Blues rocker Anthony Gomes recently released the second single and music video from his new album “Praise the Loud,” which was released on April 25th through Rat Pack Records. The True That video is part of a package directed by Sedona, AZ-based Jamie Brown, who oversaw all four visuals tied to the new release.
True That debuted on April 11th, just a few weeks after the
Praise the Loud video, and another two have already been shot when
Post caught up with the director.
True That mixes performance footage of Anthony Gomes and his band, along with a light narrative in which the male lead is seemingly hustled by his gold-digging girlfriend. Ultimately, the guy gets the last laugh, running off with her best friend.
According to Brown, the performance footage was shot at The Canyon in Agoura Hills, CA, and presented several unexpected challenges due to the use of different forms of stage lighting.
“It was a bear to edit,” Brown reveals, noting that he spent hours tweaking the visuals to achieve the desired results.
The project was shot in 4K by Brown and frequent collaborator Sebastian Paquet using Blackmagic Design and Canon cameras. Brown then edited the piece using Apple’s Final Cut Pro.
The narrative portion of the video was shot in Las Vegas several weeks after the performance shoot, with Brown using Peerspace to secure the house used as the location. Actor Mark Justice, with whom Brown worked on a music video for the Christian metal band Stryper, handed the lead on-camera role and coordinated the female talent for the shoot.
Brown has a credit list that spans many music videos. Since he often works as director, DP and editor, Brown says he thinks about the edit while he’s framing shots during production. In fact, he’s been known to capture what he calls “weird” visuals during a shoot, knowing that he may need some filler down the road. His advice when it comes to shooting performance-type visuals is to be aware of the lighting and to try to control it as much as possible.
“Don’t assume it’s easy to change later,” he shares.
In the case of True That, Brown says another challenge was telling the narrative part without it being too obvious, and balancing it with the performance footage, which highlights Gomes’ skills as a guitar player.
In addition to editing within Final Cut Pro, he also uses the software for color grading, along with third-party plug-ins. He’s a fan of MotionVFX’s subscription, which is constantly updating its offerings. For QC purposes, Brown recommends loading visuals to YouTube privately to see how color and sound synchronization hold up before delivering final assets to an artist or label. This allows him to make any necessary tweaks or corrections having viewed it in a real-world scenario.