Bears Den Agape : the Directors Insight

Earlier this week, Bears Den released their new promo for single Agape. Graded by Paul Harrison with Flame by Andy Copping, the film is serene with an underlying tension as the sea catches up with the band who are slowly sinking into their surroundings.

We reached out to Director Ed Sayers to get a deeper insight into how it was all filmed.

Ed comments Working with the three Bears was a truly collaborative experience not too hot, not too cold for me at least but just right. Kevin Jones had the idea to bury himself, Davie and Joey on a beach in January which is why we dug Kev nearest the sea, like King Canute.

The complexity was in keeping the film as simple as possible yet plan everything needed to keep the band alive whilst on a limited budget, a long way from home and having to contend with sand, tides and weather. So we scratched heads a lot and ended up with plywood and jig-saws and foam rubber and plastic sheeting and foil blankets and more shovels and rakes than we could possibly need. It was a big team effort from crew, band and label on the shoot and in the end hats off to the band who, for the money shots, just took their trousers off and went for it. But all the prep proved itself necessary as they lasted only about ten minutes in that state.

Besides the logistics of keeping the band warm and un-drowned, the film had to be shot in time with the tide.

Ed explains The tide was highest at the start of both of our shoot days so it was necessary to work backwards through the story. This had to be done two days in a row to capture the required footage.

The film was shot with an anamorphic lens which was a suggestion of the Director of Photography, Eben Bolter, to capture those incredible panoramas of the beach and the intense close-ups of the band. We shot Alexa XT on Hawks adding some film grain in the grade.

Ed notes There's a haunting atmosphere in the track, a sadness, but also an optimism. I wanted it to be right on that line. I'd seen clips of the band performing Agape' so knew all that was in their faces and I knew I wanted to go epically wide but also epically close, so we could read every detail of their expressions.

To view Bears Den Agape and information on the post work click here.

LINK:	http://www.finish.tv/news/view/bears-den-agape-the-directors-insight...
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