Summertime Low: The Self-Shot Lockdown Music Video

Artists: Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-SinghBen Cramer in Nashville, Luke Sital-Singh in Los Angeles
Song: Summertime LowFrom All The Ways You Sing In The Dark
Released: Thursday, 2 July 2020On Nettwerk
Made: Self-shot, in lockdownOne camera, shipped across the country and back
Crew on set: NoneDirected by Zoom, a shot list and a phone app
Runtime: 4:32Black and white, start to finish

No crew could travel in June 2020, so the camera went instead.

Old Sea Brigade and Luke Sital-Singh had already made one lockdown video with us. For Call Me When You Land nobody could shoot anything, so we built the film in the edit. For the next single from All The Ways You Sing In The Dark, Nettwerk’s brief asked for the opposite: Ben and Luke on screen, performing, filming themselves under our direction. Ben was in Nashville, Luke was in Los Angeles and we were on the East Coast. So we packed one camera into a box and sent it on a trip.

Ben Cramer playing acoustic guitar on a chair in his Nashville backyard from RIOT's Summertime Low music video for Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh

Locked-off lockdown

The treatment went over on Thursday 4 June, three days after the brief. We called it Locked-Off Lockdown: what looks like several days of the same lockdown life, Ben’s and Luke’s, folded into one shoot day each. One rule held it together. Every shot is locked off on a tripod, set up, started and then ignored, so the film plays like a quiet look into two homes rather than a performance for the lens. Nothing was too small to film.

“Simply making a cup of coffee might sound boring, but when it’s all pieced together, that cup of coffee becomes an integral part of your day.”

From our director’s treatment, written by MUG5

A cup of coffee, twice: Luke’s pour-over in Los Angeles, and Ben’s mug, which says BEN

Page 1 of RIOT's director's treatment for Summertime Low by Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh: The cover: Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh, Summertime Low, Chris MUG5 Maguire Director's Treatment — The director’s treatment, all twelve pages. Scroll sideways.

Page 2 of RIOT's director's treatment for Summertime Low by Old Sea Brigade & Luke Sital-Singh: Guitars by a sunlit window, setting the mood — The director’s treatment, all twelve pages. Scroll sideways.

One camera, one box

The logistics came with the treatment. We would overnight the camera package to the first artist, who would shoot the next day and overnight it to the second, who would shoot and overnight it back to us. Nettwerk put the whole trip on its FedEx account and booked the pickups.

In the box: a small 4K camera with a zoom lens and a flip-out screen, three different styles of tripod, a pair of memory cards for each of them and a phone app to start and stop recording without going near the camera. It left New Jersey on Saturday 6 June and was at Ben’s door in Nashville first thing Monday. That afternoon we walked Ben and Luke through it on Zoom, and that night the shot list went over. Ben shot his day and sent the box west, and it reached Luke in Los Angeles on Thursday 11 June. Luke was done by Sunday, and the camera came home for the edit. It took just over a week to travel the length of the country and back.

“We crafted a camera package that would work easily for Ben and Luke to film themselves, but that also offered us cinematic 4K LOG footage and a plethora of tripods so they could lock off shots anywhere.”

Chris “MUG5” Maguire, for the release

One month

From brief to release

Mon 1 JunThe briefBen and Luke perform, filming themselves, under our direction.
Thu 4 JunThe treatmentLocked-Off Lockdown, and a plan to overnight one camera.
Sat 6 JunThe box leavesCamera, zoom lens and tripods head out of New Jersey.
Mon 8 JunNashvilleAt Ben’s by morning. A Zoom walks them both through it.
9–10 JunBen’s dayShot list in hand, from the bedroom to the sunset.
11–14 JunLos AngelesThe box reaches Luke. By Sunday it is heading home to us.
Tue 23 JunFirst cutBlack and white throughout, even the solo.
Thu 2 JulReleaseOut on Nettwerk, with the press going wide the next day.

The run of day

The shot list treated each day like a real shoot day, from the early morning to sunset, in seven scenes. The times were a guide. The light was not.

The shot list, written 8 June 2020

One day, seven scenes

The same day for both of them, written down hour by hour. Ben shot his first, then Luke.

10:00am · Bedroom: Six locked-off wides of waking up. Set a phone alarm for one minute, get into bed, start the camera from the app.Let it ring, turn it off, check the phone, walk past the lens.
11:30am · Mirror: Over the shoulder, into the bathroom mirror. Six small tasks, twenty seconds each, and some running water.Then two takes of the song, sung to your own reflection.
1:00pm · Self portraits: The only shots allowed to look down the lens. Start with the camera off the tripod, so we see you set it up.
2:00pm · Lunch: Film it if there is room on the card.
2:30pm · Working and living: Songwriting, recording, the computer, the phone. Making a cup of coffee. Cooking.
3:30pm · Outside: No tripod at all. Take a walk or a drive. Pretend to take a photo, and shoot a video instead.Get low, with blades of grass in front of the lens.
4:30pm · Performances: One long locked-off wide. A full take of the song, then put the guitar down, do something for thirty seconds, wander, play it again.Then the mids and close-ups, hands and feet and mouths, always the whole song.
7:34pm · The solo: Thirty minutes before sunset to thirty minutes after, with the song on repeat. The last of golden hour into the first of blue hour.

