Company of Thieves – Behind The Scenes of “Pressure”

I have blogged about Company of Thieves several times, but never like this. Last weekend, Company of Thieves filmed their second video under Wind-Up Records, this time for their song “Pressure,” which also happens to be my favorite track off of their CD Ordinary Riches. I got wind that they were doing this a few days before the shoot, and after a few emails and the help of a friend, I was cleared to shoot some behind-the-scenes photos.

Warning: Photo-heavy set. I was shooting for around 18 hours, so I made this as concise as possible, but I wanted to give people the full experience of the shoot!

The day began at 2:30 p.m., at Swift Mansion in Chicago. The video was vintage in theme, and the Swift mansion had beautiful architecture from the turn of the century and the production team brought in some great props.

(There was even a suit of armor!)

The first scene involved mimes and Gen writing:

Between scenes, the crew had to mark camera positions and set up lights, so there was some downtime.

(Mike took the opportunity to inject some humor into the day)

(During “lunch” Marc and Gen provided some inspiration in the form of a stripped down acoustic song)

(Hello, Slash)

Scene three was my favorite lighting-wise, as it had several candelabras with lit candles, and a gorgeous chandelier.

More downtime…

(Wait, something’s amiss with this setup…)

(Pinky swears)

There was even a magician. What does he do? You have to wait until the video!

Finally, the last scene, in the lobby of the beautiful Congress theater. Before they started filming, the equipment had to be set up again, so everyone entertained themselves.

(Have you met Jeff? If not, this is Jeff, say hi. He’s CoT’s merch/tech.)

(All the extras, waiting to film)

(Gen gets a lesson in drumming)

Finally, time to roll.  At this point, it’s around 5:30 a.m., and the sun is starting to come up.

Shooting Notes
The light was fantastic, for obvious reasons, so I just had to focus on staying out of the shot and being creative. My most used lens for this shoot was my new 135mm f/2L. Incredibly sharp, perfect length, and quick focus. I also brought out the Lensbaby (2.0, for those curious) for quite a bit of the day, which I rarely do. It worked great for really drawing attention to the element that I wanted to capture and for taking out all the extra production equipment.

All in all, the shoot was a great experience. Everyone on set was incredibly talented and nice. Despite the long shoot time, no one withered or gave it less than their all. I think the hardest part of the whole thing is that now I have to wait for the video to come out!

Edit: The video has been released!  Check it out here!

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Company of Thieves "Pressure" Video Released!

Company of Thieves "Pressure" Shoot