Over 2,000 hits in under 48 hours! And no, we are not talking about your mom (boom!)…. Square Shooting made their very first music video for the song “Hipster” by the local punk band The Quitters. Are you scratching your head right now trying to figure out why a photography studio would make a music video? Just so happens, we dabble in the video world. In fact, I would go as far as to say our dabbling has turned in to some pretty solid skills. We have been part of award winning short films, produced clips for production shows on the strip, and made commercials for local businesses and chefs. Now we can say we made a darn fine music video that is guaranteed to have you tapping your foot, and perhaps chuckling out loud. What would that be in hipster speak, COL??? Anyhow, this all came about one day when Ryan came back to the studio from a meeting with Allan over at Squidhat Records. He announced that he had volunteered Square Shooting to make a music video for The Quitters (who I really only knew as the “brother band” to local punk rock girl band The Dirty Panties). I agreed, but on the premise that Ryan would have to take the lead on this video shoot, and boy howdy did he take the reigns! He, with the help from a few of us, crafted the concept and got a slew of our extremely talented friends on board. Our good buddies Tommy Natali and Zack Barbee from Shotgun Twins were in from the get go. We’ve worked with them quite a few times in the past and are always left in awe of how skilled they are, and their love of slider shots. With three camera operators, all we needed now was a solid editor. In came Jeremy Ornelas who has always worked seamlessly with us in the past. With the Voltron-like team of ‘Square Shotgun and a Jeremy’, the next stop was locations.
If I haven’t mentioned the budget for this film before now, that is because there pretty much wasn’t one. This humorous and playful video was made from the donation of time, skills, and locations from some very generous and adept people. Having a huge love affair with downtown Las Vegas, we were tickled to have so many businesses in that area contribute. Some of the local shops that opened up their doors and services to us include: Hi-Rollers Barbershop, The Red Kat, Las Vegas Camera Club, Art Square, Gypsy Caravan Antiques, Velveteen Rabbit, Creation Forge Studios, and Enchanted Florist. Thanks to these fine establishments we were able to shoot almost the entire video in the downtown area that we love so much. With that and the addition of calling in all the friends and beards we knew, we shot this 3:30 minute video in just 4 short days. Being summer, of course we decided to film outside in the delightfully cool 100 plus degree weather that Vegas is known for. Yep you heard me right; our friends are so rad they willingly played extras outside in 100 plus temps just to help us make this video. I am so glad they did, because the experience is one I will never forget.
Video is a team sport, there are so many components that have to come together harmoniously to make it work. Having a strong leader is a must, and Ryan was the epitome of this. He really should be proud of the creatives he brought together and harnessed to create this funny explosion of colorful craziness. The crew worked hand in hand with no hiccups… well, other than to join forces in a little vigilante justice when it needed to be done. Who knew we had super heroes lurking in our midst? But I think the thing that topped it all off for me: the band. What a great song, what a great album, what a remarkable group of punk rock gentlemen! Punk rock gentlemen??? That seems like a bit of a contradiction, but they somehow pull it off. There was one point during the taping that almost the whole crew and cast forgot they were working, because we were all rocking out so much. Go check out the video and the rest of The Quitters new album “Contributing To Erosion” available now on CD and vinyl from SquidHat Records. Just remember to hold on to your face, because they might just rock it off!
