On April 18th, four twenty-somethings from Brooklyn packed into a dented four-door at 6 am, hitting the highway toward Boston. A cinematographer, a musician, an actor, and me. If you put two and two together, you have already arrived at the conclusion we were shooting a music video.

The music video was for the artist, Skela, for her unreleased song Hella. Skela herself was directing it, while cinematographer, Chiara Gerek, played assistant director. Maksim, a friend and photographer of Skela’s, acted in the video alongside newcomer and instagram famous teen, Mithsuca.  

The four of us met with Mithsuca for the first time at the appropriately named The Good Diner, in Revere, MA, a small suburb outside of Boston where Mithsuca goes to school. The script had been hashed out back and forth for weeks before shooting, but now that everyone was together a final read took place. The general gist of the video was to convey a sense of suburban boredom, of teens driving around aimlessly, blasting Skela’s Hella and singing along. Mithsuca and Maksim were the focal point of the video, playing a teenage couple in love while Skela was their third-wheel friend tagging along and filming them all hanging out on her handheld camcorder.

The houses that ended up being chosen to shoot at (above) were all pastel-based colors, keeping with the theme that the three characters were a breath of fresh air in their boring, dreary suburban world.

A common sight to see was Gerek, or one of the actors, left on the side of the road while the other main actors drove around recording their scene. This was, of course, for continuity purposes, showing Gerek or an actor who hadn’t technically been seen entering the vehicle yet on-screen even momentarily would break with the vision and story-telling flow. It was one of the windiest days of the year outside Boston, and we were on top of a hilly neighborhood. It was cold. The actors and Gerek would put up their hoods and duck behind cars to try to block out the wind, but it was almost comically impossible to escape.
Gerek would direct her actors alongside Skela, stepping up to the car and giving them cues, then watch them drive away to get the shot.

The shoot ended with a cast and crew trip into downtown Boston, and a stop at this outdoor bookstore (above). Polaroids were taken and jokes were told. Set had been fun before it ever felt like work, and everyone was excited to finally wrap.

The day ended with the four twenty-somethings packing back into the four-door and heading back to Brooklyn. As we left Boston, we saw the sun set and marveled at how it was projecting the pastel colors we had been trying to capture all day across the sky. The music video is still being edited, and has a release date set for Summer 2017. You can follow Skela on spotify here.