Your Shot...Streetlight’s Director Mike Bruce talks us through his most recent work for Noel Gallagher

Your Shot… Streetlight’s Director Mike Bruce talks us through his most recent work for Noel Gallagher 

 

MB: About a year and a half ago, I was asked to submit a treatment for the first Beady Eye video by Liam and Noel’s manager, Marcus Russell (who also used to manage Oasis). They had seen a little no budget video I did for the Black Mountain track “Old Fangs” and both Liam and Noel apparently dug it. I submitted about five treatments and after a month of going back and forth, Liam ended up going with a London based director he had already worked with. I was thoroughly disappointed and at a point in my life where I really needed a shot at something like this.

 

Fast-forward six months - I get a call from Marcus and he says “My other client, Noel Gallagher, is getting ready to release his first solo album and we would like you to do a low budget DIY viral type video.” I won’t say what the budget was but it was neither here nor there. It was quite a bit more than a low budget by today’s standards but it wasn’t quite enough to do a “proper” video either. Since I was used to making no-budget videos, it sounded huge at the time. I thought, “great, I’ll make a video for a thousand dollars and pocket the rest”. So they sent me the track “The Death of You and Me” and for the life of me I couldn’t think of a DIY low budget idea that seemed appropriate for the track. After two days of banging my head against the wall, I thought “fuck it, I’m not going to think about the budget, I’m just going to write whatever the track wants me to write.” My approach to writing treatments is kind of like channeling through osmosis. I try to absorb not so much what the artist is saying directly but what the overall mood of the track conveys, how they were feeling when they wrote the track. I like to pull stories from the subconscious of the songwriter, which may just be entirely my interpretation, who’s to say. I find that using metaphors is always effective. You don’t want to hit the nail exactly on the head unless you’re strictly going for camp.

 

After I made the decision to do that, the treatment came to me rather quickly and is pretty much what we ended up shooting but there were a couple major changes. My original idea had Noel inside the carriage dressed up similar to Russell Brand’s character in the third video but I had him wearing face paint. In the original concept, the girl would step inside the carriage and Noel would open a curtain to reveal a big ballroom in which they would suddenly find themselves in. Like Cinderella meets Alice in Wonderland. I met with Noel for the first time in the lobby of his hotel on the Sunset strip and we discussed the idea. He liked the idea but seemed unsure about playing that character. In the end, he agreed to give it a shot. So I left the meeting and got busy with preproduction. I started building my production team and scouting locations. Things were well on their way when I woke up to an email from Marcus one morning and he said Noel had backed out, he didn’t want to do the video anymore. Marcus said he himself was bitterly disappointed. I assure you, I was more disappointed. But in my mind there was no way I was going to let this video go. I had already put so much work into it and they had given their word. We were going to do this video no matter what. I wrote a handwritten note to Noel, hopped on my scooter and raced across town to his hotel. I handed it to the concierge. I asked him to deliver it to Noel’s room and tell him it’s from Mike Bruce. A couple days later I got a call from Marcus saying that Noel wants to go back to the original idea and do something simple. I told him - great, let’s do it. A few days later all three of us met in the lobby of his hotel. Just as we sat down Marcus had to take a phone call. By the time Marcus got off that call Noel had agreed to go back to the original idea, minus the face paint. Noel didn’t think he would be well received by Oasis fans wearing face paint as his first appearance since the break up of the band. And he was right. Everything works out as it should, which brings me to the next major change in the treatment which didn’t happen until the day before we were scheduled to shoot. Originally we were scheduled for a two-day shoot. Day 1 we were to shoot all of the desert café scenes outside of Palmdale and Day 2 we were to shoot the interior of the carriage, which was to be a ballroom location in Hollywood.

 

The week before the shooting date, we had managed to raise the budget a bit considering that now we were in a time crunch to pull everything together. The first day of shooting went incredibly well. Everyone involved agreed it was the best shoot they had ever been on, including Noel. That night on the long drive home I got a call from Marcus. They were concerned about the shoot that was supposed to happen the following day. Marcus expressed how difficult it is to pull off a party scene as you tend to get extras overacting and it rarely looks authentic. They were also concerned that it may be too similar to an Oasis video they had done years ago. Honestly, I think we were all worried about the ballroom scene and it never really felt quite right. Later that night I listened to the track over and over and started editing what we had shot in my head to the song. Without seeing the actual footage I felt very strongly we already had enough coverage to make a music video and that it should end when the waitress steps into the carriage and the door slams shut. There is nothing we could show that would be as cool as the mystery of her stepping into the carriage and never finding out what happens. I used “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” as a reference when I called Marcus to convince him. And it worked. I immediately called off the shoot the next day, which could have been terribly bad for my career if my instincts were wrong.

 

When I sat down with the footage to edit, it was unlike any experience I had ever had. At first I was frightened that maybe I didn’t have enough footage as I began to go through it. But then something happened. Because our footage was so minimal the video almost seemed to edit itself and somehow it worked like magic. I had heard stories for years that Hitchcock would only shoot exactly what was needed to tell the story he was telling so the studios couldn’t re-edit his films. This was kind of like that. The edit kind of dictated itself. As an afterthought I threw on the “To be continued” bit at the end and Noel loved it. Lucky for me, because I got three more videos out of it and it’s been an amazing ride! Noel is the most easy going person I’ve ever worked with. He’s not worried about his ego, which a lot of artists are. He’s Noel “Fucking” Gallagher! It’s not my job to make him look like a rock star. He is a rock star. All I need to do is capture that.

