Filming ‘Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key’
I’d really enjoyed working with Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage last year on The Fall video, so when I got the opportunity to work with the Cambridge based duo again on a video for their single release of ‘Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key’ it was a no brainer to be honest…
The concept for this one was simple; in most of Hannah and Ben’s previous videos they’ve appeared performed in their customary duo configuration (Ben on the left, Hannah on the right). We decided for this video we’d film them completely separately; they don’t meet at any point in the video. It’s a subtle difference but I think it worked really well.
After that it was just a case of picking some beautiful Cambridgeshire scenery to put them in (great location scouting from H&B) and then just letting Hannah and Ben do their thing.
Ok…there were a few choreographed moves…”Walk along the path Hannah and I’ll follow you!”…but nothing too challenging! I’d put together a shoot plan involving a number of takes of them performing the track with some additional ‘scenes ‘ thrown in to break it up.
In one of my early ideas, Hannah and Ben would meet towards the end of the video, then Ben would fade away at which point Hannah realises he was a figment of her imagination. On reflection it was all a bit too ‘chick flick’ and would also have involved some acting that I don’t think H&B were keen on. I’m glad we canned the idea; I think the final video works really well, not least because of the awesome track plus production from David Travers Smith.
I regularly have to pinch myself that I get to work with such talented people doing this redwood stuff…Hannah and Ben are in a case in point.