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Hurricane alert ==> musicvideo
Even as Hurricane John whipped the southern coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsular and Ernesto drenched the Mid-Atlantic, Thai-American force of nature Tata Young looks set to do some oceanographic disruptions of her own with her steamy, adrenaline-rousing music video entitled El Nin-yo.
By David Lee, 1 October 2006
Shot on location at the avant-garde Dream Hotel in Bangkok, the music video starts with Young ascending the elevator dressed in what can only be described as a black trench coat that reaches only to the mid-thighs. She struts across the corridor in her stilettos, sweeps into her room and swiftly disposes of the coat, revealing a lace-frilled black brassiere and an even shorter polka-dotted skirt that reveals more than it covers. In the next three-and-a-half minutes, she crawls felinely on all fours, demonstrates some nifty dance moves around a chair à la Madonna, licks her refl ection on the mirror, yanks a showerhead off the wall, pops a strawberry ever so deliciously into her mouth, and proceeds to do some serious gyrations on the king-sized bed, declaring that she’s “burning up in here.†All this while managing a costume change into an even slinkier black-andred lace number.
Predictably, temperatures rise quickly and Young pours water down her throat—and all over the room. This doesn’t seem to cool things down; in fact, the room catches on fi re even has she resumes her bed-top gyrations with even greater intensity. Thank heavens, rain starts pouring down, raising its own steam along the way as the torrent completely drenches Young. With water glistening all over her lithe physique, Young’s thrusting hips seem to take on a life of its own, even as the groovy beat of the song comes to a close. Flashing a conspirational grin, Young heads for the lift, leaving a trail of hotel denizens scurrying amidst the ringing fi re alarm.
This hurricane piece of a work was directed by Tom Waller, and featured Richie Moore as director of photography. Post product ion was handled by Bangkok-based Soho Asia, with a crew that included offline editor Ivan Drummond, colorist Shane Bartley, and two online artists — Peter Kim, the company’s new addition from Korea, and Pitcha Gohwong. Zoe Popham was the producer for Soho.
Shot over four days, post production started with offl ine editing commencing after the second day of shooting, and continued for another three days.
“Tom and I worked closely on this and as a result, we were very much in sync even before the shoot,†enthuses Drummond, who also took on the additional role of post supervisor on this project. “We talked about transitions, effects, and how to shoot them to make the post process smoother whilst still achieving what the director wanted.â€
Shot on 35mm, the music video followed the de rigueur processes of editing, highly stylized fullgrading, and online - focusing on a number of chroma key shots, as well as fire and water element composition.
Providing more insights into the post work, Drummond reveals, “Our colorist Shane had worked closely with Richie before, they played and tweaked the fi lm until they got the look we now see. Chroma key shots were given a second pass to ensure cleanest keys.
“In the online, Peter worked on Flame while Pitcha worked on Henry Infi nity to fi nesse the music video. I purposely utilized the two different suites we have at Soho as it was a tight deadline we needed to meet. Shots had to be keyed in the monitors, fire added to certain scenes, extra rain added, sparks and lighting effects were done.â€
Powering the machinations of post production were Spirit Telecine, Avid Offline, Flame version 8, and Henry Infi nity.
“When we were happy with the cut, we got Sony in and Tata herself afterwards. She made a couple of changes which ‘spiced it up a bit,’†Drummond continues. And this, it seems, was where the music video received its complete touch as Young added her input and comments to enhance the general feel of the video.
“It’s always a great experience for us in post production to have the artist’s input in the project, especially for such a controversial and highly-aired view as this one; it essentially highlights a high-profi le, female celebrity’s image,†quips Popham.
Even as the hurricane season gets into full swing in the Atlantic, one can be sure there will be no storm quite like Young’s maximum-strength El Nin-yo, which looks set to sweep the world from across the Pacific.
