Elle King || Ex's & Oh's

I got an email very unexpectedly from Elle at around 2 in the morning in early Feb - she asked me if I was crazy, and if so, would I like to direct her video. It was the most interesting first contact I've ever received, and I immediately went to work on a treatment.

Elle was a great collaborator, and was very involved in the evolution of this idea - men as cats.

We cast the video together as well, so the video is stacked with her all her types. 175 men stripped down to their underwear at the audition, where they danced and tried to do headstands. Only one of the 175 hurt himself.

The video was shot in one day, just outside of Palmdale California. I actually flew into LA on Sunday, and we shot 5 days later, on Friday. The prep was insane. We had to find a DP, location, cast, find those colored campers, custom order wardrobe, and do fittings, all in only 4 weekdays! What made it especially intense was that we found out that our chosen location had a film ban on it from LA film, so on tuesday, we were back out in the desert, scrambling for a new place to shoot.

I was fortunate enough to work with a very veteran crew on this, which truthfully is the only way shooting this in 12 hours was possible. Oh, and I was also lucky enough to have another director from A.N.D. shoot 2nd Unit - Thom Glunt, who's work is incredible, shot all the b-story, where the guy is journeying back to Elle, through the desert.

We shot with a Sony F55, a Sony F65, and a bolex (16mm).

The cast was great to work with, except one guy who was upset that he had to touch other men in the big pile up scene at the end... You'll find him on the edge of the pile, looking tentative ;)

The video was colored at Ntropic, by Marshall Plante

Director: Michael Maxxis
Producer: Paul Bock
DP: Vance Burberry
Prod Design: Brandon Mendez
Editor: Lauren Horn
Production Company: DNA