Behind The Scenes: Ricky Mendoza & The Screaming Hearts - Move (Music Video)

1. What is the song about?

The song itself is about getting your ass out there and doing shit. A mood-shifter. I wrote this to remind me that I can't be daydreaming of the life that I wish I had; I need to create it, brick by brick, and it starts now.

Another inspiration came from the book, “The War of Art” by Stephen Pressfield. It talks about battling "the resistance" of complacency, of self-doubt, of procrastination; it all boils down to fear.

I’ve always liked the saying "Everything I need is within me now". I feel shame by bringing up cliches, but it's true. Inside of us is the key to our happiness and our unhappiness and MOVE is obviously about that.

2. How did you bring that concept to life?

In partnership with cinematographer Laura Zamorano (StoryMakers Production Co in Austin, Texas), we wanted a very dynamic and emotional look. Something that would go hand in hand with the song’s message.

To achieve this, we landed on the idea of having a “regular Ricky” and a twin “evil Ricky” that could be interpreted as fear or ego. The constant battle of everyone’s life. The real challenge of the production is how to logistically make it happen with a super small budget of zero and with limited time. We knew we wanted a chase between two characters and we knew we wanted a lot of slow motion.

We made a mockup of what the video would be with 3D cartoons. We imagined and planned it and then went out to film for four separate days.

3. Concepts that got scrapped:

ME SINGING AND RUNNING: At first, the strongest idea was to have me sing throughout the song, but that just ended up complicating everything since there's a lot of slow-motion and it looked very out of place.

GREEN SCREEN: I wanted to do a LOT of green screens because I wanted to make it feel surreal and quirky but it ended up looking bad and very monotonous.

ME FLYING: That was an idea that got me excited at first because I could join me "flying" on a green screen along with some drone footage. That idea didn't get far at all and got scrapped immediately.

4. What was the hardest thing about filming?

The running! Every time we would stop and check the film we were both panting and catching our breath... I really have to get back into some sort of shape! Yikes!

Running used to be one of my favorite hobbies and this made me realize how much I miss it. For filming we used a Sony A7SIII running at 120 frames per second at 4K and a Ronin RS2 gimbal to stabilize each shot. Holy crap! I was blown away by the colors, the details and the silky-smooth slow motion. It just looked gorgeous.

The more we shot the more we loved the look and feel. The story made more sense with slow motion because it really emphasizes the the emotion of each movement.

THE BATTLE OF TWO RICKY'S

5. How did you all film the ending sequence?

The toughest thing was that ending, not only from a visual effects standpoint but from a story standpoint. The climax needed to be right.

We filmed with both Ricky's in three separate days, getting as much as we could before the sun went down. We shot in downtown Austin, Texas (the dirt trail was shot in Onion Creek Park in South Austin) for that sequence and we shot all sorts of angles trying as hard as we could to film without green screen.

At the end of it all, I think that the "evil" Ricky disappearing into particles was the best fit. It's a very different approach to the music videos we've done over the years and very fitting for the song.

It just feels right and I'm incredibly happy with the results.