Background on the Challenge

5 local music videos are vying for your vote as part of this year’s 48-Hour Music Video Challenge. The Challenge came from a partnership between the Nickel Film Festival and MusicNL.

The music-film collaboration saw 5 filmmakers and five musicians selected and paired up to produce five music videos … and the twist was they only had 48 hours to collaborate, shoot, and edit the video.

The films screened at Nickel’s closing night gala back in June, but you can catch them on Nickel’s website and cast your vote ASAP, just once, for your favourite. The winner wins “more than just bragging rights.” Details on what they win, and the release of the winner’s name, to come in September.

The Five Video Parings Were:

“Pullin’ Oil From The Sand” by The Navigators (Filmmaker: Andrew Winter)
“6 A.M.” by Allie Duff & The Happy Campers (Filmmaker: Mike Fardy)
“Tomorrow” by Waterfront Fire (Filmmaker: Jana Gillis)
“Tofino Kiss” by Rozalind MacPhail (Filmmaker: Filigre Productions)
“Only Smiling” by Craig Cole (Filmmaker: David Downton)

Behind the Scenes on Allie Duff and the Happy Campers’ “6 a.m”

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“I had the idea of a party getting weirder and weirder, with kid’s activities and all that,” Duff said. “And Mike Fardy had the idea to do a one-shot. We were lucky to be paired up — I had ideas for content and he covered the stylistic elements. He was happy to accommodate my ideas and I was excited about the one-shot.”
The entire video was shot on a single Saturday evening. “Mike is such a great director that it only took about 4 hours to gather all the volunteer actors, explain the video, and shoot everything.”
It looks like a one-take video — something quite ambitious given the challenge’s 48-hour deadline. But Allie says there were actually 2 shots. “That’s pretty darn close; can you guess where the cut happens?”
It’s not an easy feat, a 2-shot music video, but Fardy made it seem simple enough. “The video didn’t ‘take’ many ‘takes’ at all. We did three or four of the first half, and the same for the second half. Again, Mike knew how to direct all us fools.”