome film being sold, was presented in a high contrast, orange, Kodachrome look with film burns throughout. 

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The final product rips! The live videos bring out the energy of the music and song-writing, while you get to take a chance to breathe between each track and learn something new about the song and the band. 

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The EP is available digitally, and you can find out more about House With A Yard on their website, hwaymusic.com.

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CREDITS

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Director, Editor, and Director of Photography: Karl Pfeiffer.

Location: Higher Ground Rehearsal Studios, Fort Collins, Colorado.