Soundgarden "Nightsurf" storyboard pictures

The 13 drawings here are sketches I made for a film I did for the rock band Soundgarden. I filmed it in Goldbar at Conrad's research facility, in Sultan at Bettina's farm, and on Bainbridge Island at the little pond near the High School, at Meig's Farm, in the basement of a house in Winslow, and in the Grand Forest, on Harbor Island in Seattle, and some also at Interlaken Park in Seattle. I used an Ikeba fogger - a bazooka sort of fog blaster - to create the misty look. The fire department was called when we were in the Grand Forest and in Interlaken Park. We dodged them though, and carried on after they left. When we used it in Goldbar, we were somewhat taken aback that the fog had filled the river valley as far as we could see! These sketches were not the only ones done - they're just the best ones. I did not make them to illustrate the whole story, I made them to use as a visual reference for key shots I wanted to make.


The film was accompanied by an unreleased song called "Nightsurf" and shown before their shows. It was projected low so that the crowd could contribute the shadows of their upraised hands onto the screen. Clever, huh? When the film was over, the screen fell Kabuki-style to reveal the band launching into their first song.



































I shot 16mm film and edited it the old-fashioned way - with a razor blade and a spicing block with the aid of a Movieola. Nerve-racking. I made a few dissolves in it and learned a lot about "color timing". When I had the cut I wanted, I had a print made. From that print, I had it blown up to 35mm.






























Here's a screenshot from the My Wave video using Nightsurf footage - notice Chris Cornell's face dimly outlined as the shots dissolve into each other























At the shows I used an old 35mm movie projector mounted on an ancient giant iron scissor lift that I usually located behind the sound board somewhere out in the audience. The projector used a Xenon 7,000 watt bulb that looked like a bomb. In fact it was a bomb - I wore heavy armor to install and remove the bulb. It was super fnckin' bright and hotter than the Sun. If the film slowed at all it would melt instantly! (which did happen a couple of times) - very important that voltage never dropped! Anyway, it worked almost every time to good effect - except notably in LA in front of all the record company people - a splice came apart as the film was passing through the gate in front of the lens and 20 feet or so of the film spooled out into the crowd before I could switch everything off! What a disaster! The film routinely fell apart by now in the tour. I was constantly splicing my same old print. When a part of the film was ruined or looking ragged in my 35mm print, I would call up the lab and have them blow me up a new section of 35mm from my 16mm print and ship it out. I would "cut it in" and test it (once only!) before the night's show...


Later that summer, I flew about 20 people up to Edmondton and Calgary, Canada to help me shoot a music video for the song "My Wave". Because it was a live video that captured their show, I used some of the "Nightsurf" footage in it. That video can be seen here:




Most notable is the "Blue God" played by Matt "The Tube" Crowley from the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. Do you know him? Have you ever heard of the "Bile Beer" stunt? The "Blue God" footage was shot in my garage at Minor, off of Eastlake Avenue in Seattle. Yes, we really did paint his whole head and face bright blue.












































































































































The close pitchforkman was played by Steve Freeborn, owner of the late, lamented OK Hotel.













These two shots are from a sequence that never made it into the finished film. Most of the shots were multiple exposures made in the camera - the old fashioned way - with a matte box and rewinding the film manually, counting the frames. The sequence didn't get made because it called for a lot of dissolving which was time-consuming and expensive due to the demands of color timing.












I used Matt again later as one of the decadent clowns in Devilhead's "We Like You" video. That video can be seen here:



He's the one over-inflating the giant devil-faced balloon at the helium tank. He was a bit nervous about the ultimate force of the explosion of the balloon so I allowed him to wear sunglasses for the shot. It wasn't really as bad as he'd feared and I'd hoped. Fortunately, I'd put a bunch of talcum powder inside the balloon so that when it exploded, the dust would heighten the effect. And it worked - a little.



This is the other clown















This is Brian Wood, singer in Devilhead and Hater, brother of Andy Wood. Their other brother Kevin, who was also in Malfunkshun, played guitar in Devilhead. As did John McBain from Monster Magnet, Hater, and The Wellwater Conspiracy.