OPTION//CONTROL - "Falling Star": Behind the Video

At 10:01 am on 10//01//11... the NEW OPTION//CONTROL Music Video for "Falling Star" debuted online!

Earlier this year, I set out with a goal to make a sexy video, for an even sexier band. I wasn't sure where this orgasmic video would end up taking me, but I knew I had to do it. It had been the culmination of many years trying to become an amateur filmmaker that ultimately always fell flat on its face. On the verge of graduating college and finally owning my own professional camera equipment, I knew that the time had come and that the band I needed was OPTION//CONTROL. When I made "Saw Her There" with OPTION//CONTROL back in February, needless to say it was an eye opening learning experience. Since then, I have seen business pick up faster and faster (especially after I got my shit together and went completely HD) and I couldn't be more thankful for all the opportunities presented to me. 

So fast forward to this past July... enough time had passed and it became clear to everyone involved with "Saw Here There" that it was time to make a new video. We set some very strict guidelines this time around (no people, less performance, more band) and began hammering out a storyline that at one point involved a CGI Craig Hamilton on a shooting star. The band settled on the track "Falling Star," which was co written by local St. Louis producer, Jimmy Hargrove. A more dramatic departure from our previous video, we all knew that the entire look and feel had to be less orgy and more emo... but totally NOT emo, if you know what I mean. We settled on filming in Clayton, MO instead of Downtown St. Louis, since we wanted the location to have a non-geographic landscape (nothing that would give it away).

On Sunday, August 28th, 2011, principal photography began for "Falling Star" on what would become a 3 day shoot. I knew I couldn't pull this off by myself, so I invited my good friend Ashley Alcamo to help A.D. the shoot. Ashley and myself had previously worked together on University of Missouri - St. Louis' Spring 2011 production of the Vagina Monologues ("Any One of Us"). The biggest chunk of filming took place on the first day, which included hauling an upright piano through the streets and back alleys of Clayton (a la Bruno Mars) and having a performance on rooftop... with no permission. Let me take this opportunity to tell you that I like to play dangerous... and having an entire band play the same song over and over for 3 hours in the middle of a small city, with no permit, was as thrilling as it gets. It was like we were all bad children, waiting to see when our parents were finally gonna catch us... But no one did. At one point, someone with a name badge strolled through the set and didn't say anything. We thought for sure that we had been busted, but when 45 minutes had passed and no one had come to stop us, we chalked it up to the guy was probably just looking for a place to hit a joint.

At the end of the first night, we knew we had a winner and in my opinion, I think we could have just done the whole video with the amazing performance footage we got on rooftop. But, we moved on to Day 2 at the Vino Nadoz Wine Bar in Richmond Heights, MO. Even though we decided early on that there were to be NO PEOPLE in the video for "Falling Star," we felt that we needed an atmosphere to place the band in, one that was more fitting of how they normally spend their nights. So we invited a smaller amoun of people (who WANTED to be on camera, this is key) to come out to the wine bar and just hang out. We had a great turn out and everyone had a blastky, getting drunk and just hanging out with the band and crew. Even my other video darling Kyle Jordan Mueller came out and kept my fiancee entertained during the filming. Probably the ease and fun about filming this scene for the extras was that no one was being asked to make out and wear underwear the whole time... which, there's nothing wrong with that of course.

Day 3 saw us on another rooftop, this time in the Central West End of St. Louis. The sundeck of this penthouse apartment served as the dusk and dawn shots that you see in the pre-chorus and finale of the video. The crazy coincidence of this scene (which needs to be shared cause its so fucking cool), is that the sun going down over the city, is actually Clayton, MO - where we had been filming the previous two day. Of course leave it up to the universal and spiritual guru of OPTION//CONTROL, Matthew David Brown to realize the coincidence as it occured. From there we headed over to Washington University, where we filmed the final few shots of the video that ultimately all fell on the cutting room floor... of my basement, as it were.

So where do we go from here? OPTION//CONTROL is making some crazy strides this fall and have picked up a few key shows that can help catapult them out of the local St. Louis scene. I couldn't be more proud of them, for they are more like family to me every time we get together. As long as the response from "Falling Star" is as good or better than "Saw Her There" was, I would expect to see us have another go around on the small screen.