 

Currently we’re scheduled to shoot the fifth video at the end of April. I submitted my treatment yesterday and I’m waiting on pins and needles to see if they like it. I’m sure everything will work out in the way it should….

 

To see the work, click on the links beneath:

 

The death of you and me: http://bit.ly/yjUyAf

A.K.A What a life!: http://bit.ly/AbOiHB

Dream on: http://bit.ly/yHn5wH

 

"The Death of You and Me"

The Light - Noel Gallagher

Wanderlust Waitress - Devon Ogden

2nd Waitress - Poss Lambert

Cook - Bryan Carter

Patrons - Catherine Lyndon, Tommy Shane Mandfredi, James Killebrew, Adam Vogt, Joe Baker

Band - Tommy Alexander, Andrew Wagner, Tim Sepulvado, Vivian Tu, Breanna Box, Frank Poss, Joel Isaac Black

Director - Mike Bruce

Producer - Blake West

Co-Producer - Andrew Wagner

Co-Producer - Mike Bruce

Treatment - Mike Bruce

Director of Photography - Salvador Lleo

Production Design - Christian Zollenkopf

1st Asst Camera - Nito Serna

2nd Asst Camera - Chris Arata

DIT - Dan Dowding

Key Grip - David Spiteri

Gaffer - Mykee Del Mundo

Crane Operator - Scott Caputo

Unit Production Manager - Michyl-Shannon Quilty

Casting - Tommy Alexander, Jared Southard

1st AD - Alex Korp

Key Hair - Candice Birns

Hair Assistant - Julia Ulott

Key Makeup - Rose Lopez

Wardrobe Stylist: Chandra Chavez, Jared Southard

Wardrobe Assistant: Ly Nguyen

Tailor: Poss Lambert

PAs - Kevin Fitzgerald, Josh Mandel, Matt Diagula

Animals: Phil

Craft Services: Kris English

Catering: Miguel

Fire Safety: Bob Berryman

RV Driver - John Gearheart

Casting - Tommy Alexander

Post Production/Editing - Mike Bruce and Blake West (The Brokowski Brothers)

 

AKA…WHAT A LIFE!

Russell Brand 

Noel Gallagher 

Devon Ogden 

Dee Larsen

Alexis Carene Hutt

Jared D. Southard

Mike Bruce 

THE NEW WEST FILMS

 Written, Directed, Produced and Edited by The Brokowski Brothers (Mike Bruce & Blake West)

Producer/UPM: Camille LaBry

Cinematography: Salvador Lleo, Mike Bruce & Blake West

Production Designer: Christian Zollenkopf

1st AC: Nito Serna 

2nd AC: Chris Arata

Gaffer: Trevor Krist

1st Crane Operator: Scott Caputo

2nd Crane Operator: Emilio Molina

Key Grip: Steven Albovias

Gaffer (green screen) Noah Flippo

Key Hair: Ericka Michael

Assistant Hair: Jesica Southard

Makeup: Caitlin Martini, Ericka Michael, Jessica Lewis

Wardrobe: Analucia McGorty, Dee Larsen, Alexis Carene Hutt, Jared D. Southard

Juliette Jones: Art Coordinator

Matt Diagula: Set Dresser and Stunt Driver

PA: Seaton Trotter

PA: Kevin Fitzgerald

PA: Diana Conway

PA: Aaron Davidson

Still Photographer: Julie Patterson

Picture Car: Amber Linder

After Effects Artist: Blake West

Additional Scoring: Marcos Chloca and Manoj Ramdas

Sound Design: Mike Bruce

Filmed on location at Club Ed (Lancaster, CA), Arizona and Utah.

 

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

 

DREAM ON

 

Zoe Bell

Noel Gallagher 

Troy Mittleider 

Omar Doom

Brent DeBoer

Noelle Cichon

Ricky Dean Logan

Sean Patrick Kelly 

Dylan Dray

Jhordan Dahl

Nathalie Merchant

 

Written/Directed/Edited by: Mike Bruce

Executive Producer: Blake West

Producer: Camille LaBry

Cinematography: Salvador Lleo

1st AC: Nito Serna

Crane Op: Alex Iravani

Production Design: Christian Zollenkopf

Wardrobe: Poss Lambert, Jared Southard

Key Hair: Ericka Michael

Additional Hair: Marci Landgraff, Jessica Mishler, 

Katie Neutz 

Makeup: Heather Cardoza

1st AD: Alex Korp

2nd AD: Kaylin Boosalis

Production Coordinator: Stewart Carrico

Casting Director: Devon Ogden

Storyboard Artist: Jeremy Arambulo

Colorist: Milton Adamou

After Effects: Blake West

Behind the scenes: Julie Patterson, Brent DeBoer

 

Kids:

Estrella Brashear

Ephraim Brashear

 

Key Background:

 

Michelle Bernard

Colin Ambulance

Clifton James Weaver III

Kirpatrick Thomas

Natasha Shumny

Sally Fay Dalton

Justin Holt

Shane Manfredi

Stacy Fratelli

Zara Hayes

Teal Garrels

Dita Dimone

Paria Pear

 

Audio ©2011 Sour Mash Records

Video ©2011 The New West Films