Production Diary: ‘Nineteen’ Music Video

Production Diary: Nineteen Music Video for Mount St. Helen

Mount St. Helen is the Indie music project of Aris Sabetei, an upcoming artist and multi-instrumentalist who had already played at Latitude with band Iris & Steel before finishing his degree. Over a month ago, I was contacted by the production team for the music video of his new single, Nineteen, asking me to get involved. I agreed, and before I knew it I had reached my current state of affairs: sat in my flat on the morning of the shoot, nervous. I haven’t done any kind of acting since performing in Camden over a month ago (probably the longest break I've had for a while), and I haven't done a music video for nearly two years. I am in danger of settling too far into my new passive role as reviewer, and I worry that I will be a little rusty. More concerning, as anyone who happens to have seen me perform will easily be able to tell, I am very much not built for screen. If I am in any way qualified to identify myself as an "actor," it can only be as a variously theatrical stage "actor." I actually find it quite difficult to obey the laws of the camera, where every movement usually needs to fit inside and look natural within a precise frame. Music videos also present their own unique challenges - they are the only mainstream medium nowadays where all the acting is silent, so one has to make do without relying on a script. 

Before I can worry too much, I am picked up by one of our two directors, Finlay Yates, and reintroduced to my castmates, Lorna Campbell and Esme Somerside Gregory (who, oddly enough, I was in school productions with in sixth form). We are driven to a house in Botley, where we meet the rest of the crew: our other director, Fred; Ellie Fullwood; and Aris himself (I'll be using everyone's first names for these little "production diaries," rather than surnames which are customary in reviews). From the offset, it is clear that we are in safe hands, and after changing into costumes you might expect to see in a noughties coming-of-age flick about an indie band, we are led to a large park, our first location. 

From here follows a lot of running around (which warms us up) and general teenage messing about on monkey bars, ziplines and parallel bars. This is a very specific kind of exercise: fully improvisatory, with plenty of real chats between us since what we say obviously doesn't matter. In fact, throughout the whole day I feel that I do very little "acting." After all, I have no lines to deliver, nor many specific emotional beats to hit. But I don't mind this at all. I actually have a huge amount of fun, and Esme and Lorna are very good company as we chat rubbish and hurl beer cans about. Memories are brought back of day-drinking in parks (we are all South Londoners, so Brockwell inevitably comes up) during the Covid era and beyond. For Esme and I, some of these are actually shared memories. Fred is very good at encouraging us to enjoy ourselves, and Fin has an incredible way of always being in the right place with his camera to turn our fairly mundane antics into actually quite exciting footage. Needless to say, the usual problems I run into when trying to act for screen aren't really felt. More than anything else, this feels like play. 

A quick lunch break, and we are led to our second location: a stretch of forrest covered in layers of leaves, bracken, mushrooms and rain. More running about, more messing around, more debates about the best yoghurt flavours, and plenty of excitement when we get to see how the shots are coming out. We eventually come to the shot I've been most anticipating, where a beer can is to be shaken up and sprayed between us. This is especially good fun, and despite a few worries that they might be flat, the tinnies explode to our satisfaction. 

Eventually, we are walked up to an enormous hill, open fields stretching on all sides. It is now nearly 4pm, and (as ever when filming outdoors) we are rapidly running out of time before we lose daylight. As we ascend through the field, an orange sunset is visible through the clouds on the horizon - not a good sign. After a whole afternoon getting increasingly muddy, we are also not getting any warmer. Now we've reached the most difficult part of the day, when we need to film a physical scuffle involving all three of us. The crew demonstrate the choreography, although that is perhaps a slightly strong word, as this is a fairly loose tussle. Esme happens to be an experienced fight choreographer, so I have been expecting to be able to follow their lead. Things get a little bit more daunting when I realise that I am significantly bigger than my castmates, and so have to take some responsibility for directing the movement of our rugby-ruck-esque encounters (whilst keeping them safe and controlled). In the end, lots of takes are needed (mainly so Fin can get shots from different distances and angles) and some feel better than others, but after about 15 minutes I think we have given the camera what it needs. A little more running to finish off, and we are wrapped (and exhausted). 

Our day is ended off with a quick trip to the Holly Bush on Osney Island, which happens to be probably my second favourite pub in Oxford. Now, spending an entire day in the cold losing one's breathe in order to film a music video for someone you've never met before is not, on paper, a particularly attractive idea. But, somehow, I have had a genuinely very enjoyable day, and am entirely glad that I agreed to it. My suspicion is that this is largely down to the crew, who looked after us extremely well and gave me one of the smoothest filming experiences I've had. Of course, we are now all desperate to see the final product. I've previously shot 2 music videos which seemingly never saw the light of day, but I have full confidence that Fin and his team will turn our day of carefree messing about into something to be proud of. 

You can find Mount St. Helen on Spotify here.

You can now find the trailer for the music video here.

You can now find the Music Video itself here.

Massive thanks are due to Lorna, Esme, Aris, Fin, Fred and Ellie, for a great day.