Super Hubert has been a client of Concept for many years, and when he decided to release a song entitled “Super Fly MT”, he needed a video clip. Super Hubert approached Concept to see if we were interested in producing his video clip, and we were most excited to be involved in this fantastic project.
The initial phase was to get a rough copy of the song, written and performed by DJ Cotton in Newcastle. Concept set about getting to know the song, and visualizing through a rough storyboard what we thought might be good vision to go with the music and story DJ had come up with in the lyrics.
On showing Super the storyboard, he immediately embraced the concept and began to call upon his many contacts to allow us to achieve the ambitious “Super Hero” style of clip we had in mind. The clip required finding several key locations, the use of a helicopter, some bikies, a huge studio, a junk yard, lots of dancing girls, a gym and a theatre with a stage to name a few. Super managed to organize the majority of these locations with much assistance from the many Super Hubert fans throughout Newcastle.
In late January 2004, we had three days to shoot all the material for the four minute video clip, ranging from early mornings at NBN Studios in Newcastle to the Daracon Engineering Back Lot in the evening as the sun went down, and sunset the next day to get shots inside and out of the helicopter (as well as battling plague proportion mosquitos at the same time!). After three days of shoots, the final shoot had to be put off for one week due to a storm, but the shoot wrapped outside of the Mayfield ExServices club with the final shots required.
Concept immediately went into editing phase and had a very rough version with no effects soon after. With a rough cut, we started working out the pipeline for the special effects which ranged from swirling tornados of stars, to the hero shot of Super on top of a building, to slicing bricks in two with the power of the mind. All effects work was completed in After Effects and 3DS Max, with a bit of Photoshop thrown in from time to time.
Once the video got to a relatively finished state, we began work on the DVD. This included capturing clips of Super Hubert’s History from old VHS tapes dating back to the 80’s (one even from 1978!) to include in the History section, designing and shooting a “How to do the Super Hubert Dance” section, as well as other interesting bits and pieces. The DVD was completed and sent to print in October 2004, ready for the release of Super Hubert’s single. The launch was a great success, and Super Hubert continues to promote himself and his song throughout the Hunter, NSW and Australia.
The Super Fly MT video clip was a great opportunity to produce a fun video product from the ground up, and a chance to use some of our storytelling and special effects skills to their full potential. It goes to show that anything can be achieved with vision and commitment, and we wish Super Hubert the very best with his continuing adventures!
