Midway through watching Aunty Panty’s new video for the song “Panty Stain”, I realized I was strangely – albeit delightfully – freaked out.
The song itself is a ratchety clatter of weirdo punk noise – sort of like trying to carry a wayward feral cat into your house and getting a claw in the kisser for your efforts.
The video, however, is absolutely harrowing.
Shot on location in Domremy, Saskatchewan, the video features the Panty duo smoking and crushing their way through a prairies schoolhouse already in decay. It is both startling and a visual feast, with tastes of grime, rusted-out guitar strings and period blood.
Ominocity caught up with video editor Matthew Garand of Bamboo Shoots who was part of the film crew for “Panty Stain”. He explains why you probably should feel somewhat maltreated after watching the video.
Ominocity: Were there any big challenges in making this video?
Matthew Garand: It wasn’t the warmest day in April and with no functioning heat and power, the whole school was very dark and cold. Our production gear & lights had to be powered by a gas generator sitting just outside the school. So we made sure everyone was safe when hauling gear, navigating through the school.
Mark Utley is a great director of photography and everyone, including the girls, collectively added ideas and suggestions for the shots. Everything just seemed to work out for a small crew and we really didn’t have any mishaps or problems at all.
OM: What were some of the highlights of the shoot?
MG: The first thing we shot was the hallway scene, dollying back and forward through the trashed doorway already had us amazed at how good the shots were looking. The sparkle of light reflecting off the broken glass on the floor looked great on camera. We ended up breaking more glass to utilize that effect. Shooting in the gym, the lighting was perfect just opening the side gym doors and using two of the original gym lights on stage in the background. The producer (Tiffany’s Aunty) Beatrice Gaudet actually salvaged them when they were being taken down a month or so prior. It gave a greenish yellow tinge on the walls, which sort of matched guitarist Tiffany Paige’s hair.
The slow motion stuff always had us laughing when we played it back, especially when drummer Shavonne Tovah Somvong takes the sledgehammer to the black board.
OM: The location is really interesting – why was it chosen?
MG: It was a shooter’s dream, as the school had been abandoned for 15 years and was completely trashed and vandalized. All the damaged walls and broken glass made for a pretty cool looking set. Guitarist Tiffany Paige’s grandfather (who the video is dedicated to), actually helped build the school and she went there in elementary. There was tons of space to work with which was good, and those long hallways really added some nice depth of field.
The funny thing is after all this time the school was slated to be demolished a week prior but Beatrice had them hold off a month so we could use it.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/23277911 w=425]