A few months ago we saw John Merizalde dip his toe into the world of music videos with The Beat Comes for Snowden, now he settles into that role with witchy goings-on in the woods in Prettiest Pills for Dog Bite.

Dog Bite is Phil Jones, former keyboardist of the band Washed Out. He’s a good friend of mine here in Atlanta, and I heard in October that he had gotten signed to Carpark Records, so we started working on a video shortly after. Phil’s album Velvet Changes is inspired by the film Picnic at Hanging Rock, so that was sort of a jumping off point. We threw in a bit of Phil’s obsession with witchcraft/the occult, and this is the treatment we ended up with.

Shot in Atlanta on a mix of RED MX and Sony FS700, Merizalde was fortunate enough to have friends ready to take on various cast and crew roles. This was especially true in the case of stuntman Andy Rusk, who volunteered to be set on fire for the promo’s climax. Hopefully flaming bodies won’t be necessary when Merizalde and Jones get together later this spring for the next video.

Check out these behind the scenes stills from the shoot:

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