Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1256765
www.postmagazine.com 29 POST MAY/JUNE 2020 Dagny — Somebody LOS ANGELES — Norwegian pop artist Dagny (Norvoll Sandvik) has released a new video from her upcoming debut album. Somebody was written with the goal of conveying the ultimate "in- love" experience. Dagny once again worked with directing duo Tusk, which is comprised of Kerry Furrh & Olivia Mitchell. The pair recently worked on Camilla Cabello's single release campaign and live show visuals, as well as on projects for Halsey, Olly Murs, Olivia O'Brien and Nicki Minaj. "When we first heard Somebody, we were immediately obsessed and listened to it over and over," note the directing duo. "The sincerity in the music and lyrics is beautiful and addicting, and perfectly taps into that feeling of meeting some- one you want to always be close to. We imagined the video to capture that feeling of closeness, so we pitched a concept where Dagny interacts with the camera as if it's who the song is about, and they share these day-to-day, almost mundane, ex- periences that actually mean so much more. It was easy to get an authentic performance from Dagny, who's a total pro and emits pretty much nothing but sincerity and warmth." UnderWonder Content and Mastermind Media produced the project. The team used a variety of formats for the Somebody shoot, including Super 8, Hi-8, and a digital camera. "We liked the low-fi vibe of the Hi-8 and Super 8 because it made the footage feel like Dagny and the person she's with could've filmed it themselves," note the Tusk team. "We paired that footage with higher-res footage of Dagny singing in a hazy, purple room, as if that's the inside of her brain and she's looking back on these good memories." The first six tracks from Dagny's album — Side A — began streaming on May 22nd, with the full album set to arrive in September. In addition to directing the video, Tusk collab- orated on the shoot with DP Knut Joner. The duo also performed the edit. LA-based colorist Arianna Shining Star handled the grade. Ghost Funk Orchestra — For My Friend NEW YORK CITY — Seth Applebaum (sethap- plebaum.com) is a multi-discipline creative, with skills that span production to post. He is the principal colorist for Blackfin in New York City, and also heads up the band Ghost Funk Orchestra. Recently, he combined his creative talents to cre- ate a music video that pays tribute to Bill Withers ("Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean On Me"), who recent- ly passed away. For My Friend was arranged by Applebaum, who then enlisted 60 members of the Orchestra to remotely expand on it musically. Applebaum created a drum and guitar track, and then sent a video file and sheet music out to Orchestra members to contribute their parts using their own phones, iPads or computers. "I wish I could do it all live, but there's no service with low enough latency," he explains. The contributions arrived in a range of formats — including .m4v and .mov files — in all different settings. Applebaum employed a similar concept for a video recently, though on a smaller scale, and used Adobe Premiere to assemble that project. But for this one, he decided to use Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve Studio, as that's the program he uses every day for color correction and online editing. "The editing side has gotten as strong as Premiere, if not stronger," he says of Resolve. "They have similar tools, but are named in different ways." The For My Friend video introduces different musicians in their own windows. As the song pro- gresses, different orchestral sections and soloists are highlighted. At times, the entire orchestra appears simultaneously. Applebaum started the assembly by syncing all of the videos and creating a mosaic in Photoshop, where, after cropping and sizing them accordingly, all of the musicians would appear simultaneously. After rendering the large mosaic out overnight, he went on to create smaller groupings that could pop in and out as the song develops. Audio for the project was posted using Logic software. Applebaum says he began writing the arrange- ment soon after Withers' passing on March 30th. The following Friday he sent out his reference track and by the next Tuesday, he had received all of the remote recordings. He worked on the edit, and by the following Friday, the project was complete. "The quality was better than I expected," he re- flects, noting that the different orchestral sections benefitted from so many contributions. "They built on each other and created a better sound, so there was nothing crazy to manipulate." Vocals, he recalls, received the most attention, with him making sure they sound as clean as possible. Dagny's Somebody was shot on a mix of formats. For My Friend was edited in DaVinci Resolve Studio.