Doomsday Initiative dropped a new video for their single “Skylines” on July 5th. Making simplicity into an intricate, detailed complexity built this video from the ground up… and they nailed it.
The era of the music video has faded and evolved from its huge popular inception with MTV way back in the day. These days, finding one on TV is almost impossible beyond turning on the Fuze channel or subscribing the to MTV sister channels. They’re all pretty much slung out to fans on the web via social networking and often time, it doesn’t seem like a ton of thought was put into the concept or the production value… especially on a local level. That’s just not the case here… and I’m definitely not saying this because these are my close friends. You can clearly see it for yourself.
Having a little background on the whole situation makes for a decent insider story. This concept has been in the works for some time now. I can’t even pin point exactly when it was, but I’d venture to say over a year ago. Doomsday’s bassist, Prez (the one who kills his girlfriend with plastic wrap – she’s a real team player) and I usually bounce ideas off each other because we’re both visual media and tech geeks and for what its worth, its hard to find good creative input paired with the technical know-how to go along with it. When I had heard the concept, I knew it was a great idea and we had talked about how best to get it done, but the location for it was going to be key. Not long after that, Doomsday’s singer, Skip and I had stumbled onto an interesting business project which introduced us to the room used in the video. We bounced the idea off of Prez and showed him the space and from there, it seemed to be full steam ahead with piecing together the rest of the elements.
Months later, the day of the shoot came, and with knowing the concept ahead of time, I was excited to see it all get rolling. Seeing the finished layout of the room, the lighting and the camera positioning, along with the people that came out with enthusiasm to play a role in the list of may roles to be played (a bunch of solid Pittsburgh music scene loyalists and local bands including Craig Anderson from The Pittsburgh Scene and the guys from Ascend the Fallen), I knew Doomsday had come pretty legit for this. The final product shows that in spades. From the effort and performances put forth in front of the camera, to the editing in post, there was a clear goal in mind… and met.
I try not to ever take away from bands trying to put a video out there for their fans and only having a shoestring budget, but some just make it happen far better than others. And with pockets far more empty than full, the odds are really never in your favor to begin with.
So check it out because its pretty kickass, show some love to the guys and blast it around to your friends. Keep an eye out for the cameos of your friendly neighborhood Jedi “throwing down” as well.
Doomsday Initiative – “Skylines”
Enjoy!
