Severed ‘My Warning’ – behind the scenes from the music video shoot

Words by Marina Hooks | Smutlife

A few weeks ago Smutlife sat down with the guys from Severed, a New York City death/thrash metal outfit, to discuss the idea of shooting a music video for their song ‘My Warning’ off their self-titled new album.  The idea was to keep the concept simple yet still be outrageously fun and chaotic.  So, what a better way to do it than by closing out the summer with a backyard pool party bbq with friends, family and fans.

‘We had a 30′ deck that ran the length of a 4ft. above ground swimming pool which was beyond ideal for the main performance set up.’  A tool shed tucked away just a couple feet in the back corner of the yard also played a big part in the video,’ explains director Alex Starr.‘Not only did it become a launching pad for numerous party goer’s, but it also acted as a platform for Shane to unleash his guitar solo.  The video has a handful of funny little scenarios that unfold which all seemingly enough came at the spur of the moment. ‘The idea of John actually playing a stand up bass along side of Shane was something that just came out of left field.  Same thing happened with Jorge playing the drums and his brother spraying him down the garden hose.  The whole day was really just about having fun and getting enough coverage to put something classic together for the vid.  It was your typical run-n-gun, guerilla style music video shoot.  We had a set amount of hours that we were working since we didn’t have proper lights to shoot a night, so we just kept shooting and shooting until we basically burned out.  We definitely had a great time putting this video together with Severed and will be looking to do more in the near future with other bands.’

The entire video was shot on the Canon 7D which was ideal for a shoot like this due to being confined in such a small area.  ‘The camera rig is relatively small which made it very easy to maneuver about especially since there were a lot of people drinking a lot of beer,’ says DP Ant Santiago.  ‘We were slightly nervous early on about the camera getting damaged since there were so many people in the pool getting absolutely crazy.  A couple of times we actually had to stop shooting to dry off things off but overall we were pretty fortunate.’

A good portion of the performance ‘takes’ were captured from inside the pool.  ‘Anthony waded in the pool for almost about 2-hours to get all the performances.  We did the close up’s early in the morning knowing that as the day went on there would be more and more people showing up and wanting to be in the pool getting crazy’, explains Starr.  ‘Pretty much the entire video was shot hand-held except for the intro sequence and some of the party footage which was all done with a steady-rig.’

More Photos from the shoot below…

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