On the weekend of 29/30th September, I drove down to Gravesend for a long weekend of work. I was to be shooting stills for the video shoot for "Breaking the Space" by trance metal band, Silent Descent. I had worked with the guys, previously, on a number of nights of their UK tour, where they promoted their critically acclaimed album, Mind Games.
At the helm was the fantastic, award-winning team of Gavin Fry and Zoey Hatfield of Fry Films Only.
The schedule for the shoot was to go as follows:Saturday
"The Dolls" (aka the alternative models) were to be shot over the course of the evening in two different locations. These were essentially warehouses, one of which was abandoned and without a roof or walls, in some places.
Sunday
The band, themselves would be shot in the second warehouse only and the rooms at the first warehouse, from the previous night, continuing to serve as our "unit base".
Each day's shooting would start at 6pm and ended at 6am. Did I mention it was a night shoot?!
So it began...
Tom Watling (lead singer) and I scouted the venue, when we arrived on the Saturday. We were both keen to utilise the locations for some new promo/publicity shots of the band. These would be used for the launch of the video and, as is always expected, a new range of t-shirts, posters and other merchandise.
This is probably a good time to take a quick interlude, allowing me to tell you a little bit more about this band, that you may not have heard of.
As quoted from the band's own bio:
"Created in 2006, through a mutual love of Scandanavian melodic death metal, Kent-based septet Silent Descent added trance elements to their music to create a unique sound. Hailed by Metal Hammer magazine as the 'trance metal juggernaut the world has been waiting for', Silent Descent are well established as a rising force in the British metal scene."
You can find out more about the band on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/silentdescent
So back to the shoot... It was quickly apparent that the temperature was going to drop quite dramatically, over the next twelve hours. Despite the first warehouse being used by a coach company, there was little evidence of there being any heating system. As much as myself, the band members and the crew wondered how cold it was going to get, it was nothing compared to the dread of the models, as the changed into their rather "skimpy" doll's outfits. This was going to get interesting...!
To be continued...
e45ty - www.facebook.com/e45ty/
Silent Descent - www.facebook.com/silentdescent
Fry Films Only - http://www.fryfilmsonly.com/
