When developing the concept, the artist spoke about wanting to exclude the song “Spinning” on her EP but was convinced over time by her friends and family to keep it. This inspired a story that involved a bit of genre and a touch of magical realism: “The Song That Wouldn’t Die”.
The story is based in and around PONZ’s car as she travels to play at a festival. We built a rig to fit the bonnet of her car to capture the driving scenes. And of course, we shot this in the middle of Auckland winter where the rain comes and goes like crazy. Having a very expensive camera rigged to the car with rain showers around every corner, our anxiety was through the roof. But we survived! And so did the camera. Whew.
PONZ and her team wanted to stay away from the traditional music video format and take a fresh approach, trying something they hadn’t done before. They wanted a multi-part vertical narrative story for Tiktok and Instagram. Having experience with vertical content, we pitched the idea to deliver both formats so the content could live on Social Media and Youtube and have the potential to play on traditional media platforms.
Sound design played a big part in the storytelling of this piece. We wanted the audience to be convinced that the song really did have a mind of its own. We recorded our own foley for the video in a sweltering car parked down Jazz’s street. Definitely not the most ideal place to record. But Envy Studios took what we did and cleaned it up real good.
Made by Night Watch
Directed by Jaya Beach-Robertson
Produced by Jazz dos Santos
Lauren/PONZ Lauren Pondes
DOP Ben Montgomery
Camera Assist Angie Sanchez Villar
Camera Assist Sebastian Ramdhanie
Grip Jesse Currie
Grip Assist Benji Ewens
1st AD Dylan Kelly
Sound Recordist Robert Pendergrast
Art director Poppy Serano
Stills Sara Hewson
Editor Nadia Darby
Grade Sean Loftin
Sound Design Envy Studios
Production Assist Daisy Lawless
Production Assist Shoko Kurata
Thank you Imagezone, Tommy The Grip, Brad, Louise Radio Company, Tom’s Moving Company
©Nightwatch 2024