Behind The Scenes: Iron Kingdom - Deadhouse Gates (Official Video)
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Inside the Making of 'Deadhouse Gates' Music video: (3 Photos attached from behind the scenes)
We were behind on pretty much every step of the completion of the album 'Shadows and Dust', and the music video for 'Deadhouse Gates' was no exception. Every decision was made quickly, every shot had purpose, and we were full steam ahead. There was no time to second-guess, or to 'do it again.' We had to be quick on our feet and pull out a miracle.
Initial Steps:
We had chosen a release date, we knew which song we wanted to film, and we had a general concept, but we weren't very sure where we were going to film, with whom, or what we were exactly going to do.
Locations:
I personally drove around looking for something interesting we could use for an abandoned building, something for the door opening scene, so I found some abandoned houses, and we picked one. Leighton also wanted to find somewhere with a wide dirt path. He knew of a couple of somewhat remote trails and suggested an option that we immediately said yes to, but we needed at least one more location, where the band was going to perform the song. It seemed out of place to film in a studio or on a stage, so we thought to stay on topic and try filming outside. The next question became, where can we film something with the least amount of potential issues? The answer was almost too easy; our old jam space (my parents' place) has some forests flanking the house, and just enough nature to hide modern civilization. We'd have electricity, bathrooms, it would be easy enough to bring drums and gear, it just all made sense.
Filming Day 1: The Band
We spent the day in the sun doing take after take. It was our first time ever filming outside, and it has its own challenges, the sun and shadows ever moving, the wet ground, and finding just the right angles to keep the video looking remote. We even placed the drum kit in the forest on a couple of pieces of plywood, and to fully sell the scene, we covered the plywood with dirt, leaves, and sticks, until it looked similar to other parts of the ground.
The next thing was to figure out the storyline, making sense of a vast and complex world of Malazan, but something we can strip down to our small budget.
Leighton, knowing the story best, took charge, and we came up with a very simple premise of 3 characters wandering the path to the Deadhouse Gates to gain their god-like abilities. But along the way, there is peril, for if you step off the path, you do not survive.
So the first task here became finding some actors and some kind of costumes to sell the parts. We had a good friend in the Vancouver metal scene who came to most shows in costume, either as a wizard or knight, bringing a lot of character and fun to the local shows in town, and so we thought, you know, what if he might be interested in taking on one of the roles? What if he could spare some extra pieces as well for other characters in the video? And surely enough, he helped us with almost everything you see in the video. We were just short of some weapons, and thankfully, we knew one more close friend who had just the right pieces.
So we had costumes and weapons, and one actor, but we needed two more. Who would they be?
Well our second character was an easy and 'voluntold' position given to our very own Max Friesen on the Drums haha, he missed rehearsal one day, and it happened that we discussed this very video, Max had some history with theatre and production, so we figured he could play a character that dies from the perils of the forest. That night he was informed of our decision, and accepted hahaha, I actually think he did a fantastic job all in all!
But lastly, we wanted one more character, a rogue, or assassin type role, as in the story, 2 characters make it to the Deadhouse, and 2 characters gain the god-like abilities. We were considering who to ask, when one day at work, a colleague of mine had inquired what I was up to on the weekend, and I said shooting a video, he quickly said, can I be in it? I was a bit taken aback. I had no idea that acting was something of interest to him, and so I happily said ya! it solved a lot of issues for us, and it was enjoyable having him around. I think he actually fit the part perfectly.
With the 3 characters now planned out, we had our story, we had our costumes, and we were ready to film.
Filming Day 2: The Storyline
We journeyed out to the woods to the path that Leighton found, and we began with simple shots of the 3 characters walking past. We came up with small bits in which the forest tries to grab them, and eventually, Max gets dragged away to his death. I'm sure to most it's quite obvious, but we actually filmed the death scene in reverse, to allow for the plants to 'seem' to be grabbing and pulling him in. We probably could have spent a little more time on that scene, but we didn't want to damage or dirty the costumes any more than we had to, and it worked well enough, however humorous it may come off.
Lastly, we needed to get our 2 survivors to make it to the deadhouse and open the door.
The idea here was that we couldn't show an inside scene, or elaborate on what they acheived, but we could switch to having the band performing in our rehearsal space, a somewhat throwback to the cheesy 1980s music videos from Helloween or the like! Once again, it was cost-effective, but also kept the story moving. So we finished our final scenes with the actors and quickly ran back to our rehearsal space to film the final chorus.
All in all, we had 4 locations, 2 days of shooting, and 1 music video just in time for release. Did it turn out to be the best video we ever made? I'm not sure I can say that, but I do feel proud of our willingness to reach and push and simply achieve. We tried our hands at a storytelling music video for the first time, and we pushed our ability to make more than one video in the album cycle.
Being a DIY band, we are always learning, and we are ever evolving! Hopefully you find some enjoyment from the video, be it some humour, a love for the fantasy, or just a love for the music! In the end, it was an extra piece we wanted to give to the fans, and we're proud of the accomplishment!!
Hope you enjoyed hearing a little more in-depth about the process!
Chris Osterman
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