The rules

Never break the fourth wall, except in the self portraits. If you talk to the camera, look just to the left of it, where a camera operator’s eyes would be, and never look at it while you perform. Play the song loud every time, because the camera’s own sound is how the edit syncs. Keep one memory card for the performances and one for everything else. And don’t stay on one flat plane: come close, go far, use the back corner of the room.

“Harness your inner hip hop music video version of yourselves a little.”

From the shot list

Waking up, again and again

The bedroom wides were how the film tells time. Every cut back to a bed feels like another morning, and the mornings start to blur into each other, which was the whole feeling of lockdown. Luke found his own angle for his and put the camera above the bed, looking straight down: the most inventive shot in the film. In the edit, Ben switches off his lamp in Nashville and Luke wakes up in Los Angeles. Coming out of the solo, Luke is asleep again. Another day, the same as the last.

Lights out in Nashville, morning in Los Angeles, and Luke’s bed from above

Mirrors and self portraits

Each mirror scene is one long locked-off take, so the edit can skip back and forth through a single morning. The self portraits are the opposite: the one time Ben and Luke look straight at the lens. The treatment asked them to think about how they show themselves on Instagram, capture that one frame as video, and keep the camera rolling while they set it up.

Luke’s mirror: one take, cut back and forth through a morning

Self portraits, the only shots that look down the lens

Life between takes

There was no set. Each of them performed in different corners of their own home, moving from room to room through the day. Ben sang at the vocal mic in his studio, played acoustic on a chair in the backyard and stood by a window hung with string lights. Luke played by the sheer curtains, on a chair beside his amps, and at his desk with the bass and the pedalboard. Every performance wide was one long take: the whole song, then something ordinary in the same frame, then the song again from somewhere else in the room. Because the camera never moved, the edit could jump through time inside a single shot. Ben sits on his sofa with a guitar, and a beat later the same sofa holds Ben with a laptop.

Ben in Nashville: the backyard, the vocal mic, the string lights

Luke in Los Angeles: the sheer curtains, the chair, the bass

The working hours gave us the quietest shots in the film. Luke reading on the sofa. Ben mowing his lawn with a push mower. A FaceTime call answered by a dog. In between, both of them filmed the corners of their homes for b-roll: a turntable, a plant, hats on their hooks, a tube of toothpaste, light across a kitchen counter.

B-roll: the small pieces of two homes

The solo, and the color we cut

The treatment saved one big shift for the guitar solo. For that one stretch the film would go outside, go handheld and go into vivid color, all for the only time, against the chic, high contrast black and white everywhere else. Ben played the solo on the record, so the sunset was his: a lot in Nashville with an amp and a cable, facing where the sun goes down, the song on repeat from half an hour before sunset to half an hour after. Luke took the camera for a drive around Los Angeles and pointed it at whatever caught his eye: palm trees, a stop sign, the fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror.

Ben’s solo, as the light goes

Outside and handheld, for the only time

In the edit, the color felt gimmicky. The solo kept everything else, outside and in the last of the light, but the first cut went over in black and white from start to finish, and that is how it stayed. You can still watch the light go. Across the solo the sky behind Ben drops from the end of the day to dusk: golden hour into blue hour, in black and white.

Three songs, one lockdown

Summertime Low was the second video we made for the EP, after Call Me When You Land. Next came Amaranth Moonlight, and then a live performance of the EP, filmed on cameras shipped to Ben and Luke once again. All The Ways You Sing In The Dark came out on Nettwerk on 28 August 2020.

Summertime Low, in short

Call Me When You Land →Nettwerk and RIOT →

Who sings Summertime Low?

Old Sea Brigade, the project of Nashville songwriter Ben Cramer, and the British singer-songwriter Luke Sital-Singh, who lives in Los Angeles.

When was Summertime Low released?

The song and its music video came out on Thursday 2 July 2020 on Nettwerk, the second single from the pair’s collaborative EP.

What EP is Summertime Low on?

All The Ways You Sing In The Dark, the collaborative EP by Old Sea Brigade and Luke Sital-Singh, released on Nettwerk on 28 August 2020, with Call Me When You Land, Los Feliz and Amaranth Moonlight.

Who directed the Summertime Low video?

Chris “MUG5” Maguire and Nastassja Simone of RIOT, the New York creative agency, who also edited it. Ben and Luke filmed themselves, following RIOT’s treatment and shot list.

How was the Summertime Low video filmed?

In lockdown, with no crew. RIOT shipped one camera package overnight from New Jersey to Ben in Nashville, who shot his day and sent it on to Luke in Los Angeles, who shot his and sent it back. Direction came by Zoom and a written run of day, and almost every shot is locked off on a tripod.

Why is the Summertime Low video in black and white?

The treatment called for a chic, high contrast black and white, so two very different homes would share one look, with only the guitar solo switching to color. In the edit the color shift felt gimmicky, so the film stayed black and white from start to finish.

Where was the Summertime Low video filmed?

In Ben’s home in Nashville and Luke’s home in Los Angeles, with the guitar solo shot outdoors in Nashville at sunset and handheld footage from a drive around Los Angeles.

Is Summertime Low by the same artists as Call Me When You Land?

Yes. Both songs are from All The Ways You Sing In The Dark, and RIOT made both videos in lockdown in 2020. Call Me When You Land was built entirely in the edit; for Summertime Low the camera went to the artists.

Credits