“You want some blood?” Zombies and gypsies reigned supreme this Halloween at our Tampa video production company. Earlier in 2015, Litewave Media partnered with director Iris Saunders to produce the short film “The Pirate Gypsies.” Litewave Media’s founder, Christian Cashmir and Iris Saunders co-wrote and produced an original song called Walk Like a Gypsy for the movie. And so, this Halloween, our Tampa video crew got together to film a 60’s throwback, zombie inspired music video for their original song, Walk Like a Gypsy.
Our zombie gypsies are ready to start shooting (or eat our crew)
We filmed the music video over the course of three nights, one night at our Tampa video production studio and two nights at a forest near the studio in St. Petersburg, Florida. Before the first shoot day, choreographer, Johanne Castagan, rehearsed with the dancers at our Tampa video studio. Costume designer, Bridget Bartley Desjarlais, met with the team and designed costumes for the music video.
The dancers practice their choreography one last time before filming
On our first day of shooting, with a little inspiration from Michael Jackson’s, “Thriller”, we filmed a gypsy zombie dance sequence in a forest near our studio. With 12 performers dancing, fog machines blowing, and three cameras filming simultaneously, the scene came together quite nicely.
Our special fx makeup artist, Ginny Dworchak, and hair stylist, Jane Figuera, transformed the dancers into flesh-eating zombies! The lighting team including, Rich Brito, Andrew Ortoski, Harold “Pinky” Hood and Chris Plourde lit the forest with some HMI’s and Jokers from our Tampa video lighting equipment and Tampa grip truck rental package. Our Director of Photography, Kenny Strawn, filmed with our Canon C100 mounted on our EZ FX jib. We also filmed with our Sony FS100, Sony A7s and a Canon C100 Mark II on a Steadicam to get a variety of angles of the performance.
1st unit DP, Kenny Strawn, gaffer, Andrew Ortoski, and PA, Chris Plourde, mount the camera on the EZ-FX jib
For the second shoot day, our set designer, Don Knight, transformed our Florida video production studio into a 1960s performance stage, inspired by The Beatles’ Ed Sullivan Show performances. Our very own Christian Cashmir was the male vocalist and guitarist while Ann P aka Ann Poonkasem was the female lead vocalist. Alissa Schneider and Jenique Hendrix played as backup singers, Ricky Fernandez kept the beat as drummer and Grant Johnson layed the beefy licks as bass player. Bridget and Jenique Hendrix outfit the band members with 60s period clothing while Jane Figuera and Ann P styled hair and makeup.
Our studio was lit by the 2nd day’s DP and gaffer, Andrew Ortoski, with our key grip, Sasha Sebesta. Andrew filmed with our Canon C100, Canon & Zeiss Cinema Lenses, and skateboard Dolly from our Tampa camera equipment rental. Our SteadiCam operator, Eric Coughlin, shot with a Canon C100 Mark II and Canon L Lenses.
The Jypsies are ready to debut their new single Walk Like a Jypsy!
For our last shooting day, Litewave Media’s Tampa video production crew travelled back to the forrest. John Jones lit the location with the help of Chris Plourde and Maxime Puister. The team used a Joker 800 and LED lights to create the look of moonlight in the woods. In this scene, the fog machines rolled again while Ann P’s Mother Zombie Jypsy lured Christian Cashmir and Alissa Schneider into the darkness. John was the director of photography for the scene, and he filmed with the Sony A7s which was great for the low light look of the scene.
The crew films on a skateboard dolly in our Tampa video studio for Walk Like A Jypsy
Editing and color correction were all finished by our Tampa post production company at our HD/4K editing suite. Check out the “Walk Like A Jypsy” music video BELOW!
Our Florida video production company wants to thank everybody that worked on this shoot and helped us bring our vision to life. It was one of the most enjoyable and creative shoots we’ve been a part of!
Our cast and crew celebrate the wrap!
Do you have a Tampa music video or Tampa short film you would like to produce? Please contact us for a free consultation. You can like Litewave Media on Facebook to check out our latest video projects. Be sure to keep up with the blog for more Tampa video production news!
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