If you like this blog, leave me a comment, let me know. I want to know exactly what you guys wanna hear about!

Thanks for watching

-P

How Is It Already Mid-July?

So the last couple of weeks have definitely flown by in the blink of an eye. My last update was on my birthday, July 1st, and I was looking forward to an already crazy weekend that included my party and filming OPTION//CONTROL opening for Maroon 5 at Fair Saint Louis.

Unfortunately things did not go as planned and on Sunday, July 3rd, a storm rolled through downtown Saint Louis that not only canceled the fair's events for that day, but also brought about the destruction of OPTION//CONTROL's equipment.

As we were hurried to shelter during the storm, which we have aptly named "Monsoon 5," the band was left with a false sense of security for their equipment, as stage hands tended to having it covered from the rain.

Inside a small single-wide trailer, we were crammed inside with Maroon 5's other opening act and we all waited as the monster storm just seemed to grow and grow. To make a long story short, the band grew restless and ran out to make sure that their equipment had been secured...which it had not.

I was lucky enough to have filmed many of the day's events and am currently working on a short video diary for the band to show their fans.

Last week I filmed another incredible drum cover with Kyle Jordan Mueller. He has collaborated with singer Savannah Outen to create an original cover version of an upcoming hit single (I will not say who or what 'til it comes out). I would expect to see the video within this week on YouTube.

Other than those two immediate projects, I continue to work on the Pointfest 28 video that will be coming out in August and with the release of Final Cut Pro X a few weeks back, I am now able to make the video even better than it was originally coming together. I am very stoked for its completion and am looking forward to future projects with the new software...no matter how many video editors hate on it.

More updates soon...I swear.

OPTION//CONTROL Wins Contest Thanks To "Saw Her There" Video

This past week, my dudes OPTION//CONTROL won a video contest to open for Maroon 5 this Sunday at Fair Saint Louis. After 50 bands entered their videos into the contest, Saw Her There was one of the top three chosen to play July 4th weekend.

The band even got a very sexy write up in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch by writer Kevin C. Johnson. In it, lead singer Steven Thomas Neske talks about the experiences of making the Saw Her There video...directed by yours truly.

"The winning video was for Saw Her There. Neske calls the video, filmed ina downtown loft, simple in concept, but it allows people to see what OPTION//CONTROL looks and sounds like. 'We didn't want to be overcomplicated with a story line and actors and actresses, so we rounded up a handful of friends and shot a performance video of us performing in a party atmosphere,' he says."

You can read more about the band and the article here.

And to read more about the contest, as well as fellow winners Last Nights Vice, click here.

Now In HD!

My bad, it's been almost a month since the last update...

I spent the latter half of April finishing up work on "The Boy Wonder" which is coming out this week! I also had to bounce off of that and quickly gear up for shooting another OPTION//CONTROL live video last night...and by "gearing up" I mean buying new camera equipment!

Yes, Patrick Lawrence films and productions are now oficially in high definition! I am now filming in 1080p with a Canon 7D, so expect only the best for my videos from here on out!

Also, my band Nothing Still, is back in action and playing a "not to be missed" show at The Pageant in Saint Louis, Missouri on Saturday, June 11th! I will try to merge music and film over the next month and update this site with as much news on teh show as possible, just be sure to keep checking out the blog for news.

Tonight is not over yet, and something tells me I might still have one more update brewing...

Week Two In Production

So another weekend went by with more footage being filmed for my upcoming short film. As you can see on the main page, the title for the film is "The Boy Wonder"...I wonder what that could mean...and it is tentatively planned for release on Friday, May 13th.

This weekend, we filmed footage with my good friend, Matthew Alexander Watson, in the city of Clayton, Missouri. Now while I won't show actual footage from the film, I will let you see a short outtake, which had me rolling on the floor behind the camera...enjoy!

If you look at this shot, I'm absolutely pleased with the impromptu lighting set up I put together...until it fell and the bulb burst. Unfortunately we had to move on and finish the scene with as much natural lighting as we could get. 

A big chunk of the proudction is taking place this weekend and should pretty much wrap up the whole thing.

In other news, we had a huge party at The Oz Nightclub for the release of the Saw Her There director's cut. Right now you can view the director's cut on my Vimeo page, but it will be on here in just a few days, after I am able to do some redesigning.

More updates soon.