Yumi Zouma: Truth or Consequences (Alternate Versions) Video Shoot

New Zealand based band Yumi Zouma came to me with a concept for a series of creative videos, inspired by the work of James Turrell, for their latest album Truth or Consequences (Alternate Versions). I brought in Mark Meggy to assist with this project, especially for his production management, and working together with the band we were able to realise their vision, which you can watch on YouTube.

We wanted to make the most of infinity space at Hackney Studios and get the brightest image from the projectors, so I designed the hanging projection screens to be the aspect ratio of the projectors on their side (10:16) and at a good size to allow multiple configurations.

The screens were constructed out of 2″ x 1″ timber, with a wrap of black drill to block light spill, then a wrap of white casement. My thanks to my good friend Gus Skottowe for assisting with the construction of these and ensuring a high-quality final product.

These provided a great projection surface that also worked well with the ambient lighting. They were hung with SWR and gripples to allow for fast configuration changes and to be discrete on camera.

The track was played back with QLab which allowed me to send timecode to the Avolites Quartz for lighting cues as well as triggering the visuals in Resolume.

I requested the video content for the projection at 3600×1920 so that it matched the three 1920×1200 projectors when placed on their side. Then within Resolume I took thirds of the overall canvas, sent them to the projectors and was able to map them to the screens.

Credit must go to Lorenzo Fanton for producing the great content to go on the screens.

All equipment was hired through Anna Valley and they were excellent to us throughout the project, having freelanced for them many times in the past.

To create a soft, even and saturated wash we used 8 Litepanels Gemini 2×1, with a little face light to lift the talent from the wash.

To match the colour of the lighting I sent Art-Net from the Quartz into Resolume to control the background colour behind the video.

Lighting was all timecoded with a few cue lists on the Quartz which allowed for great repeatability, that I had mostly pre-programmed.

At the time of writing the videos are being released every Wednesday and I will keep this playlist updated. Credit to DoP Sabina Claici, grip Kitt Sullivan and editor Ezra Simons.

Currently released are:

• My Palms Are Your Reference To Hold To Your Heart (Music Video)
• Lie Like You Want Me Back (Lyric Video)
• Magazine Bay (Visualisation).