In Mainstream Nightmare, Pages wakes up next to a life-less Juliet in a barely habitable RV. As he struggles with his I.V. line and his apparent weak physical condition, he locks the body away in the bathroom. Throughout long night hours, he is tormented by her presence, which he feels around him but can't see. To cope with his nerves, he medicates himself but it only strengthens his feeling of suffocation, as the pressure of the world around him submerges him into a state of self exploration and in the end, a deeper understanding of his condition.
The music video was produced by GlassWorks MultiMedia and shot on Canon 5D & 7D cameras with Carl Zeiss Prime Lenses. To capture the underwater performances, the production team rented the AquaTech Sport Housing for the Canon 7D, covered the pool walls with what is known in the film production industry as Water Black, and shot in the backyard of a South Miami home.A challenge the production team faced was music playback for the talent while underwater. Due to the lack of budget, we resorted to placing a consumer stereo in a plastic container and wrapping it in garbage bags which allowed us to partially submerge the speakers. Makeup artist, Iris Montoya, was able to design Juliet's makeup in a way that would shine through the subdued and contrasty underwater lighting and not smear; a tough challenge considering it was a 12 hour overnight shoot in an uncharacteristically cold pool . I credit Adam Faldetta, our Assistant Director, for keeping us moving and making sure we got our shots in the scheduled 12 hours. I envisioned Juliet's wardrobe to replicate a similar effect from the oracle scene in the film “300” but without the outdated style. It was brought to life by my grandmother, Mercedes Castañer, a retired career designer-seamstress in New York City.
Finally, the trailer scenes were shot in an abandoned RV that once belonged to Jak, producer of the track and founder of Out of Hand Productions. It was important to me that the actors and camera would be able to move around set freely and face any direction. I wanted Pages to interact intuitively with his surroundings and be unpredictable in his actions, forcing me to constantly improvise with the camera work. It is a style very unlike my usual approach but I felt it was needed to capture a sense of uncertainty and lack-of-direction, much like what the character was feeling. The movie Biutiful was my main visual motivation for these scenes. Elvis Suarez (gaffer) placed only practical light sources inside the trailer, with the great majority of the lighting coming through the windows. The reason for having multiple color temperatures in the lights was to add to the sense of instability and lack of continuity in the world we were creating. Lighting equipment was provided by GEARstudio Miami.
The video was edited in FCP X which allowed us great flexibility with speed ramps. It was color corrected with the new built in FCP X color correction utility which I still think is a bit inferior to Color from Studio 3 but with at least better scopes. The basic tones of the footage were all achieved in-camera using lighting and white balance techniques and only enhanced in post.
If I had to describe the visual style of the video in one sentence, I would say it is the result of 300 meeting Biutiful in a low-budget hip hop world.
Writer, Director & Editor: Randy Valdes
Cinematographers: Elvis Suarez and Randy Valdes
1st Assistant Director: Adam Faldetta
Editing Consultant: John Llambes
Song by: Out Of Hand Productions
Mainstream Nightmare Behind The Scenes, a set on Flickr.
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