Storyboard for the Benjamin Verdoes music video “So Bari.” By Juliana Wisdom
It’s fitting that Tristan Seniuk’s first true music video project found him and his crew deep in the woods of the Hoh Rainforest. It’s an assumption to say so, but the director’s status as a native Northwesterner—a Roosevelt High grad and University of Washington alum—likely has something to do with his ability to capture the verdant, mossy setting, using its strange light and deep shadow to illuminate a narrative set to the music of Seattle’s since-dissolved Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band.
Seniuk has since worked indoors and out, creating videos for Brite Futures, Benjamin Verdoes, and Iska Dhaaf, the latter two of which will be screened along with his video for MSHVB’s “Gone Again” during the 3rd Annual Sync Music Video Festival, which is produced by Seattle Weekly in partnership with Artist Home and SIFF.
In advance of the screening, we asked the Featured Director a few probing questions about his craft.
What is the first music video that you remember ever seeing? I grew up in a house that just had basic TV stations, so it wasn’t until maybe in middle school, when we expanded our channel package to include a few new channels and we got this station called The Box, that I started watching music videos. The Box definitely became my favorite channel and it was sad when it got bought out and the programming changed. The first music video, though, that I really distinctly remember was the Hype Williams’ video for Nas’ “Hate Me Now.” The epic scope of the video from Nas performing in a giant multi-story club, to the all-white tiger, to the biblical scenes in the desert really left an impression on me both visually and sonically. I still think that video is totally nuts. That video is what also put Hype Williams on my radar. I also pretty vividly remember being stoked whenever the video for “Still D.R.E” with all the rad ‘64 Impalas came on (another Hype Williams classic).
How did you come to make your first video? The first real production that I would call myself a solo director on was a video for the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band song, Gone Again. I think that the project still stands as the most involved and complicated shoot that I’ve directed. Although the video for Iska Dhaaf’s “Everybody Knows” certainly gave it a run for its money with different challenges.
Storyboard for the Iska Dhaaf music video “Everybody Knows.” By Juliana Wisdom
Are you able to support yourself with your filmmaking? I have been actively working within the Seattle film community since 2006 and have thus far been able to live entirely off my work without needing a supplemental job. Editing, largely for commercial, is definitely what most often pays the bills for me but I’ve worked in various positions, typically production department jobs (producer, casting, script supervisor, editor, assistant director, director, project manager) throughout the years, on television shows, both TV and Internet commercials, corporate work, and short and feature films, in addition to music videos.
What is your average budget for a video? Where does that money come from? Average budget typically falls around $5,000. A couple, such as the “Everybody Knows” and “Gone Again” video have been higher. For most of my videos the bulk of the money has come from the band’s label in a lump sum to be dispersed as I see best fit. That was the case with Iska Dhaaf, Benjamin’s solo project, and Brite Futures. Five thousand never really goes far enough, but I’ve been able to stretch these very thin budgets by definitely paying careful attention to the allocation of resources and sticking to a pretty fine-tuned budget that I have come up with with the label and the video’s producer (if it has one). Aside from the label, though, there have been a couple videos where the start budget was zero, so all money invested came from a combination of myself, my girlfriend Voleak (who also often works on my projects as an Assistant Director), and donated labor. That was the case with the video for MSHVB’s “Gone Again.” We were given free reign over concept and execution of the video but had to come up with everything on our own. In that video, I was extremely lucky to have convinced talented people to work on it for next to nothing based on the proposed concept and timing being in dead of winter, which is typically slow season up here. AJ, my cinematographer, came up from L.A. for the shoot since he liked the challenge of shooting almost exclusively with candle and fire-based light sources (a concept we had pulled from Barry Lyndon). I’ve yet to work on a music video, though, that I personally have netted any income. Everything has been put towards paying crew what I can and production costs.
Storyboard for the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band music video “Gone Again.” By Juliana Wisdom
Benjamin Verdoes is at the heart of each of your videos that will be showing at Sync. What is the reason that the two of you continue working together? Is there something about his music that appeals to you as a director? I think there are a couple reasons that we continue to work together. In addition to our shared interest in narrative music videos and all around pretty imagery, I think a major component of why I keep collaborating with Benjamin is the mutual respect for craft. I’ve found at times bands can be really stubborn and tough to work with since they often don’t really understand the filmmaking process but want to have a large hand in the creative, often suggesting completely unrealistic or impossible ideas that they want incorporated. But with both Benjamin and his label, Brick Lane Records, the experience has been the opposite. They have really given me a lot of freedom to really own the project both in the concept phase and in the way set is run, which I think has yielded stronger videos. Benjamin has been part of the preproduction meetings and storyboarding process (at least for “Everybody Knows” and “So Bari”) so when the day of the shoot arrives, he already has a strong sense of the final output of the video and can sit back from the monitor and let me have the reigns. I’ve found that when all direction is dispensed from one source, it’s easier to get everyone onboard in synch with one another and makes everything run that much smoother. I also just like his music and it often triggers strong images in my mind when I listen it.
Do you currently have any projects in the works? What? I just finished an experimental documentary short called Zero Zero that chronicles the day-in-the-life of a blind ultra-distance hiker and his guide dog as they summit a mountain in the North Cascades. My frequent producing partner, Zack Tupper (who produced “Everybody Knows” and “So Bari”), and I are currently in the festival submission process (including SIFF) so we’ll see where that leads. Other than that, my main focus has been a step back from music videos lately to work on polishing off a couple feature-length scripts that have been germinating for awhile and then beginning the process putting together investment packages as I start to look for potential funding.
What is the one piece of advice you would give to anyone approaching their first music video project? The best advice I can give someone in filmmaking, music video or otherwise, is to stress the importance of preproduction. I like directing videos that look much higher-scale than the budget would typically lend itself to and it’s ultimately thanks to the hours and hours of preproduction and planning I do ahead of time. Everything can be tracked down, it just takes research, time, patience and really just an eBay account. I’m a director who doesn’t function well leaving things up to chance or the last minute so all of the videos I have directed have been extensively shot-listed as well as carefully storyboarded out before shooting and I am seldom seen on set without those papers in my hand. Some directors show up on set and just wing it but I need to have a plan of attack ready before hand.
What are your three favorite music videos of all time? Like any “best of” list, this is tough and always changing but at the moment I would say my favorite videos are:
Scissor Sisters, “Invisible Light”Directed by CANADA
Earl Sweatshirt, “Chum”Directed by Hiro Murai
MIA, “Bad Girls”Directed by Romain Gavras
