Anybody who has heard my story about playing on the same bill as Tiny Tim the night he had a heart attack on stage, knows I have a soft spot for all things ukulele. Enter Michael Leviton, a NYC singer/songwriter who falls on the sea shanty side of the uke spectrum, thus providing a perfect backdrop for this old timey mermaid love story. Directors Nick & Ben don't answer what has always been the most vexing mermaid question — Where is a mermaid's genitalia? Under the scales? — but they do capture the sweetness and sadness of this tune.
Michael Leviton: "It seems to me that music videos have gone in an unexpected direction. At the beginning of the silent film era, people sold movies based on "the close-up! How amazing!" But the novelty of the close-up didn't last long and soon they could only sell movies with exciting stories. Strangely, music videos once had exciting stories and now are based mostly on close-ups! Videos, too often, concentrate on showing what the band looks like up-close rather than giving us a story... Anyway, I was excited by Seaworthy Films because they wanted to tell a story in this video instead of just giving me a close-up."
Nick & Ben, directors: "This was loosely based on the film Night Tide, which starred a young Dennis Hopper. The story of this video follows a young sailor on weekend leave from the Navy as he falls in love with a woman who turns out to be a mermaid. Like the film, the video is set in the 50's
We shot parts of the video on miniature sets and did a lot of trigonometry with DP Adam Orellana to figure out the exact size and relative placements of actors and sets. It was definitely the most challenging video we've ever shot based on the fact that when you move the camera 1" in the miniature world, it gives the impression of moving a foot in reality. So everything had to be very precise and very planned out. And our primary rule going into this was that we couldn't do any camera/image trick that you couldn't have done in 1955. So nothing was done in post. Everything was painstakingly done in camera."Sara K White, production designer: "A lengthy prep period turned out to be crucial for making the models work. Many nights we would sit to discuss the distances we had to work with and the size of set we could afford to build and transport. With most of the work being done in my kitchen, we had to make sure the models could fit out the door, down the stairs, and into the car safely.
Working at mostly 1" scale allowed me to look for some of the more intricate items — light fixtures in particular — at dollhouse stores. Suddenly, I realized there were no cheap doll shops — or even a good craft shop — in a 40 mile radius. In a bizarre twist, a friend's hometown wedding saved the shoot. There, in southern Ohio I found the mega-craft stores of my youth. We grabbed all the dollhouse bar supplies, balsa wood, seashells and underwater plants we could hold and fit in a carry-on bag."
--> watch "Summer's The Worst"
Michael Leviton "Summer's The Worst" (Smith Street/Ace Fu)
Nick & Ben, directors | Isaac Wilkins, producer | Seaworthy Films, production co | Adam Orellana, DP | Ben Leavitt, editor
