Rockaway Beach
"Rockaway Beach seemed like the perfect setting for the music video. I happened to have my friend David and his wife from out of town over in New York for the week. I actually had considered casting them as the couple in the video, so I asked them if they’d like to come along to Rockaway for a quick location scout. We just really intended on taking stills of the locations."
"I’d never really been to Rockaway, and this was just a few weeks after Hurricane Sandy hit the shore, so when we showed up we were totally shocked. The whole place had this great sadness to it. A sort of desolate, post-apocalyptic vibe. The houses were devastated and the sand had come up all the way into the streets. The impact of those feelings was so overwhelming that we just started shooting what we saw. David had brought his own camera and was shooting as well. It was such a somber place and I think the video really captured those emotions."
"As I was looking into the final edit, it was apparent that we were coming into the place as strangers; telling the story from a completely different perspective. I think that’s what makes the piece so powerful."
"We saw a few locals wondering silently around the beach that day, and we could tell how they must have felt like aliens not belonging in a place that was once so familiar to them. As soon as the edit was finished, I really felt like putting the piece out there as it carried all the feelings we experienced while standing on what was left of Rockaway Beach. This was a place full of life and people, and suddenly it was all gone just like in a war zone."
"David and I started shooting around the same time and have shot a few travel videos together. His style is very similar to mine so all the footage blended together very nicely. I started the edit with the footage we captured from inside the car, which gives viewers a sense of where we’re going. It gives a very honest account of our experiences as we drove into Rockaway. When we arrived, I revealed the destroyed pier and later the couple on the beach. There is this one scene where my wife picks up a sea shell lying over a pile of cracked concrete that was ways away from the beach. It was surreal seeing how far the ocean must have come in."
"What was ironic and amazing was that my car battery literally died as soon as we pulled over by the beach. That’s the only reason this video exists. We were not supposed to be at that location for more than a few minutes, but the dead car gave us the perfect excuse to stay and capture the haunting sights we were seeing. By the time we got someone to help jumpstart our car it was night-time. It was such a cold and windy day and by the time the sun came down on the horizon, it gave off this glimmer of warmth and hope. I thought that was a great metaphor for the piece."
"In the end, we never shot the Biffy Clyro music video at Rockaway Beach and the band went for a more lighthearted second story. I don’t think any of us really felt like we had the right to shoot at Rockaway after what happened there."
