Music Video: “Volvé Con Tu X” Behind The Scenes
I feel like any of us who grew up watching MTV have at some point dreamed of creating or starring in a music video…it’s a dream come true. And to have the opportunity to work with a client and creative team that trusts you and welcomes you into their world unconditionally, it’s truly the best!
However, music videos are not for the faint of heart! They can take an extraordinary amount of time and energy to create and produce…partially because the number of ideas and creative possibilities always exceeds the budget, but also because it’s a passion project and you want everything to be the best it can be!
While “Volvé Con Tu X” is the first video to be released, it was the second video that we filmed together along with a “making of” video to document the process and to introduce the band, The FOs (coming soon). The first music video we filmed will be released with the second EP later in 2024 . It’s a totally different song and vibe and I am dying to share that one too!
Click here to see some scenes from that video and more of my video and motion work.
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A Peek Behind The Scenes
Let’s start with something every photographer or director has done…we were praying for specific weather. We wanted a rainy day. We wanted rain so it would feel more romantic and have an evening type of light without having to block the windows, because if there is one thing you can count on in Madrid is sunlight that won’t quit!
We got our wish, but we not only got our rain, we got a deluge…it was one of the rainiest days in Madrid on record! So everything was moving slowly… Everyone was arriving late due to traffic and some of our actors had to leave for rehearsals and they needed to leave early due to the traffic and weather! Not ideal!
Challenges & Lessons Learned:
With any production, there are hiccups along the way and with so many moving parts you’re always walking a tightrope. I’ve always said photography and videography is 75% problem-solving, 20% Communication, and the remaining 5% is shooting the photo and video!
The main challenge with this production was time. While Madrid was our base, we had team members coming from multiple countries and cities, so getting everyone in the same place simultaneously was challenging.
One of our actors had a last-minute conflict so we only had the two actors together on the same day for 3.5 hours, including hair and makeup time! So we ruthlessly carved out our production schedule to make sure that we filmed each scene in the most efficient way possible, shooting individual scenes with available talent early, so that we had the full 3.5 hours with our two actors, to focus on their scenes.
Teamwork was critical and we had an amazing hair and makeup team, who had to do amazing work under a lot of time pressure! And our actors had to settle in and quickly work through the range of emotions together in this video.
My last thought regarding challenges is the general challenge of learning to be a better director. The biggest challenge as a director, for me, is holding the creative vision, the logistics, and the ideas of the other team members in your mind at the same time over a long period of time. There is madness and joy in the process and it’s a constant give-and-take of maintaining and communicating your creative vision while allowing for new ideas from the team to improve the production overall. In every project there are compromises and I feel like the goal is not to make too many compromises that you think about after the shooting. In this case, there were two scenes I wanted, but we just couldn’t make them happen. But given our schedule, I feel like 10/12 scenes is a good ratio!
Locations:
Madrid - FUNFUN Wine Bar / Barrio La Latina
Doha, Qatar
Logistics & Shot List:
Madrid -
8 Hours on Location
9 Scenes
2 Actors, Lead Singer, Bass Player
Qatar -
3 Hours
2 Scenes
The FOs Band
Crew:
Madrid - Me, DP, MUA and Hair
Qatar - Me
Talent:
Madrid - 2 Actors. Lead Singer, Bass Guitarist
Qatar - The FO’s Band
Behind The Scenes In Madrid
Behind The Scenes In Doha, Qatar
A special THANK YOU, to the small, but mighty team that made the Madrid production amazing on a crazy and wet Madrid day!
One of my favorite creators/filmmakers to partner with, Bereng, for flying to Madrid for the day to help with the wine bar scenes and for getting a replacement guitar at the very last minute!
The actors Sergio Jaraiz & Inés Sánchez (especially Inés who joined the team 2 days before shooting!)
The Team at La Producteria for securing the beautiful location, FUN, FUN Natural Wine Bar, and all of the production support!
Hair Stylist - Edith Chan
Makeup Artist - Ampi Barbosa
