Watch The Johnsons ft. Bryce Vine new video and taste their delicious “Juice”. Funny, a bit twisted and very inventive video created by the duo Mccoy|Meyer (Eric McCoy and Justus Meyer). A nice mixture of horror and comedy. In one role we see MTV reality-famed Julia Rose.
MusicVideoMania got an interview with the director Eric McCoy where he tells us of how the video was made:
– How did you get the ideas to the video?
Many of the ideas are grounded in Justus and I sitting around the office and one-upping each other. We tend to work well using the phrase, “yes, and what if…” We began with a loose theme for each of the nightmares (magical, goofy, murder room) and from there, ideas began to come out of the woodwork. For instance, the couple eating cake out of Bryce Vine’s head came from a weird dream I had, the latex gloves are the product of my visiting four dentists this summer (long story), and Partybear was born out of my love for cute fuzzy things that turn out to be deadly. The commercial world doesn’t offer a ton of opportunity to “go dark” so it was fun to explore our dryer side!
– How involved was the band in deciding what the video should be like?
The Johnsons were more involved than most artists typically are with the creative development. (Connor’s wife, Tess, did the production design!) Having the band so invested in the outcome meant they were willing to go above and beyond to get the shots we needed. (Chantry spent two very sweaty hours wrapped in cellophane, and the performance shots while tied to rope were no small feat!) It also meant that we were able to be more ambitious with our schedule, because everyone knew what was at stake, and gave us 100% on the first take.
– How was the filming process?
The filming process was ambitious and I’m incredibly proud of our team, who pulled it off with flying colors. There were so many “what if we tried…” moments from cinematographer David Charry, who pushed relentlessly to insure each of the five looks came out uniquely different from each other. We filmed for three days on a stage and at Dan Ackroyd’s Avalon Club in Hollywood.
– Did it turn out as planned?
We knew we had something that at least we would find funny, but I think everyone was surprised with how it actually turned out. This was, in large part, due to how editor David Andreini chose to blend narrative and experimental structure, which added an extra burst of energy to the cut. Were there things that didn’t go as planned? Sure (our live monkey got booked on another job the night before filming; a mouse trap shot a gummy bear into Clayton’s eye) but we rolled with the punches. All in all, this was an incredible team and one of my favorite projects to date.