CAMERON DEZEN HAMMON

"The Boys of Summer"

The official music video for Cameron's cover of Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer" was shot on as shoestring a budget as you can have. I had my little Canon Rebel and a single broken lens that had lost the ability to iris at all, and we had couple hours at a closed-down Pleasure Pier in Galveston, Texas to get something shot.

We went in with a mood we wanted to establish, but the content of the video came out of the dilapidated locations we found (Galveston is a very good place for that, off-season), and we built a story out of those locations. It was a thrill to watch things come together as the afternoon went along, as the story turned from something simple and sad into something more mysterious and sinister.

As we lost the last of the light and headed for home, I remember Cameron pounding the steering wheel and shouting in happiness as we drove home, and I think that's how every shoot should end.

DAVID DUNN

"Heart Stops (Live)"

Okay, let's get this out of the way right away - this is a live video, but it's not really a live concert video. Someone stopped in my office one afternoon and said, "hey, David Dunn's coming over in an hour. We said we'd shoot a live video of one of his songs a while back, and then we forgot about it. Um... can you come direct it?"

I said "yes," of course, partially because David is an awesome guy and I'll always be glad to help him do anything, and partially because what's more fun than trying to put together a fake concert in an hour? 

We grabbed half a dozen people, I set up DSLR cameras and dollies everywhere I could and taught people how to run them, then grabbed a camera and ran around handheld. David and his band showed up, we tracked everything live, and I patched in a few crowd shots to try and sell the myth. I'm not sure you buy it's a real concert, but it is a fun live video anyway, just because David's such a dynamic performer.  

REBELBASE STUDENT MINISTRY

"Tropical Summer (Edge Camp Rules)"

I know a lot of youth groups do this, or something like this. But I’m not sure how many get this ridiculous with it. At some point, we just started trying to outdo ourselves each year, because it was just too much fun not to. The camp rules video started as a quick video we'd shoot on an iPhone one afternoon, and eventually turned into one of the biggest shoots I’d do all year (and easily the most fun).

The music, chorus, and melody on this one are all done by Zach Hendricks, and the audio recording was produced by Ryan Cecil, while I contributed the verse lyrics, shot and edited the video, and provided general enthusiasm to the process.

FIRST METHODIST HOUSTON REVIVAL

"EVERYBODY OUGHTA KNOW"

Every year as long as anyone can remember, when First Methodist Houston holds its Revival in July, the song that’s been the anchor is a midcentury hymn called “Everybody Ought To Know.” On this particular year, the new pastor told our contemporary worship leader, Anthony Rogers, “okay, this year, make this cool.”

Anthony came up with a new arrangement for the song, and we tracked the choir in the sanctuary to get a proper sense of space in the recording. Once we had a rough mix, we shot a music video in the sanctuary over the course of a couple of hours on a weekday evening, moving from the big shots to the smaller ones until it was just Anthony and me, pumping haze into the sanctuary and hoping not to set off the fire alarm.

CAMERON DEZEN HAMMON

"Addicted To Love (Acoustic)"

As Cameron was putting together her covers record, "Words Don't Bleed," we'd meet up to try and shoot quick promotional videos to help with the fundraising for the record. We didn't have much in the way of space - just a piano against the wall in Jay Snider's living room - with no decorations and nothing in the way of lighting.

This video is a combination of a million solutions. We left the the door open, bounced light from a window, and then I shot the whole thing through a broken Canon lens whose electronic sensors had died and I could not iris up or down.

To add visual elements, I packed the foreground full of all the glassware I could find in Jay’s - wine glasses, pitchers, highball glasses, whatever was around. Shooting through all the distortion heightened the minor-key spooky feel of the cover, and I got chills just editing the takes together.