Making the video

On the set of 6gig’s premiere effort

By Sam Pfeifle

ON THE SET: Dave Rankin, Weave, Walt Craven, and Steve Marquis prepare to play in the snow (left) after Craven’s turn in the pilot’s seat.

They really play their instruments, and they don’t lip-sync, those performers in MTV videos, not if they’re serious. “We don’t like the word lip-sync around here,” intones manager Bill Beasley standing on the set — Sky Dive New England, in Sanford — where 6gig are making the video for their first single, “Hit the Ground.” Five feet in front of him, a twin-prop Otter plane bounces up and down to the beat of the nu-metal tune, crammed full with the four members of the band, a drum set, a Fender amp, director of photography Scott Crawford behind the camera, and director and producer Kurt St. Thomas behind a blue iBook. Crawford’s an up-and-comer who’s just done some Discovery Channel stuff. You might recognize St. Thomas; he’s Rustic Overtones’ A&R guy, now with Tommy Boy Records. His production company, Corporate Sucker, is a side project.

Bassist Weave has it the worst. Well over six feet tall, the creak in his back is nearly audible with no more than five feet of standing room in the Otter. More toward the front, lead singer Walt Craven’s ass is the only thing visible through the orange-plastic-covered window. He makes a point of shaking it for onlookers between takes.

It’s all going to make for a cool shot. With the camera looking back through the fuselage of the plane, and employing a fish-eye lens, the space will look bigger. When Craven’s face isn’t front and center screaming the lyrics, guitarist Steve Marquis is to his left in a pair of Bono-esque bug-eyed glasses, and Rankin’s drum set makes for a nice book end at the back.

Plus, they’re all wearing full-body jump suits, like the kind you wear when you jump out of planes: three blue-and-green ones and Walt’s, a black-and-white checkered affair. See, they’ve already filmed themselves dropping 10,000 feet through the air earlier this year, hoping they’d find a use for the footage. Now, with their label’s backing, they’ve found their use: combine it with scenes playing in the plane, and the next night playing at the Boston club Axis, and they’ve got the video for “Hit the Ground.” (Get it? Jumping out of planes — “Hit the Ground.”)

They certainly wouldn’t be jumping on this day because it’s fucking cold out, maybe 20 degrees. Most of the non-essential onlookers — girlfriends, managers, folks just hanging out at the airstrip — are doing something to keep warm, whether it’s huddling in a running car or just drinking lots of beer. Generally the latter: there are Heineken bottles all over the place.

They’re also doing things like snowboarding behind three-wheelers, holding on to a water-ski rope at somewhere around 50 mph. There’s a general cringe when the snowboard comes to one of the power chords, but they seem to jump it every time without incident. One guy, Dominic, interrupts the shoot to ask Marquis if he’s got any money, they’re going for pizza.

Once they’ve got enough film from the plane, St. Thomas bounds down and starts handing out instructions. They’re going to set up the gear in one of the snow fields of the drop zone while they get some shots of Craven flying the plane, “then we’ll run over and immediately rock,” he says. “The snow’s just too cool. We should try to get some of it.” Remember that U2 video up in Norway with the snow and horses? It’s going to be kind of like that.

For Walt’s turn as pilot, St. Thomas busts out the Party Fogger and a fan to simulate a little cloud cover. Craven sings with the song while fiddling with different dials and switches. At the chorus he gets a little excited and his pilot head phones go slamming into the windshield. While they reset the song, he turns and smirks out the window. “Look at me,” his face says, “I’m a fucking rock star now.”

The shot in the snow looks pretty rad. It had better: the drum kit, speakers, guitars, the whole bit belong to local rockers Jeremiah Freed. Seems 6gig just flew in from their Floridian swing the morning of the shoot and their gear is still en route. So, the young members of Jeremiah Freed look on as 6gig thrash around in the snow with their gear: when Craven falls down after a big jump, then when their speakers blow, either because the music’s too loud or the snow has infected them.

The light fading, St. Thomas and Crawford fight for final footage. They set up a boom box behind a speaker so Rankin can play along with the same beat on the drums. Craven is screaming the final take, his voice — now clearly worn out from singing the same song at least 20 times — is all you can hear along with the chicka-chicka of the picks on the guitar strings and Rankin’s drums muted by the snow. After all the set backs, including dropping the old-school mic into the snow two or three times, they finally get through the entire song in one take.

The crowd of 15 or so goes wild, with all sorts of whistles and Kansas calls, then a snowboarder comes screaming by, launching off a ramp and getting a similar reception.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com.