Crowded Rooms takes cinematic approach with 'Shotgun Stories' video

By ROB DUGUAY
Posted 1/30/20

Providence indie-pop act Crowded Rooms has a sound that can only be described as cinematic. It comes from a mutual appreciation that pianist Michael Higgs and multi-instrumentalist Richard Farrands - both from Cranston - have for film

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Crowded Rooms takes cinematic approach with 'Shotgun Stories' video

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Providence indie-pop act Crowded Rooms has a sound that can only be described as cinematic.

It comes from a mutual appreciation that pianist Michael Higgs and multi-instrumentalist Richard Farrands – both from Cranston – have for film scoring and the art of filmmaking in general. This fusion of visual and audio mediums is evident in the band’s debut album, “Sorry People, Sorry Ways,” which came out on Dec. 10 with bassist Mike Landry, drummer Taylor Field, percussionist Brian Cauti and guitarists Michael Burnham and Peter Keller rounding out the lineup.

In support of the album’s release, Crowded Rooms released a music video for the track “Shotgun Stories” on Jan. 15. There are interesting camera panels present in a black-and-white atmosphere with a little bit of blood being shown.

In between numerous shots of band members playing their respective instruments, there’s a duel happening between two fencers. The losing fencer has a bleeding cut on their chest while on their deathbed with a doctor ripping the loser’s heart out. Then the winning fencer eats it with the finale showing the loser on a bed of flowers, symbolizing a funeral.

Higgs co-directed the film with Michael Bizzaco while also handling the editing. Allie Reincke, Gabriel Corporan and Samuel Travis also act in the film as the fencers and the doctor.

“The video of ‘Shotgun Stories’ all stemmed from wanting to interpret something at its most simplistic form – [people in] a relationship absorbing different aspects of each other in order to benefit themselves,” Higgs said.

He added: “The idea of representing that through two people, in full fencing garb, dueling against each other, fascinated us from the beginning. Michael Bizzaco and I decided to translate the visuals to fit a more vintage and silver-screen style. Weeks prior to the shoot, we worked closely with our cinematographer, Andy Bates-Ribezzo, in order to figure out how we were going to execute all of that at a technical level. Come shoot day, we had the camera craned almost 20 feet off the ground, LED panels lightly accenting the entire room and a spotlight that acted as our main light source.”

Higgs said the video took nearly 16 hours to shoot, while the editing schedule required four days.

“While getting the video to its final stages was an intense and challenging process, especially with the time crunch, the video turned into something that we will definitely hold dear for a while,” he said. “The experience was filled with amazing collaborations that not only made us proud as filmmakers, but allowed us to visually represent our band in a more honest and cinematic way.”

The video has a lot of poignant parts that can stick in one’s mind. It’s also cool to see it set as a short film with the song serving as the dialogue. Check out the video on YouTube and see for yourself what an independently made project can look like.

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