"Let It All Burn Down"
March 16, 2010 4:54 PM   Subscribe

"Let It All Burn Down"
A music video for the song "Let It All Burn Down" by The Nightbirds. I conceived, self-financed, and directed the video. Fans of classic 2ed AD&D may enjoy this.

Additional info, including credits and festival acceptances, is being posted on my website as it develops. The video was shot over two days: At the Los Feliz branch of the L.A. public library, and at the famous Vasquez Rocks (yes, where Kirk fought the Gorn!)

Yes, I do know that saving throws are not made on d6.
posted by drjimmy11 (5 comments total)

This video, it burns us!

Dude, I want my flashbacks to be from drugs.

I liked the video. Music not my thing, but it seldom is these days. Kids/lawn.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:39 PM on March 18, 2010


Slick!

What camera are you using?
posted by The Whelk at 6:38 AM on March 23, 2010


It was the Red One. I originally wanted to finish at 2k resolution, but it got too painful and I ended up settling for 1080.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:48 AM on March 23, 2010


I reread the above and realize I may not have appeared to like the video even though I said I did.

I was a D&D geek and I felt for those guys. Some of the text titles don't stay up long enough to fully read, but I don't think they need to (I get the idea).

This is a nice homage from someone that obviously does understand gaming.

Someone made a parody video a while back about a couple D&D geeks basically living out their lives as though they were governed by a Dungeon Master. Some of the people took offense at it, since it poked so much fun at the gamers, but a gamer friend of mine said, "That guy really has to love gaming to know that stuff so well, and he's got about $4,000 in original D&D props in that flick." His theory was that it was from the writer/director's personal collection.

I thought this was brilliant from start to finish, and the fact that the music is meh to me isn't a reflection on what was done here (I'm still stuck in the 80s).
posted by cjorgensen at 12:14 PM on March 23, 2010


Thanks, I got that you liked it. I personally like the song, but I worked on the visual part, so I am just psyched when people like that.

The animations were created by a very talented friend of mine named Mallory Whitelaw (I wrote the text and had the idea, she animated it). I realize people might not be able to read that fast, but I wanted to keep it fast-paced. And I kind of like the idea of "deep" content that rewards people watching multiple times or freeze-framing.

And of course, like all film projects, it was a fraught process and there are 100 things I would do differently if I could do it again. (I think it would have been fun to have them run around as the characters in the library, but there is no way the LA Public Library people would have allowed it.)
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:07 PM on March 23, 2010


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