Avery Stedman’s music video for Night Lovell’s My Day Is Ruined! follows the Canadian Rapper as he embarks on a series of strange and unfortunate scenarios. It’s a slick, stylish and unhinged video that operates like a Night Lovell multiverse, hopping between different encounters and eras, one moment showing Lovell as a medieval king then as a hospital patient bandaged from head to toe. The wild energy of the narrative is supported by Stedman’s wide, dynamic and active camerawork which captures Lovell’s baffled reactions as he negotiates these mounting situations. It’s just such a fun ride of a video and we’re stoked to be featuring it on our pages. DN caught up with Stedman to chew over the constant collaboration he has with Lovell whilst making their music videos and the desire the pair shared to venture into new territory and create something unexpected.
What is the process between you and Night Lovell when it comes to making a music video together?
In terms of the process, Night Lovell and I have a very seamless and collaborative approach to working together. Usually Lovell comes to me with a scene or vision and then I take it away to flesh out and then we come back to workshop the video until it feels close enough to get the ball rolling on the production. We stay fluid throughout the entire process though. In this case, Lovell had a vision for the first three scenes of the video and wanted to build out this world of weird and unfortunate episodes, almost like flipping through TV channels in a different country where nothing makes sense but you’re still entertained.
We stay fluid throughout the entire process.
Once you landed on your concept, how tricky was it to get backing from producers/financiers?
We went back and forth and I started getting producer bids… which informed the scale and what scenes would be doable with our timing and scope. It wasn’t until I found the perfect location for this that had everything we needed: Castle, wedding hall, empty rooms and house/driveway exterior, that we knew it would even be possible. After that we locked our production team in and got the ball rolling, there were a lot of production hoops so I’m super thankful to Producer Jeff So, Executive Producer Keyon Slowly and the whole production team for all their brilliant work.
How much work did you and your team have to do to transform these locations into what we see in the video?
Luckily we had our amazing Production Designer Christina Kim who was able to transform a lot of these empty spaces into what we all envisioned. The location was a very lucky find and I adapted the treatment to fit accordingly.
How do you approach the visual language of a video for Night Lovell? Is it a case of trying to match the energy or vibe of the song?
Our influences on this were pretty vast but Lovell wanted to make a video no one would expect from him, something brighter and colorful, more comedic and performance-driven. I sort of had in the back of my head the way I wanted to shoot this and worked with our DP Evan Ciniello to hone in on the best approach in terms of finding a visual language for this. We ended up landing on shooting anamorphic with a slight crop in as we felt like 2.39 was too narrow and landed on the Alexa Mini with a 35-140mm Cooke Anamorphic Zoom, which I dubbed “the bazooka”. I also wanted some super slow motion for our key gags like the table flip, driveway shooting, wedding puke, etc.
What kit did you use to be able to execute those slow motion shots? And how straightforward was the shoot in general?
We opted for the Freefly Ember as our b-cam which worked out really well considering the amount of slow motion double coverage we often wanted. We shot for two days about an hour and a half outside of Toronto and despite the travel paired with some unlucky weather conditions, we squeezed every shot we could out of those two days. I’m really happy with what we were able to accomplish.
Lovell wanted to make a video no one would expect from him, something brighter and colorful, more comedic and performance-driven.
You mentioned that you and Night Lovell were in conversation creatively throughout the process of making the video, is that the case on set and in post-production too? Do you find it beneficial to your process as director to have an artist who’s so creatively involved?
Yes. Lovell was involved in all stages of the production, pre through post. In the end, music videos are for artists, I’ve never understood why an artist wouldn’t want to be involved in all aspects of the production for this reason. Lovell gets that fully. With all my projects, I initially work solo with the edit and like to deliver a first cut that I feel is the best representation of the material and tweaks away from the final… but the cut is never ‘locked’. Being open to suggestions and staying fluid is how I think we push ourselves, despite going against imposed schedules and deadlines, some of the best ideas or solutions come after a week of reviewing when you’re finally beyond the stress of just getting the thing done.
Involving the artist throughout the entire production gives them a window into the trials of ‘getting it done’ and I think that also creates a better understanding of practical limitations of the overall scope or the reality of the edit. I think more artists should be as involved as Lovell. We send a lot of voice notes back and forth so there’s always an open line of communication. The more in sync you are with the artist, I think it shows in the final product. Artists need to know what they want, whether it’s in their vision or mine, and then it’s my job to interpret that vision and bring it to life.
How do you feel you’ve evolved as a filmmaker over the course of your projects with Night Lovell?
One of my first bigger projects was a short doc series about rising artists in Canada. Lovell was top of my list because he embodied everything I wanted in the series, he was underground, mysterious, had a massive cult following, unique style and sound. I reached out thinking it was a long shot but we ended up going back and forth with him and his team and everyone was down to make it happen. There was a lot of risk in that first project, especially for an artist who hadn’t really done more than a few podcast interviews. I think it’s vital to artists/directors establishing a strong, lasting working relationship. That project was the foundation for the future work and I’m eternally grateful for that leap of faith and to all the artists who I’ve worked with.
We started making more vibe/mood rap videos based on solo performances and have recently moved in the direction of narrative. It’s been cool to grow simultaneously in that direction, there’s definitely more space to play, more weirdness, more unexpectedness. I think the thing I always find exciting when working together: there’s a never-ending openness to try something different/challenging and a willingness to figure out “how do we do this” regardless of what stands in the way. We both fixate on an idea and are creatively unrelenting until it’s out of our minds and into someone else’s. Before I was more obsessed with achieving a specific tone/look, skewing darker, whereas now I’m more in line to challenge a genre’s visuals for the sake of it just being more interesting to do so.
Lastly, is there anything you can tell us about what you’re working on next?
I’m working on getting some short films into production that have been living in my head for too long (I just need to win a national lottery and then I’ll finally have the budget I want). I have a music video and a new short doc also in the works that I’m really excited to work on later this year. And of course, like many MV directors, I’m writing a feature.
